Some colleagues will be familiar with IndexData the small Danish company set up by Sebastian Hammer which provides the open source Yaz 339.50 toolkit which is widely used. Sebastian Hammer is moving to the US shortly, and David Dorman is now promoting IndexData products in the US.
They have an interesting business model. Their products are available as open source, and they contract for installation, maintenance, customization and other services for those that require them. They are introducing the ‘keystone’ range of products which look to provide a full range of digital library support.
The Keystone Digital Library Suite is a family of Open Source digital content management, portal management and information discovery software packaged together to provide libraries, museums and archives with state-of-the-art digital library services.
KEYSTONE: CUSTOMIZED AND READY FOR USE
If you are looking for a customized turnkey solution to provide your patrons with information portals and federated search services, and your staff with a digital object management system for cataloging and organizing locally created electronic objects, Index Data will install Keystone in your library, profiled for your unique needs. Our software and our support services are second to none. Just ask our satisfied customers!For libraries with the sufficient staff expertise, we offer several versions of Keystone for free downloading under a standard General Public License.
Here are some of the functions supported by Keystone:
- Portal Creation and Management
- Federated Search Services
- Harvesting Metadata from Remote Repositories
- Link Resolver Services
All this, and more, is available in our custom installed version of Keystone. And once we’ve installed Index Data software for your library, it is yours to keep and use for as long as you want, whether or not you choose to have a continuing relationship with Index Data. We think you will, however, because our service contracts provide you with all new releases along with the most responsive service available anywhere.
KEYSTONE: YOURS WITHOUT EVEN ASKING
Keystone is distributed under the standard General Public License, which means it is your to freely take and use, as long as you abide by the terms of the industry standard Open Source General Public License.The downloadable version of our flagship product relies on a number of lower level ID tools such as Zebra and YAZ/PHP, as well as on generic OSS tools such as database managers and XSLT processors. Please be advised that at this time it requires considerable expertise to download, integrate and customize all the separate pieces that go into making up the Keystone Suite of Digital Library Services. As time goes on we will evolve the Keystone download into a more packaged product that will be possible for non-programmers to install.
KEYSTONE: AS YOU LIKE IT
Many libraries have a great deal of in-house expertise, but still want limited installation services and ongoing maintenance support from Index Data’s experienced staff. We can provide you with a balance between independence and a turnkey solution that meets your needs.KEYSTONE IN ACTION
The demoportal links to Bibliotheca, an installation of Keystone at Denmark’s Electronic Research Library. You can go to the Library of Texas, which is powered by Keystone, for another example of a custom installation.
