Based on your experience, do you think this kind of attitude just typical of the sorts of folks who tend to be librarians, or is there some top-down reason for it?
Every time any of this is spoken it is in terms of job security. If the place you are employed at is sued you could then easily lose your job. It happens not a lot but enough to scare every librarian. When I proposed we leave the $4 a book library management system to a Open Source Evergreen the words spoken behind the companies was hysterically wrong but enough to scare anyone from using them. Back then Open Source meant evil and bad to librarians due to companies selling them goods spreading FUD.
Every time any of this is spoken it is in terms of job security. If the place you are employed at is sued you could then easily lose your job. It happens not a lot but enough to scare every librarian. When I proposed we leave the $4 a book library management system to a Open Source Evergreen the words spoken behind the companies was hysterically wrong but enough to scare anyone from using them. Back then Open Source meant evil and bad to librarians due to companies selling them goods spreading FUD.