Install I, Librarian for a collaborative group
In my opinion the strongest feature of I, Librarian is that you can use it to build a PDF library in collaboration
with your peers. You can build a shared library in your company, department, or laboratory. This is possible,
because I, Librarian is a web based software.
It makes use of the free and open source software: Apache, PHP, and SQLite. These are all free, but reliable tools. Apache is the
world leading internet server, PHP is used to run over 20 million web sites, and SQLite is the most widely deployed
SQL database in the world. That being said, you need to first ask your IT technician, whether you can install Apache on your
network.
In order to build a collaborative library, it is best to dedicate one computer to run as your server. It does not have
to be a very powerful computer. Any mid-level computer will do. It is not expected that the library will be very busy,
but there is going to be a lot of PDF downloading and uploading, so I would not recommend using a single computer for
both office work and building I, Librarian library, especially, if your group has more than 10 busy members.
Apache is used to create your web server. You need to provide a static IP of your dedicated computer as a ServerName
during Apache installation. Alternatively, after installation, find the Apache configuration file (usually httpd.conf), and
change ServerName directive to your static IP number with a flat text editor. If you do this, you will be able to access your server
as http://your.ip.number.here with your internet browser.
You should unpack I, Librarian files into a directory under DocumentRoot, as defined in Apache configuration file. But
there are other options. Please refer to Apache Alias
or Virtual Hosts
documentation, if you want to learn more. Alias is very easy to understand. For instance:
Alias /librarian "C:\I, Librarian"
This setting means that if you open URL http://your.ip/librarian, Apache will look for files in C:\I, Librarian.
You absolutely must control access to your web server. I, Librarian is not supposed to be run on Internet.
Access can be controlled conveniently by editing flat text httpd.conf, or .htaccess file. Use Deny and Allow directives, which are enclosed
in Directory tags. Restrict access to your new server to specific IP addresses, a range of IP numbers, or certain
domain names.
An example of a safe Apache configuration in the conf file using Alias:
ServerName 111.1.1.11
###This should go at the very end of the conf file:
Alias /librarian "C:\I, Librarian"
<Directory "C:\I, Librarian">
Order deny,allow
Deny from all
Allow from 127.0.0.1
Allow from 111.1.1
Allow from yourcompany.com
</Directory>
<Directory "C:\I, Librarian\library">
IndexIgnore *
php_admin_flag engine off
AddType text/plain .html .htm .shtml
<FilesMatch "\.sq3$">
Order allow,deny
</FilesMatch>
</Directory>
These directives allow access to your server at the address http://111.1.1.11. Please note that there must be only one ServerName directive in your conf file.
Alias directive enables to access I, Librarian installed in C:\I, Librarian as http://111.1.1.11/librarian. Access is allowed from computers with the range of IP numbers from
111.1.1.0 to 111.1.1.255 and from computers with the domain name "yourcompany.com". No one else can access your library. Finally,
no one can download your SQLite database using a web browser.
Despite these instructions, many freely accessible installations of I, Librarian appeared on the Internet in past few months. I strongly appeal
to these admins that they at least protect their computers by disabling PHP engine and HTML files in the /library subdirectory as follows:<![CDATA[
<Directory "/var/www/librarian/library">
IndexIgnore *
php_admin_flag engine off
AddType text/plain .html .htm .shtml
</Directory>]]>
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