Upload
quentin-russell
View
220
Download
2
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
DAYS OF KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATIONThe Future of the Library Catalog and the ILS
Marshall BreedingDirector for Innovative Technology and ResearchVanderbilt University LibraryNashville, TN USA
2 February 2008
Oslo University College
Issues and Questions addressed Audience: The main target group is librarians wanting an up-date
on their field of work This year we plan to explore the (possible) future of the
catalogue/ILS. What sort of library systems do we foresee? How can we make the front end systems work better for the end
users? Will/should the local OPACs disappear? Should we rather put our efforts into developing good centralized
services with access to all library resources? What needs to be done in terms of developing workable backend
systems?
• In Norway there are national plans to develop a centralized search and lending service which will give end user access to a majority of the local library catalogues. We hope our seminar will provide a good starting point for discussing the future landscape.
Library Technology Guides
http://www.librarytechnology.org Repository for library automation data Lib-web-cats tracks 38,000 libraries and
the automation systems used. Expanding to include more international
scope Announcements and developments
made by companies and organizations involved in library automation technologies
LJ Automation System MarketplaceAnnual Industry report published in Library
Journal: 2008: Opportunity out of turmoil 2007: An industry redefined 2006: Reshuffling the deck 2005: Gradual evolution 2004: Migration down, innovation up 2003: The competition heats up 2002: Capturing the migrating
customer
Upheavals in the library automation arena
Industry Consolidation Abrupt transitions for major library
automation products Increased industry control by
external financial investors Demise of the traditional OPAC Frustration with ILS products and
vendors Open Source alternatives hit the
mainstreamBreeding, Marshall: Perceptions 2008 an international survey of library automation. http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2008.pl January 2009.
ILS Industry in Transition
Consolidation through mergers and acquisitions have resulted in a fewer number of players; larger companies
Uncomfortable level of product narrowing
Increased ownership by external interests
Yet: Some companies and products continue on solid ground
Breeding, Marshall “Automation system marketplace 2008: Opportunity Out of Turmoil” Library Journal. April 1, 2008.
Product and Technology Trends Innovation below expectationsConventional ILS less tenableProliferation of products related to e-content management
New genre of discovery-layer interfaces
Web 2.0 / Collaborative Computing
Currently implemented ad hoc Many libraries putting up blogs, wikis,
and fostering engagement in social networking sites
Proliferation of silos with no integration or interoperability with larger library Web presence
Next Gen: Build social and collaborative features into core automation components
Opportunities for Openness
Open Source Software Alternative to traditionally licensed
software Open Systems
Software that doesn’t hold data hostage
Open Access to Data and Content OpenLibrary VS WorldCat?
Open Source Alternatives
Explosive interest in Open Source driven by disillusionment with current vendors and near-evangelical promotion of this software licensing model
Beginning to emerge as a practical option
TOC (Total Cost of Ownership) still roughly equal to proprietary commercial model
Still a risky strategy for libraries – traditional licensing also risky
Open Source ILS enters the mainstream
Earlier era of pioneering efforts to ILS shifting into one where open source alternatives fall in the mainstream
Off-the-shelf, commercially supported product available
Still a minority player, but gaining ground
Open Source Interest by Region North America: strong
More purchasing by preference Latin America: growing
Searching for low-cost options Asia: weak Europe: Weak to moderate
More structured procurement processes
Open Source ILS options
Koha Commercial support:
LibLime – North America BibLibre -- France
Evergreen Commercial support from Equinox Software
OPALS Commercial support from Media Flex
Business case for Open Source ILS
Comparative total cost of ownership
Evaluate features and functionality Evaluate technology platform and
conceptual models Are they next-generation systems
or open source version of legacy models?“Making a Business Case for Open Source ILS.” Marshall Breeding,
Computers in Libraries March 2008http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=13134
Observations on Open Source ILS Current Open Source ILS products similar in modular
organization and functionality to existing systems. Evolving to achieve the same level of features and capacity present in established commercial systems.
Initial wave of Open Source ILS commitments happened mostly in the public library arena. Recent activity among academic libraries: WALDO Consortium (Voyager > Koha) University of Prince Edward Island (Unicorn > Evergreen)
Open Source ILS does not result in higher satisfaction Perceptions 2008: An international survey of library
automationhttp://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2008.pl
Do the current open source ILS products provide a new model of automation, or an open source version of what we already have?
Impact of Open Source ILS
Some libraries moving from traditionally licensed products to open source products with commercial support plans
Disruption of ILS industry new pressures on incumbent vendors to
deliver more innovation and to satisfy concerns for openness
New competition / More options
More Open Systems
Pressure for traditionally licensed products to become more open
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) let libraries access and manipulate their data outside of delivered software
A comprehensive set of APIs potentially give libraries more flexibility and control in accessing data and services and in extending functionality than having access to the source code.
Customer access to APIs does not involve as much risk to breaking core system functions, avoids issues of version management and code forking associated with open source models.
Closed Systems
CirculationAcquisitionsCataloging
Staff Interfaces:
End User Interfaces:
Data Stores:
Functionalmodules:
No programmable Access to the system.
