[plug] Librarian's Role (was: Debian 6.0 .isos)

[Lance Duivenbode]

Sorry about the delay on this but I've been flat out with Real Life (TM) :-)

Actually we do have a librarian - it's me (elected unopposed at the last 
meeting and looking forward to world domination - see the AGM 2011 
minutes). Seriously though, I've held this post for almost 3 years and 
this is the second request I've had. I would love to invest some 
resources into doing something, but at the moment I'm not sure what I 
can do.

I previously floated the idea of setting up a wiki but that was shot to 
pieces by a few people and the interest waned. I'm open to doing 
*something*, I just need a consensus on what to do!

Cheers,
Lance

On 20/02/11 12:18, James Bromberger wrote:
> On 20/02/2011 11:03 AM, Garry wrote:
>> If anyone would like the isos for the latest debian stable to save
>> bandwidth, let me know.  I have i386/amd64 dvd images. They are on
>> iinet too, but usb2 is faster - next time I'm up there. Can post them
>> out if you want them asap.
>> PLUG librarian - any interest?
> Hi Garry (et al.),
>
> This raises an interesting question. We've been considering how useful
> the PLUG library is. Historically when Free Software software was
> difficult to get hold of, either by availability, or download speed,
> the Library was a potential source of obtaining this easily. However,
> these days with local mirrors, and fast (ish) DSL type connections,
> public WiFi, and internet access at Libraries and other locations, the
> library become aparently little used (please correct me if I'm wrong
> here). Since software changes quite quickly, its often out of date by
> the time its reached the library.
>
> Time and technology has moved on.
>
> So, my question to the membership is: does PLUG still value the Library?
> Do we have any volunteers to manage the library? I don't think we have a
> current librarian, and I'm not aware of anyone using the library
> recently. Should the library just be a managed mirror of useful
> software? Is it even that worth it, given the liberal availability of
> software within local mirrors? Perhaps even managing our own mirror is
> not an effective use of time and resources? Perhaps just a managed list
> of links to useful software and local mirrors? Perhaps a laptop with CD
> burner and a bunch of DVDs/CDs that can be burnt on demand at meetings
> (or at any other time)?
>
> Again, we need a volunteer who wants to manage this. Anyone care to step
> up? If there are no volunteers, then the library will be frozen as a
> historic relic.
>
> Comments welcome, either on list, or directly to me or the committee if
> you wish.
>
>    James
>