[Linux-aus] cancelling membership of Linux Australia; NLA losing bookmarks when they migrated to FOLIO

[Kathy Reid]

Dwight,

Let me tackle the issues here one by one.

1. The FOLIO Tweet

Sae Ra's Tweet [1] was direct, to the point, and clear about the facts. 
It did not "have a go" at you, as you claimed on this list and also on 
Twitter, and more to the point, it did not represent, nor purport to 
represent the views of Linux Australia. You have inferred this, 
incorrectly. Sae Ra's response stands. NLA could choose to install 
whatever they want for their cataloguing system - it's their decision. 
The fact they have installed FOLIO which is open source is a great step 
forward, and it's unfortunate that your bookmarks in the previous 
platform were unable to be migrated. That is not Sae Ra's doing, and she 
should not be the target of your ire. I see that you have subsequently 
taken this up with NLA and they have responded appropriately.


2. Ending membership of Linux Australia

You are correct, per your tweet [2] and the subsequent email to this 
list, that there is no mechanism, bar emailing Linux Australia (which 
folks can do via the Contact Us page [3]), to rescind one's membership 
of Linux Australia. Linux Australia Constitution section S(4) "Cessation 
of Membership" [4] does not specify how a member must resign their 
membership, simply that their membership ceases when they resign (4)(b). 
We are not obliged to have a "cancel membership" button on the website, 
and, frankly, the development effort of doing that, for the rare cases 
it happens, is unlikely to be worth it.

If you wish to cease your membership, I am sure Council, and 
specifically the Secretary, who manages membership, will rapidly oblige.


3. The difference between advocating for change and whinging about 
things that aren't to your liking

Lastly, I want to make a comment here about the difference between 
advocating for change and whinging about things that you don't like in 
an organisation. There is a place for both. There are things we all 
don't like about the organisations we work for, and volunteer with.

There are two ways to deal with this state of affairs.

The first is to choose to do something constructive about it - advocate 
for change by influencing people, providing options, offering to carry 
the load and the effort to make that change happen --- "I'd really like 
to see us do X! Here's a plan, and here's what I can do to help. Here's 
what I need from you all. What do you think?". This sometimes works, 
sometimes doesn't. Sometimes priorities or plans don't align. But you 
tried *constructively*.

The second is to have a whinge. Having a whinge is totally fine. We all 
need to vent sometimes. But when all you do is whinge, and do nothing 
constructive, people stop listening. You lose your power to make change 
because your whinging is whinging. The people you want to convince to do 
things differently dismiss you as a whinger, not a doer - not someone 
who makes things happen, who steps up, who we can work with - but 
someone who complains about the things other people do, without helping 
the situation.

You've had your whinge. What are you going to do that's constructive?

Kathy Reid


[1] https://x.com/ms_mary_mac/status/1762355206795518199?s=20

[2] https://twitter.com/dwightwalker/status/1762865510147060006

[3] https://linux.org.au/contact/

[4] https://linux.org.au/about-us/constitution/


On 29/2/24 19:06, Dwight Walker via linux-aus wrote:
> When National Library of Australia (NLA) migrated to FOLIO open source
> library software in November 2023 they lost all bookmarks in their
> catalogue I had saved over 10 years of research plus many from other users
> including many from librarians who work for NLA. I only discovered it this
> week when I had to change login to email from userid. The vendor said no
> bookmarks could be migrated so they were all lost. What a waste of
> information!
>
> I complained to NLA if it was open source library software they could have
> emailed CSV of bookmarks to each user using SQL query like in Koha open
> source library software can do but they wouldn't or didn't know how and
> everyone now had to just start with no bookmarks again and dredge them up
> again somehow or find others or the same ones again by search in the time
> ahead.
>
> Luckily I saved a few bookmarks on NLA into my own private database of
> bookmarks and browser bookmarks and history with domain nla.gov.au so
> could scrounge some back. Now I won't save bookmarks to NLA but only to my
> private database only in case they migrate again and lose them all again.
>
>  From Linux Australia I got that any software commercial or open source
> could have stuffed up this migration and lost bookmarks like that and not
> to complain and be glad NLA have migrated to open source software not
> commercial software.
>
> That was not right in my view. People are allowed to complain. FOLIO is
> difficult software to program or setup compared to Koha and I feel they
> picked the wrong library software and should have picked Koha instead and
> saved this whole issue by writing SQL reports which are easy to do in Koha
> not FOLIO.
>
> On Thu, February 29, 2024 17:00, Russell Coker wrote:
>> On Thursday, 29 February 2024 12:18:37 AEDT Dwight Walker via linux-aus
>> wrote:
>>> There is no way on linux.org.au to cancel membership apart from emailing
>>> council at linux.org.au or waiting till it expires far into the future.
>> Why is this a problem?  They don't bill you for it.
>>
>> --
>> My Main Blog         http://etbe.coker.com.au/
>> My Documents Blog    http://doc.coker.com.au/
>>
>>
>