Duluth, Ga., September 8, 2020: Equinox Open Library Initiative is pleased to announce the call for applications for the 2021 Equinox Open Source Grant. Libraries, archives, museums, and other eligible educational, cultural, and information organizations are encouraged to apply. The grant application period opens on September 8, 2020 and closes on November 1, 2020. Two grantees will be selected. All applicants will be notified of the status of their application by December 20, 2020.
The Equinox Open Source Grant provides project management, training, hosting, and technology support services for the implementation of Koha ILS, an open source integrated library system used by libraries worldwide. To be eligible, an applicant must be a 503 (c) non-profit, governmental, or educational organization with a library or resource collection available for public use, but without the financial or technological resources to implement and support an integrated library system. The organization must be located in the United States and have a collection no larger than 50,000 items. Preference will be given to organizations that serve historically underrepresented, underserved, or marginalized communities.
The Equinox Open Source Grant first launched in 2019, inspired by the vibrant open source community and the belief that every community deserves to benefit from a searchable, accessible, and thriving library. Last year's Equinox Open Source Grant recipients included Spark Central, in Spokane, Washington, and Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico, who both went live with Koha ILS implementations in 2020.
"Open source technologies offer innovative and sustainable solutions for libraries of every size and circumstance," said Lisa Carlucci, Executive Director. "The Equinox Open Source Grant unites collections with communities, bridges technological gaps, and makes resources searchable and discoverable. We believe every community, and every library, should have access to a modern, user-friendly, library system. We're excited to provide this opportunity and support two new grantees in 2021."
To view full application details please visit http://bit.ly/EOSG2021 and be sure to follow Equinox Open Library Initiative on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
About Equinox Open Library Initiative
Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc. is a nonprofit company engaging in literary, charitable, and educational endeavors serving cultural and knowledge institutions. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., Equinox carries forward more than a decade of service and experience with Evergreen ILS, Koha ILS, and other open source library software. At Equinox, we help you empower your library with open source technologies. To learn more, please visit https://www.equinoxinitiative.org/.
About Koha
Created in 1999 by Katipo Communications for the Horowhenua Library Trust in New Zealand, Koha is the first open source Integrated Library System to be used worldwide. The software is a full-featured ILS with a dual-database design (search engine and RDBMS) built to be compliant with library standards. Koha's OPAC, staff, and self-checkout interfaces are all web applications. Distributed under the General Public License (GPL), libraries are free to use and install Koha themselves or to purchase support and development services. For more information on Koha, please visit https://koha-community.org.