building creative and inspiring discovery platforms marshall breeding director for innovative...
TRANSCRIPT
Latest Trends in Library Automation:
Building Creative and Inspiring Discovery Platforms
Marshall BreedingDirector for Innovative Technology and ResearchVanderbilt University LibraryNashville, TN USA
1) Participants will assess the latest library automation innovations and discovery platforms.2) Participants will better understand how libraries can meet patron expectations.
Learning Outcomes:
Marshall Breeding will address next-generation library interfaces and what the future holds for merging currently disparate resources, or silos of information. Some next-generation discovery platforms include AquaBrowser, Encore, Endeca, Primo, WorldCat Local and NELLCO’s Universal Search Solution. Breeding is a VIP to AALL 2009, sponsored by ALL-SIS, the Library Journal author of “Automation System Marketplace,” and a Computers In Libraries columnist. In addition, Breeding will update the audience on current innovations in library automation technology.
Summary
Georgia Briscoe, Coordinator and Co-moderator, University of Colorado Law Library, William A. Wise Law Library
Filippa Marullo Anzalone, Co-moderator, Boston College Law Library
Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt University, Jean and Alexander Heard Library
Moderators and speaker
Library Technology Guides / lib-web-cats Annual Perceptions Survey
Library Journal Automation Marketplace Regular contact with principals of library
automation companies and projects Regular publishing commitments:
◦ Library Technology Reports◦ Smart Libraries Newsletter◦ Computers in Libraries
Research and Publishing activities
Track automation trends beyond North America
UK, Australia: comprehensive automation data on public and academic libraries
China, Taiwan: Most academics, working on publics
South America: building database on library automation
Interest in automation in the developing world
International perspective
http://www.librarytechnology.org Repository for library automation data
Expanding to include more international scope
Announcements and developments made by companies and organizations involved in library automation technologies
Library Technology Guides
Started building database in 1995 Most comprehensive resource for tracking
ILS and other library automation products Serves as a directory for general public Specialized tool for tracking ILS and other
automation products 40,825 Total libraries listed 377 Law Libraries listed
Lib-web-cats
Academic law libraries share the ILS of the broader institution◦ Few operate their own systems
Stand-alone law libraries gravitate toward fairly narrow slate of products
Data difficult to gather for libraries in law firms: typically behind corporate firewall
Seeking a comprehensive listing of US law libraries
ILS implementation trends for Law Libraries
Sophisticated clientele – emphasis on experienced researchers
Need for comprehensive and precise information tools Cost of errors or omissions high Complex collections of electronic and print Press the limits of cataloging, serials, and acquisitions
functionality in ILS Serials more prominent than monographs Electronic content concentrated in a small number of
delivery products◦ HeinOnline, Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis
Many boutique products with niche area content General Web content less of a threat to law libraries than to
public and academic libraries
Law Library Automation
Annual Industry report published in Library Journal:
2009: Investing in the future 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
LJ Automation System Marketplace
Industry Consolidation Abrupt transitions for major library automation
products Increased industry control by external financial
investors Uncomfortable level of product narrowing Open Source products and service companies
enter the competition A small contingent of founder-owned
companies continue to thrive New wave of companies based on open source
service and support
Upheavals in the library automation arena
Breeding, Marshall: Perceptions 2008 an international survey of library automation. http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2008.pl January 2009.
Demise of the traditional OPAC New genre of discovery interfaces
Conventional ILS less tenable◦Conceived around print inventory, difficult transition to mostly e-content
Increasing pressure for new innovations in automation solutions
Proliferation of products related to e-content management
Product and Technology Trends
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
Web 2.0 / Collaborative Computing
Open Source Software◦Alternative to traditionally licensed software
Open Systems ◦Software that doesn’t hold data hostage
Increasing need for enterprise integration
Opportunities for Openness
Explosive interest in Open Source driven by disillusionment with current vendors and increasing support of this software licensing model
Beginning to emerge as a practical option both in the ILS and discovery layer arenas
TOC (Total Cost of Ownership) varies relative to proprietary commercial model◦ Many libraries document substantial savings
Both open source and commercial software involve risk
Law libraries less involved in open source ILS than other segments
Open Source Alternatives
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
Sectors: Public, Academic, Schools Still a minority player, but gaining some ground
Open Source ILS enters the mainstream
Integrated Library Systems◦ Koha, Evergreen, OPALS, NewGenLib
Repositories◦ Dspace, Fedora, DuraCloud
Discovery Interfaces◦ Vufind◦ Blacklight◦ SOPAC (Social OPAC)◦ eXtensible Catalog
ILL ◦ Relais (?)
Open Source Library products
Some libraries moving from traditionally licensed products to open source products with commercial support plans
Disruption of library automation industry◦ new pressures on incumbent vendors to deliver
more innovation and to satisfy concerns for openness
Low-cost options may help moderate pricing of commercial products
New competition / More options
Impact of Open Source ILS
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.
More Open Systems
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?
Crowded Landscape of Information Providers on the Web
Urgent need for libraries to offer interfaces their users will like to use
Powerful search capabilities in tune with how the Web works today
Meet user expectations set by other Web destination
Maintain quality of searching in precision, predictability, and scope
Demand for compelling library interfaces
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
Inadequacy of ILS OPACs
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
Disjointed approach to information and service delivery
Widespread dissatisfaction with legacy OPACs. Many efforts toward next-generation discovery layer products.
