During this time of global and national recession and generally poor economy, libraries must be extra careful with how they budget their money. As of last year the American Library Association reports branch closings and budget cuts all across the country. ("Branch closings and," 2008) A possible solution to library budgets woes is open source software. In addition to open source software having many characteristics that would fit in well with library philosophies, open source software are usually free to download and install. However, just because the source code is free does not mean that there are not other costs that may be involved with installing and supporting open source software. There are a lot of questions about whether it is really financially sound for libraries to switch from their propriety software over to open source versions.