WALTER NELSON

ALTERNATIVES TO THE ILS

MY PERSONAL JOURNEY

• Everything is changing• New requirements,

new expectations, new technology• I haven’t figured it

all out yet• Here’s what I have

worked out so far

TO CLARIFY

• I’m not talking about doing everything the ILS does, but doing it with something else• Something that does everything a library catalog

does is just another library catalog• I will be talking about different kinds of tools,

different kinds of information and different ways of thinking about information

EXPANDING INFORMATION UNIVERSE

• Paper monographs & journals• Digital monographs & journals• Web/Cloud content• Digital “raw” content

• Drafts, briefings, data sets etc.• Corporate content • Correspondence, financials, bids/proposals etc.

• Video, audio, images• Archives (paper and digital)• Applications, games

MY NEW CHALLENGES

• Library takes over Archives• Patrons give us special, precious collections• Patrons want us to organize their digital stuff• I am tasked with distributing our stuff on other

peoples’ networks • Making use of blogs, wikis, SharePoint

• ILS/OPAC either not available or not quite the thing

FEEL FREE TO SHARE

• If you hit on a brilliant idea I’ve missed, please mention it in the Q&A portion

WHY THE CATALOG?

• Integrated Library Systems are optimized for monographic content• Books, reports etc. fit right in• Great at letting you know what you have on your

shelves• They’re great at circulating stuff• They’re pretty good at linking to digital analogs of

physical stuff• Great at providing clean data feeds to other

systems

WHY NOT THE CATALOG?

• Structured format is unsuitable• Catalogs are lousy at delivering journal content• Isolated nature of catalog is unhelpful • I want a catalog, but they won’t let me have one• I’d love a catalog, but I can’t afford it

AN ESSENTIAL ILS ISSUE

• Highly structured and standardized • Records available for download from OCLC, LC

etc.• Batch delivered from vendor (Serials Solutions

etc. )• Lovingly and expensively hand-crafted by a

human• Strength: standardized, detailed, regular• Weakness: original cataloging requires cost-benefit

analysis before deciding to add an item

To go into the ILS, content must be

ALL THINGS CATALOGABLE

• It is theoretically possible to create a catalog record for anything• Just because a thing can be done doesn’t mean it

should be done

MASH IT UP!

• The choices are not either/or• Catalog can link to digital collections, blogs, you

name it• Your catalog could be the hub that links out to all

your alternative tools • Always try to breakdown the silos between your

systems

COPYRIGHT

• For the purposes of this discussion, I will not really discuss copyright issues• We will just assume that you will handle what

ever you need to handle in accordance with applicable law

HOW I SEE THE WORLD

•Data Web•Data Herd•Data Mob

DATA WEB

• Structured “Linked Data” with URIs and strong standards • Allows disparate systems to share data• Meaningful, managed metadata • Content easily reused by multiple applications• Humans or smart bots have to touch the content

DATA HERD

• Tame and domesticated• Content contains some SEO data• Meaningful titles• Appropriate authors• Data is unstructured, no controlled

vocabulary• It can be found• When you find it, you know what

you found• Not orderly, but all moving in the

same direction

DATA MOB

• Digital objects created with no thought of ever being found• No titles, authors, URIs or, in fact, anything but

content• A Data Mob is big, ugly and will turn on you in a

minute• I deal mostly with Data Mobs

SO, WHAT’S THE BEST TOOL FOR THE JOB?

THE “PUBLISHING” MODEL

• New stuff released on an ongoing basis• Research reports• Newsletters• Opinion pieces• Meeting minutes• News

A BLOG MAY BE JUST THE THING

• Newest stuff on top• Entries can have attached digital documents or

links• Sorts by date for date browsing• Has search tool• Simple taxonomy• Browse-friendly• Labor intensive• Not infinitely scalable

LINKING OUT

• Research databases• Useful websites• Stuff you’re paying for

What if you want to provide sorted lists of links for your patrons?

