s u m m a r y:
In 2025 the Marietta House Museum started work on a digital catalog for our small research library to enhance accessibility and preservation of our collection. We’re a small museum, with an even smaller budget so our primary resource to make this possible was staff time and volunteer hours. We needed a technical solution to make our books more accessible without spending too much of our budget, time, and volunteer hours.
Most Library Management Systems like ExLibris are designed for large institutions and public libraries, and even the smaller scale solutions like TinyCat are priced to high for such a a small part of our museum. We could make the catalog from scratch just using the basic Microsoft tools we have available. However creating an Access database is extremely labor intensive and would require developing our own training for both staff and the public.
That’s how we started our search for a free and open-source Library Management System with Discovery Tools, Repository Software, and Digital Asset Management. An open-source solution allows us to minimize costs while improving research capabilities, public engagement, and collection management. We’ll also have access to community developed support resources like training for volunteers and staff to maintain the system.