Representatives from Library Information Technology will participate in IU’s annual Linuxfest and will demonstrate how the IU Libraries leverage open-source software in providing library services.

* What: Linuxfest 2004

* When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 30

* Where: Indiana Memorial Union

The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the IU Unix Systems Support Group.

For more information, go to www.ussg.iu.edu/.

Linux is a freeware version of the Unix operating system for standard desktop computers and allows library programmers to provide services that would be impossible with commercial software—including enhancements to the catalog, Web services, help desk, and proxy servers.

With open-source software, programming code is examined by hundreds or thousands of people daily, rather than just a few developers.  Bugs and security flaws are discovered and fixed at a much faster rate that with most commercial products.  Moreover, open-source software is much more flexible in that everyone has the ability to directly modify the code to fit their needs—a benefit that increases efficiency and decreases costs.