I am little late on uncovering this one. I thought I would post it anyway since it fits in with my recent library innovation theme...
At ALA Midwinter in January, Casey Bisson presented Designing an OPAC for Web 2.0 which describes building an OPAC using the WordPress blogging software. This work was the result of a very simple blog post where he wondered aloud why library catalogs should be like WordPress .
Casey's question was how to design an information service in a world rich with information services and filled with users who make information seeking — though not necessarily at libraries — part of their everyday lives. His vision was that every catalog record should support comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks. Every record should have a permalink and content should be tag-able. The look should be easily customizable with themes. Content should be available via RSS or Atom and should be extendable with a rich plugin API.
Well, he did just take in creating WPopac (WordPress OPAC) for the Lamson Library at the Plymouth State University. He explains a bit in how it all works in a self interview.
Let's set aside for the moment the OPAC functions of circulation and acquisitions and the whole issue of record migration and look at what he has done.
I have been a supporter of open source systems for libraries for some time. I feel libraries can and should find ways to leverage open software whenever possible instead of relying upon commercial vendors that essentially lock libraries into using their sustaining technologies. No matter how special we feel we are the software needs and technology solutions of libraries are really not that special.
Commercial software developers rarely develop new products until they find a critical mass of users since they need to recoup development costs and make a profit at the same time in order to survive. The relatively limited size of the library system market makes it a difficult one for new vendors to enter. This means libraries have few choices when choosing software solutions.
The affect this environment has on libraries is that many may delay innovative services waiting for commercial vendors develop and market software solutions. The reality is some solutions are never developed. In the changing world of the Internet, libraries looking to develop cutting edge services can no longer wait for commercial solutions.
The reliance on commercially supplied systems often means libraries purchase systems that meet their budget, not necessarily ones that meet their needs. Libraries often make budgetary sacrifices in order to obtain and support a system that does meet their needs. Such decisions can have a significant impact on a library's budget, staffing, and patron services. Few libraries will switch once a significant investment in licensing, maintaining, and training support for their information systems has been made.
Software vendors have created an effective paradigm that many libraries cannot afford to break away from. Library administrators need to begin viewing open products as alternatives to commercial products and as a means to break away from, if even partially, the paradigm’s grip.
Software vendors do not actually sell software; they sell licenses for users to use their software products "as is". The vendor retains ownership and all rights to the original source code that makes the program run. The vendor, and not the library, often controls functionality and user interface since software licensees often do not include the rights to make any modifications.
Library systems vendors will often customize systems at a library's request, but usually for additional fees. New features are often years in the making and are often added only after a significant number of libraries request a specific change, or have paid for the modification. Any customizations or features add to the overall cost of a library system.
Getting back to Casey.... when one looks at the number of individuals using and developing WordPress plugins and extensions and compare it to the total number of commerical library software developers, well, the numbers favor WordPress. Since most of these plugins are open for others to repurpose, the modification and addition of new functionality is a fairly quick task. Since most of these plugins are freely available the library does not have to pay for the modification, or more importantly wait for a vendor to include it in an update.
Casey's approach is important because it helps his library to break his library away from the library systems paradigm. It allows for the development and deployment of a library system that can evolve quickly and adapt to the changing needs of the library community without mortgaging it's future.
The bottom line is that libraries that wish to innovate and keep up with information technology can no longer afford to rely upon commercial vendors. As Nicole C. Engard puts it, "Where does III fit? I’d say it’s a like the crazy cousin you have to deal with because he’s family!" That's no way to plan for the future.
Sphere: Related Content
Monday, May 15, 2006
Using Technology To Extend Sustaining Services
In several of my recent posts I have been discussing library innovation. One of my concerns is that libraries may be using technology to simply sustain
existing and traditional services rather than using it to innovate and create new services.
This morning I came across this photo on the Engadget site. I feel this picture may symbolize the approach many libraries take towards innovation. Here we have this great new technology that has a potential to change the way we access content, yet one must use a sustaining technology to interface with it.
This picture is actually backwards if one wants to accurately depict the approach many libraries are taking towards innovation. There should be an old Bell dial phone with an Ipod click wheel interface. Then the user would be using a new technology to access a sustaining service. Sphere: Related Content
existing and traditional services rather than using it to innovate and create new services.This morning I came across this photo on the Engadget site. I feel this picture may symbolize the approach many libraries take towards innovation. Here we have this great new technology that has a potential to change the way we access content, yet one must use a sustaining technology to interface with it.
This picture is actually backwards if one wants to accurately depict the approach many libraries are taking towards innovation. There should be an old Bell dial phone with an Ipod click wheel interface. Then the user would be using a new technology to access a sustaining service. Sphere: Related Content
Friday, May 12, 2006
Are Libraries Placing Value on Technology Innovation?
One could simply look at their library organization's resource allocation to determine what is valued by leadership. One can also look at their organization's processes and priorities and how they are designed to support those values.
Anyone working in an academic health sciences setting knows that a high value is placed on journals. As a result, a significant portion of health sciences library budgets are allocated to their purchase, access and management. We place this high value on journals because we are good librarians that listen to our customer's needs (ah, the Librarian's Dilemma again).
In an effort to uncover what academic libraries in general value one could look over various library statistical reports, like ARL Statistics. I decided to save time and looked over a ARL Library Trends summary report. The only part of the report that addressed innovation was:
"The Web has revolutionized the way libraries are delivering services, enabling them to offer more value ranging from remote access to online catalogs, indexing and abstracting tools, and full-text resources delivered at the user's desktop. The delivery of new and innovative services through digitization projects and distance learning technologies is transforming the brick-and-mortar library model to a virtual model. We are still in the early stages of a long transition period where a hybrid model will reign.
