Just a brief post today to let you know about some changes in the eIFL-FOSS program. But the real news to take away is that, in effect, it is no change at all.

Over the past two years we have laid a solid foundation for community driven FOSS advocacy and support here with the eIFL-FOSS network. Volunteer FOSS country coordinators now represent nearly every participating consortium across eIFL.net. Together with a host of FOSS experts, software developers, and keen librarians, these country coordinators work together to promote the use of FOSS in libraries and engagement with FOSS development and support communities. That eIFL-FOSS community is the most important product of the eIFL-FOSS program.

We have undertaken exciting and challenging pilots of FOSS ILSs with a list of successes and an even longer list of learning points. We have helped initiate skills and tools workshops that have focused on the continuing professional development of library IT staff in numerous consortia. We have fostered engagement with the world-wide community developing FOSS products for libraries.

I am delighted to be relinquishing my post as Program Manager of eIFL-FOSS at this time confident that the goals and aims of the program will persist. If I have learned anything from FOSS development and support communities, it is that individuals come and go in the lifespan of a project but the code and, most importantly, the community remains. And in typical FOSS fashion, what we should do is simply press on and make it even better.

I wish eIFL.net and especially eIFL-FOSS long and continued success.

Randy Metcalfe
Program Manager - eIFL-FOSS