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
Change underway
Online Catalog◦ Interface
conventions from an earlier Web era
◦ Scope: Tied to the ILS and its content domain
Discovery Layer◦ Modern interface
elements◦ Scope: aims to
address broad range of components that constitute library collections
Online Catalog vs Discovery Layer
Most vendors are deemphasizing their traditional catalogs
Separate discovery interface New-gen online catalog with features
borrowed from the discovery interface genre
OPACs – a dying breed
More comprehensive information discovery environments
Primary search tool that extends beyond 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
More than the “library catalog”
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.
Comprehensive Discovery Service
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
Web 2.0 Flavorings
Single 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
Interface Features / User Experience
Based on advanced search engines specifically designed for relevancy◦ Endeca, Lucene, FAST, BrainWare, etc
Web users expect relevancy ordered results◦ Items with strongest probability of interest should appear
first◦ Users tend not to delve deep into a result list◦ Good relevancy requires a sophisticated approach, including
objective matching criteria supplemented by social and relatedness factors.
Continued need for objective, comprehensive search techniques◦ Ability to select other search methods and sorting options –
browse, linked data, etc.
Relevancy Ranking
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
New Paradigm for search and navigation
“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
Query / Result Enhancement
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
The Ideal Scope Discovery Layer products
◦ Tags, user-supplied ratings and reviews◦ Leverage social networking interactions to assist
readers in identifying interesting materials: BiblioCommons
◦ Leverage use data for a recommendation service of scholarly content based on link resolver data: Ex Libris bX service
Social discovery
New-generation interface Harvested local content Vendor-supplied indexes of library content
◦ E-journals, databases, e-books◦ Book collections beyond local library collections
Pre-populated discovery services
Indexing the full corpus of information available globally Or at least major portions
Google aims to address all the world’s information Not quite comprehensive – partial harvesting of any given
resource Discovery Layer Products for libraries aim to address all
content collected by libraries: Print Remotely access electronic content: e-journals, e-books,
databases, licensed and open access. Local special collections: digital and print.
Addresses the comprehensive body of content held within library collections
Comprehensive, unified
Web scale discovery
Local discovery provides flexibility for libraries to create customized access to collections
Web-scale discovery emphasizes unified access and broad scope
Web-scale vs local discovery
Entering post-metadata search era Increasing opportunities to search the full contents
◦Google Library Print, Google Publisher, Open Content Alliance, government publications, 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”
Deep search
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
Beyond Discovery to Fulfillment / Delivery
New Generation Library Interfaces
Current Commercial and Open Source Products
AquaBrowser Ex Libris Primo Innovative Interfaces: Encore Serials Solutions: Summon (under development) Medialab Solutions: AquaBrowser SirsiDynix Enterprise The Library Corporation: LS2 PAC VUFind (open source) BiblioCommons eXtensible Catalog (under development)
Discovery Interface Products
Initial products focused on technology◦ AquaBrowser, Endeca, Primo, Encore, VUfind◦ Mostly locally-installed software
Current phase focused on pre-populated indexes that aim to deliver Web-scale discovery◦ Summon (Serials Solutions)◦ WorldCat Local (OCLC)◦ EBSCO Discovery Service (EBSCO)◦ Primo Central
Discovery product Trend
New England Law Library Consortium Consolidated search environment with
specialized content for law libraries HeinOnline, local catalogs, etc.
http://www.nellco.org/index.cfm?pageId=505&parentID=504
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/litaevents/litaforum2008/NELLCO.pdf
Partner with Index Data for software development and hosting
http://uss.indexdata.com/◦ Subscribers only -- Authentication required
NELLCO USS project
New Discovery Service – initial libraries now in production
Consolidated index harvested from many sources◦ ProQuest, Gale, Thompson Reuters (Web of Science),
LexisNexis, etc◦ 500,000,000 articles represented◦ Full-text search + Citations
Local catalog data harvested, real-time link to holdings
Other local repositories harvested Others available through metasearch
Summon from Serials Solutions
Agreement with OCLC for WorldCat data EBSCO Host interface and content Content from other publishers and providers
EBSCO Discovery Service
Repository of article-level indexes maintained and hosted by Ex Libris
Available to Primo sites without additional cost
Move more content from metasearch to local index
Primo Central
Existing service in pilot stage for new discovery service
WorldCat.org data + ArticleFirst (30 million articles)
Agreement with EBSCO to load EBSCOhost citation data into WorldCat
Pursuing agreements with additional content providers
WorldCat Local discovery service
No-cost option to FirstSearch subscribers No reclamation to reconcile local ILS with
WorldCat One ILS supported; must be among
supported products Program to expose thousands of libraries to
WorldCat Local as a discovery option
WorldCat Local quick start
Extend WorldCat Local to include◦ Circulation◦ Delivery◦ Acquisitions◦ License Management
Positioned as Web-scale, cloud computing model, cooperative library system
Pilot sites being finalized; general availability in 2010
WorldCat Local automation platform
Traditional Proprietary Commercial ILS◦ Millennium, Symphony, Polaris
Traditional Open Source ILS◦ Evergreen, Koha
Clean slate automation framework (SOA, enterprise-ready)◦ Ex Libris URM, OLE Project
Cloud-based automation system◦ WorldCat Local (+circ, acq, license management)
Competing Models of Library Automation
Beyond selecting one brand from an assortment of similar products
Several conceptually diverse options Companies and projects now competing on
innovation
A new phase of library automation