"These trends are largely due to the ready adoption of technological innovation and the gradual reduction of barriers to access. It is very likely that as the access model continues to offer more information at lesser cost to an increasing number of people, the ownership model may be reserved for the high-cost, low-usage information resources that are of value to smaller groups of people. Where would libraries fit into this environment? The only answer to this question can be at best speculative and at worst dead wrong."
Since these statistics do not provide a clear picture regarding innovation (I need to look at the statistics picture some more since I know that IT expenditures have been increasing) I decided to look at human resources. I looked at the ACRL Career Opportunities list from January 30 - May 8, 2006.
The assumption I am making is that libraries are recruiting librarians to support highly valued services. There are some obvious problems with this approach. For example, libraries may not recruit for such positions at the ACRL site. There could also be low turnover in these positions and they simply are not being recruited. Some of the IT positions may include dual roles not detailed in the job descriptions.
The following are the categories I came up with and their percentage of total postings:
Job postings alone are not evidence that libraries are not placing a high enough value on innovation. If position recruitment can be an indicator of the the value libraries are placing on services, it appears we are continuing to grow our sustaining services (ah, the Librarian's Dilemma yet again) such as reference, technical services, and instruction. The administrative percentage may indicate the retirement bubble.
In the end, library organizations that do not place a value on disruptive technologies, and do not allocate resources and processes to deal with them, may find themselves faced with serious challenges in the coming years. Sphere: Related Content
Anyone working in an academic health sciences setting knows that a high value is placed on journals. As a result, a significant portion of health sciences library budgets are allocated to their purchase, access and management. We place this high value on journals because we are good librarians that listen to our customer's needs (ah, the Librarian's Dilemma again).
In an effort to uncover what academic libraries in general value one could look over various library statistical reports, like ARL Statistics. I decided to save time and looked over a ARL Library Trends summary report. The only part of the report that addressed innovation was:
"The Web has revolutionized the way libraries are delivering services, enabling them to offer more value ranging from remote access to online catalogs, indexing and abstracting tools, and full-text resources delivered at the user's desktop. The delivery of new and innovative services through digitization projects and distance learning technologies is transforming the brick-and-mortar library model to a virtual model. We are still in the early stages of a long transition period where a hybrid model will reign.
"These trends are largely due to the ready adoption of technological innovation and the gradual reduction of barriers to access. It is very likely that as the access model continues to offer more information at lesser cost to an increasing number of people, the ownership model may be reserved for the high-cost, low-usage information resources that are of value to smaller groups of people. Where would libraries fit into this environment? The only answer to this question can be at best speculative and at worst dead wrong."
Since these statistics do not provide a clear picture regarding innovation (I need to look at the statistics picture some more since I know that IT expenditures have been increasing) I decided to look at human resources. I looked at the ACRL Career Opportunities list from January 30 - May 8, 2006.
The assumption I am making is that libraries are recruiting librarians to support highly valued services. There are some obvious problems with this approach. For example, libraries may not recruit for such positions at the ACRL site. There could also be low turnover in these positions and they simply are not being recruited. Some of the IT positions may include dual roles not detailed in the job descriptions.
The following are the categories I came up with and their percentage of total postings:
| Administrative | 17% |
| Reference/Information Services/Outreach | 16% |
| Acquisitions/Collections/Technical Services | 15% |
| Subject Librarian /Bibliographer | 10% |
| Archive/Special Collections | 10% |
| Instruction/Literacy | 10% |
| Cataloging/Metadata | 8% |
| Circulation/Access Services | 5% |
| IT/Systems | 4% |
| Digital Library/Media | 3% |
| Web Services/System Design | 2% |
Job postings alone are not evidence that libraries are not placing a high enough value on innovation. If position recruitment can be an indicator of the the value libraries are placing on services, it appears we are continuing to grow our sustaining services (ah, the Librarian's Dilemma yet again) such as reference, technical services, and instruction. The administrative percentage may indicate the retirement bubble.
In the end, library organizations that do not place a value on disruptive technologies, and do not allocate resources and processes to deal with them, may find themselves faced with serious challenges in the coming years. Sphere: Related Content
Monday, May 08, 2006
Why the Name Change?
When I first started this blog I was more focused on content than a catchy name. Since it was approaching the one year mark I felt it was finally time to revisit the name.
In his 1964 book Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan wrote:
"the personal and socal consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology....it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the content of any media binds us to the character of the medium.
"The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message, as it were, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name. This fact, characteristic of all media, means that the "content" of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph.
... the medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. "
Not only does the Internet as a medium fit snuggly into McLuhan's concept, blogging is that natural human extension he refers. Blogging did not introduce the concept of personal journaling but it has accelerated and enlarged the scale, pace, and pattern in which the content is introduced into our lives. Sphere: Related Content
In his 1964 book Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan wrote:
"the personal and socal consequences of any medium - that is, of any extension of ourselves - result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology....it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. The content or uses of such media are as diverse as they are ineffectual in shaping the form of human association. Indeed, it is only too typical that the content of any media binds us to the character of the medium.
"The electric light is pure information. It is a medium without a message, as it were, unless it is used to spell out some verbal ad or name. This fact, characteristic of all media, means that the "content" of any medium is always another medium. The content of writing is speech, just as the written word is the content of print, and print is the content of the telegraph.
... the medium is the message because it is the medium that shapes and controls the scale and form of human association and action. "
Not only does the Internet as a medium fit snuggly into McLuhan's concept, blogging is that natural human extension he refers. Blogging did not introduce the concept of personal journaling but it has accelerated and enlarged the scale, pace, and pattern in which the content is introduced into our lives. Sphere: Related Content
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