Captive to the userInterfaces supplied by the developer
Programmer access:
Standard RDBM Systems
CirculationAcquisitionsCataloging
Staff Interfaces:
End User Interfaces:
Data Stores:
Functionalmodules:
Database administrators can access data stores involved with the system:
Read-only?Read/write?
Developer shares database schema
Programmer access:
Open Source Model
CirculationAcquisitionsCataloging
Staff Interfaces:
End User Interfaces:
Data Stores:
Functionalmodules:
All aspects of the system available to inspection and modification.
Programmer access:
Open API Model
CirculationAcquisitionsCataloging
Staff Interfaces:
End User Interfaces:
Data Stores:
Functionalmodules:
Core application closed.
Third party developers code against the published APIs or RDBMS tables.
Programmer access:
Published APIs
Open Source / Open API Model
CirculationAcquisitionsCataloging
Staff Interfaces:
End User Interfaces:
Data Stores:
Functionalmodules:
Core application closed.
Third party developers code against the published APIs or RDBMS tables.
Programmer access:
Published APIs
Depth of Openness
Evaluate level of access to a products data stores and functional elements: Open source vs Traditional licenses
Some traditional vendors have well established API implementations SirsiDynix Unicorn (API available to authorized customer
sites that take training program) Ex Libris: consistent deployment of APIs in major
products, recent strategic initiative: “Open Platform Program”
Innovative Interfaces: Patron API; Encore Web services
Crowded Landscape of Information Providers on the Web
Lots of non-library Web destinations deliver content to library patrons Google Scholar Amazon.com Wikipedia Ask.com
Do Library Web sites and catalogs meet the information needs of our users?
Do they attract their interest?
Demand for compelling library interfaces
Urgent need for libraries to offer interfaces their users will like to use
Move into the current millennium Powerful search capabilities in tune with
how the Web works today Meet user expectations set by other Web
destination
Inadequacy of ILS OPACs
Online Catalog modules provided with an ILS subject to broad criticism as failing to meet expectations of growing segments of library patrons.
Not great at delivering electronic content Complex text-based interfaces Relatively weak keyword search engines Lack of good relevancy sorting Narrow scope of content
Disjointed approach to information and service delivery
Silos Prevail Books: Library OPAC (ILS module) Articles: Aggregated content products, e-journal
collections OpenURL linking services E-journal finding aids (Often managed by link
resolver) Local digital collections
ETDs, photos, rich media collections Metasearch engines
All searched separately
Change underway
Widespread dissatisfaction with most of the current OPACs. Many efforts toward next-generation catalogs and interfaces.
Movement among libraries to break out of the current mold of library catalogs and offer new interfaces better suited to the expectations of library users.
Decoupling of the front-end interface from the back-end library automation system.
Eventual redesign of the ILS to be better suited for current library collections of digital and print content
More than the “library catalog” More comprehensive information
discovery environments It’s no longer enough to provide a catalog
limited to print resources Digital resources cannot be an
afterthought Systems designed for e-content only are
also problematic Forcing users to use different interfaces
depending on type of content becoming less tenable
Libraries working toward consolidated user environments that give equal footing to digital and print resources
Comprehensive Discovery Service Current distributed query model of
federated search model not adequate Expanded scope of search through
harvested content Consolidated search services based on
metadata and data gathered in advance (like OAI-PMH)
Problems of scale diminished Problems of cooperation persist Federated search currently operates as a
plug-in component of next-gen interfaces.
Web 2.0 Flavorings
Strategic infrastructure + Web 2.0 A more social and collaborative approach Web Tools and technology that foster
collaboration Integrated blogs, wiki, tagging, social
bookmarking, user rating, user reviews Avoid Web 2.0 information silos
The Ideal Scope for Next Gen Library Interfaces
Attempt to collapse silos or draw appropriately from each silo
Unified user experience A single point of entry into all the content
and services offered by the library Print + Electronic Local + Remote Locally created Content User contributed content?
Interface Features / User Experience Simple point of entry
Optional advanced search Relevancy ranked results Facets for narrowing and navigation Query enhancement – spell check, etc Suggested related results /
recommendation service Enriched visual and textual content Single Sign-on
Relevancy Ranking
Based on advanced search engines specifically designed for relevancy Endeca, Lucene, FAST, BrainWare, etc
Web users expect relevancy ordered results The “good stuff” should be listed first Users tend not to delve deep into a result list Good relevancy requires a sophisticated
approach, including objective matching criteria supplemented by popularity and relatedness factors.
New Paradigm for search and navigation
Let users drill down through the result set incrementally narrowing the field
Faceted Browsing Drill-down vs up-front Boolean or “Advanced
Search” gives the users clues about the number of hits
in each sub topic Ability to explore collections without a priori
knowledge Visual search tools Navigational Bread crumbs
Select / deselect facets
Query / Result Enhancement “Did you mean?” and other features to
avoid “No results found” Validated spell check / query suggestions Automatic inclusion of authorized and
related terms More like this – recommendation service Make the query and the response to it
better than the query provided
Deep search Entering post-metadata search era Increasing opportunities to search the full contents
Google Library Print, Google Publisher, Open Content Alliance, etc.
