I'm Richard Burkett, Director of Innovation at EBSCO. When people talk about open source in libraries, it's often described in abstract terms. Terms like freedom, flexibility, and community. In this FOLIO in Five session, I want to focus on what open source looks like in practice and how FOLIO genuinely puts libraries back in control of their systems without sacrificing reliability, scale, or professional support.

I'll cover four things: how the FOLIO community is governed, how release cycles work in the real world, and what vendor neutral actually means for libraries. I'll finish by explaining how EBSCO turns that community strength into a robust, fully supported library services platform.

At the heart of FOLIO is a transparent, community-led governance model. FOLIO isn't owned by a single vendor. Instead, it's governed by the Open Library Foundation, with decision making distributed across community councils covering product direction, technical architecture, and community engagement. Libraries, vendors, and developers all participate, but critically, no single organization controls the roadmap. What that means in practice is that libraries can influence priorities directly, development decisions happen in the open, and long term direction isn't tied to a commercial exit or an acquisition strategy. You can see what's being built, why it's being built, and who's involved in that build. That transparency is a fundamental shift from the traditional proprietary systems where roadmaps are often opaque and non-negotiable.

Another key aspect of control is how software evolves. FOLIO runs on a regular, predictable release cycle, with major named releases twice a year, plus frequent bug fix and patch updates in between. For libraries, this has some very practical benefits. Enhancements are incremental rather than disruptive, new functionalities introduced consistently, not in large, risky updates, and nothing forces you into a big bang type of migration every few years because development happens in the open.

Libraries can track features well in advance. They can test early and plan updates around academic calendars and other operational needs. Importantly, hosting vendors like EBSCO take responsibility for managing those updates safely so the libraries get the benefits of innovation without the operational burden.

Vendor neutral is a phrase that gets used a lot, but in FOLIO it has a very specific meaning. It doesn't mean do everything yourself, and it doesn't mean no commercial supply is involved. It means the code base is open and portable. Libraries aren't locked into proprietary data models. They retain the ability to change hosting and support partners over time. And critically, the data remains yours. Your workflows aren't trapped behind closed APIs, and your system isn't dependent on a single company's long term commercial strategy. That's genuine leverage, not just philosophically, but contractually and operationally.

Of course, strong governance and open code alone don't run a library. What matters is how that open source foundation becomes a stable, secure, enterprise-grade platform. And that's where EBSCO comes in. EBSCO hosts, implements, and supports FOLIO at scale, providing resilient, monitored cloud hosting, managing updates, security and performance, delivering professional implementation and ongoing support. EBSCO contributes back actively to the FOLIO community itself, and because EBSCO is so deeply embedded within the community, we help translate real world library needs into sustainable development while ensuring customers have a single, accountable partner. Libraries get the freedom and influence of open source with the confidence of a proven global support organization. It's not open source instead of a vendor relationship, it's open source done with professional accountability.

So when we talk about open source in practice, FOLIO shows what that really means. It means shared governance, predictable transparent development, genuine vendor neutrality, and the option to pair community innovation with enterprise-grade support. Thank you very much for joining me on this very brief FOLIO in 5 session, and I shall look forward to speaking with you in the next one.