ABCD vs. Koha : open source library options

The selection of the integrated library management system (ILMS) is often affected by social, economic and political circumstances that may result in an inappropriate choice for a specific library’s needs. Lately open source software products are very often selected as a solution in libraries all around the world, mostly because they are free of charge, but also because of other advantages (possibilities of copying, modifying and distributing of the software by the community, as well as integration with other applications. In this paper the authors compared the functionalities of two open source ILMSs that are used in their institutions – ABCD (INIDEP – National Institute for Fisheries Research and development, Argentina) and Koha (Ruđer Bošković Institute, Croatia). Based on this comparison, conclusions and recommendations were made about which software to use for preferred functionalities and library needs