LIBGUIDES COULD WORK

• Hosted system • Easy to build topic collection pages• Can limit access to just your users (IP

authentication)• Link management (can change a link in one place

and it changes in all other locations it is used)• It’s a primitive, single function Content

Management System

LIBGUIDES FROM SPRINGSHARE

THE INVENTORY MODEL

• You have physical stuff• You need to be able to

find your stuff• You need to be able to

track your stuff• You need to be able to

go along with a barcode reader and make sure your stuff is still there

GENERIC DATABASES

• MS Access• FileMaker• I built a FileMaker DB for a document control center that

did just that. It had a barcode inventory and a “Check Out” function

• Planned modification will allow linking to digital versions of documents

• There may be other Off the Shelf tools available

BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT

• EndNote for personal use and some sharing• Evidence Partners’ “Distiller” for collaborative

content sharing (popular with medical studies)• Many other choices

Are you building a collection of sources for a specific purpose?

CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS

• SharePoint• Drupal• There are others, but these are widely adopted• Generally available for local or cloud hosting• These are the ones I actually, more or less,

understand

WHAT A CMS DOES

• Database driven website• Multiple functionality• Web pages, calendars, document libraries, blogs, wikis

etc.

• Data can be entered by multiple users, from a web interface• Content is as organized as you make it• Can handle digital documents

SHAREPOINT

• A Microsoft product• Price and availability varies• Your IT department probably likes it• It’s Microsoft• It’s supported

• It does many things, but doesn’t necessarily do them really well• I am told SP 2013 looks better, works better and

searches better. • I’ve been lied to before

ORIGINS

• SharePoint was originally designed as a collaborative document creation tool• CMS functions have been added gradually over

time• It really wants to be swarms of MS Word

documents, in multiple versions, bouncing around willy-nilly

SHAREPOINT

• Can handle multiple digital document formats• Can do in-document text search• Search engine is improving • Taxonomy via “Folder” directory structure• Can take in large numbers of digital items without

individual handling

SHAREPOINT

• Usually looks like SharePoint• “SharePoint Designer” can make it look less SharePointy

• Permissions can drive you crazy• Multiple users with little governance leads to

anarchy

HERE’S SOMETHING USEFUL

• I have been getting large, multi-format digital collections• Data Mobs• I can dump them all in SharePoint and, well, sort

of find them again• Stuff with embedded metadata pretty easy to find• Stuff without – you may find it but you may not

be sure you found it without opening it• Do you have the time to fix the content?

WHAT I DID WITH SHAREPOINT

• Guest on a Government network – used what was on offer• For a while, used a blog until they made

SharePoint available• Used document management – after adding good

internal metadata to ensure clean search results• Used blog entry to create bibliographic records,

browsable categories and “look at the new stuff!” front page display (via RSS)

FULL DISCLOSURE

• I really don’t care for SharePoint• On multiple occasions, it’s all I have been allowed

to use• I made it work as a publishing and outreach tool• You can too

DRUPAL

• Open Source CMS• Amazing variety of uses• Can replicate the cataloging functions of an ILS• Powerful and flexible• Open source, so it’s FREE!• With Open Source, free can get expensive

DRUPAL

• Does taxonomy very well• Does “tagging” very well (controlled or

“folksonomy”)• Commenting features• Clever use of these taxonomy & tags, with their

RSS can make content behave in very interesting and useful ways

DRUPAL

• Open Source is scary to IT departments• Open Source is the Wild West• Hosted Drupal is less scary• While installation is easy, configuring it the right

way for your needs takes a lot of thought and labor• Drupal does pretty much everything else better

than SharePoint (IMHO)

SOCIAL TOOLS?

• Clear demand for ability to “personalize” information• Build collections• Share contents in a social way• I have college professor friends who use

Facebook for that• SharePoint pretends to do it• Drupal can be made to do it• Not quite there yet

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

• Data bucket• Just drop your stuff in and cool app will retrieve,

organize and find connections• Current Document Management Systems are

getting there• Soon perhaps

INFORMATION FUTURE

• The Data Web: “High value” managed content• Standards, linked data, human intervention

• The Data Herd: managed but not coordinated• SEO, findable, internally logical but not standardized

• The Data Mob: the vast majority of content• No standards, no SEO, no time to make it better

• The social factor• Social networks share all types and surface some subset

of useful content

GROWTH AREAS

• Tame the Data Mob•Mine social interaction to surface valuable content• Blend external and local content• Provide single, simple, intuitive user interface for all of it