High-quality metadata will improve search precision
Commercial search providers already offer “search inside the book” and searching across the full text of large book collections
Not currently available through library search environments
Deep search highly improved by high-quality metadata
See: Systems Librarian, May 2008 “Beyond the current generation of next-generation interfaces: deeper search”
Beyond Discovery to Fulfillment / Delivery
Fulfillment oriented Search -> select -> view Delivery/Fulfillment much harder than
discovery Back-end complexity should be as
seamless as possible to the user Offer services for digital and print
content
Current Commercial and Open Source Products
New Generation Library Interfaces
Discovery Interface Products Ex Libris Primo Innovative Interfaces: Encore Serials Solutions: Summon (under
development) Medialab Solutions: AquaBrowser VUFind (open source) BiblioCommons eXtensible Catalog (under development)
Rethinking the ILS
Fundamental assumption: Print + Digital = Hybrid libraries
Traditional ILS model not adequate for hybrid libraries
Libraries currently moving toward surrounding core ILS with additional modules to handle electronic content
New discovery layer interfaces replacing or supplementing ILS OPACS
Working toward a new model of library automation Monolithic legacy architectures replaced by fabric of SOA
applications Comprehensive Resource Management
“It's Time to Break the Mold of the Original ILS” Computers in Libraries Nov/Dec 2007
ILS: a legacy concept?
ILS = Integrated Library System (Cataloging + Circulation + OPAC + Serials +
Acquisitions) Focused on print and physical inventory Electronic content at the Journal Title or
collection level Emerged in the 1960’s – 1970’s Functionality has evolved and expanded,
but basic concepts and modules remain intact
Note: Some companies work toward evolving the ILS to competently handle both print and digital content (e.g. Innovative Interfaces)
ILS: ever diminishing role
Many libraries putting much less emphasis on ILS
Just an inventory system for physical materials
Investments in electronic content increasing
Management of e-content handled outside of the ILS
Yet: libraries need comprehensive business automation more than ever. Mandate for more efficient operations. Do more with less.
Dis-integration of Library Automation Functionality
ILS -- Print and Physical inventory OpenURL Link resolver Federated Search Electronic Resource Management Module Discovery layer interface
Is non-integrated automation sustainable?
Major burden on library personnel Serial procurement / installation / configuration /
maintenance cycles take many years to result in a comprehensive environment
Inefficient data models Disjointed interfaces for library users Very long cycle to gain comprehensive
automation
Moving toward a new Generation of Library Automation
Are Legacy ILS concepts sustainable? New automation environment based on
current library realities and modern technology platforms
Equal footing for digital and print Service oriented architecture
Breaking down the modules
Traditional ILS Cataloging Circulation Online Catalog Acquisitions Serials control Reporting
Modern approach: SOA
Legacy ILS + e-content modules
FederatedSearch
Circulation Acquisitions
Cataloging Serials
OpenURLLinking
Electronic Resource
MgmtSystem
Staff Interfaces:
End User Interfaces:
Data Stores:
Functionalmodules:
SOA model for business automation
Underlying data repositories Local or Global
Reusable business servicesComposite business applications
SOA for library workflow processes
Data Stores:
ReusableBusiness Services
CompositeApplications
Granulartasks:
Comprehensive Resource Management
Broad conceptual approach that proposes a library automation environment that spans all types of content that comprise library collections.
Traditional ILS vendors: Under development but no public announcements
Open Source projects in early phases Projection: 2-3 years until we begin see
library automation systems that follow this approach. 5-7 years for wider adoption.
ILS Reinvention projects
OLE Project Funded by the Research in Information Technology program of
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation 1-year project to produce the requirements for a new approach
to library automation Will embrace the service-oriented architecture Business process modeling based on library workflows
unconstrained from existing legacy software Possible follow-on project to build and open source reference
implementation Ex Libris URM
Mentioned publically but not formally announced Working toward new platform that better integrates print and
electronic content Probably will be based on some existing products
Observations
Trend toward ever larger implementations of library systems
Problems with scale-ability less of a concern than ever before
Many possible approaches Distributed Centralized
Distributed systems
Interconnected ILS systems Union catalogs
Virtual – Z39.50, NCIP, ISO ILL Physical: harvested and synched
NCIP or Z39.50 for real-time holdings Resource sharing or consortial borrowing
component
Large-scale centralized environments
Large-scale resource databases that provide discovery, local library automation, and cross-institutional borrowing
COBISS – Slovenia and other Balkan countries Serves national, university, and public
libraries Increasing interest in state-wide systems
in the US Based on Open source and proprietary
software WorldCat: Global discovery system (and
more)
Conclusion: many opportunities Open source vs proprietary software New models of library automation that
better integrate physical and electronic content
New discovery interfaces to improve end-user experiences
Large-scale systems that enable broad based resource sharing