Working Toward the Next Generation of library Automation

1. Working Toward the Next Generation of library Automation Marshall BreedingDirector for Innovative Technologies and Research Vanderbilt University http://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/breeding http://www.librarytechnology.org/ Tuesday 28 August 2008 Technische Universteit Delft

2. Part I. Broad Industry and Product Trends

3. Library Technology Guides • Repository for library automation data • Lib-web-cats tracks 35,000 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

4. Recent Upheavals • Industry Consolidation continues • 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 mainstream Breeding, Marshall: Perceptions 2007 an international survey of library automation. http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2007.pl January 2008.

5. LJ Automation System Marketplace • Annual 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

6. 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.

7. Library Automation M&A History

8. Internationalization • Many large companies extending their geographic reach • Ex Libris – Based in Israel • Civica – Based in the United Kingdom • SirsiDynix – Based in the United States • Innovative Interfaces – Based in the United States

9. Broad Industry Trends • Fewer number of larger companies • Consolidation of product offerings • Internationalization: strong opportunities for systems with strong multilingual capabilities. • Local companies challenged by global companies • Strong interest in open source alternatives • Overall R&D Focused on fewer new products

10. OCLC in the ILS arena? • Increasingly overlapped with library automation activities • WorldCat Local recently announced • Penetrating deeper into local libraries • Library-owned cooperative on a buying binge of automation companies: • Openly Informatics • Fretwell-Downing Informatics • Sisis Informationssysteme • PICA (now 100%) • DiMeMa (CONTENTdm) • ILS companies concerned about competing with a non-profit with enormous resources and the ability to shift costs.

11. Product and Technology Trends • Innovation below expectations • Conventional ILS less tenable • Proliferation of products related to e-content management • New genre of discovery-layer interfaces

12. 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

13. Part II. A Mandate for Openness

14. Opportunities for Openness • Open Source • Alternative to traditionally licensed software • Open Systems • Software that doesn’t hold data hostage

15. 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

16. A result of industry turmoil • Disruptions and business decisions to narrow options have fueled the open source movement • Benefit to libraries in having additional options • Traditionally licensed and open source ILS alternatives will coexist in the ILS arena

17. 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

18. Open Source ILS options • Koha • Commercial support from LibLime • Evergreen • Commercial support from Equinox Software • OPALS • Commercial support from Media Flex • NewGenLib • Open Source ILS for the developing world

19. 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 2008 http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=13134

20. Impact of Open Source ILS • Library automation industry cannot be complacent • 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

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. A Continuum of Openness

24. Closed Systems End User Interfaces: No programmable Access to the system. Captive to the user Interfaces supplied by the developer Programmer access: Acquisitions Cataloging Circulation Functional modules: Data Stores: Staff Interfaces:

25. Standard RDBM Systems Database administrators can access data stores involved with the system: Read-only? Read/write? Developer shares database schema End User Interfaces: Programmer access: Acquisitions Cataloging Circulation Functional modules: Data Stores: Staff Interfaces:

26. Open Source Model End User Interfaces: Programmer access: Acquisitions Cataloging Circulation All aspects of the system available to inspection and modification. Functional modules: Data Stores: Staff Interfaces:

27. Open API Model End User Interfaces: Programmer access: Core application closed. Third party developers code against the published APIs or RDBMS tables. Acquisitions Cataloging Circulation Functional modules: Published APIs Data Stores: Staff Interfaces:

28. Open Source / Open API Model End User Interfaces: Programmer access: Core application closed. Third party developers code against the published APIs or RDBMS tables. Acquisitions Cataloging Circulation Functional modules: PublishedAPIs Data Stores: Staff Interfaces:

29. 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

30. Universal open APIs? • Some progress on API to support discovery layer interfaces, but no comprehensive framework yet. • Many industry protocols work like APIs: • Z39.50, SRU/W, NCIP, OAI-PMH, OpenURL, etd • It would be ideal if there were an open set of APIs that were implemented by all automation system products. • Third party components and add-ons would then work across all products. • DLF ILS-Discovery Interface protocol. Targets interoperability between ILS and new genre of interfaces • AKA: Berkeley Accords

31. Opportunity out of the Upheavals • More options • Commercial + Open Source • More vendors • New open source support companies provide new competition • More library involvement • Libraries re-energized to make significant contributions to the body of library automation software • Traditionally licensed and open source automation systems will co-exist. We have an interest in the success of both alternatives.

32. Next-Generation Library Interfaces

33. Troubling statistic Where do you typically begin your search for information on a particular topic? College Students Response: • 89% Search engines (Google 62%) • 2% Library Web Site (total respondents -> 1%) • 2% Online Database • 1% E-mail • 1% Online News • 1% Online bookstores • 0% Instant Messaging / Online Chat OCLC. Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources (2005) p. 1-17.

34. Usage + / - from 2005 to 2007 +5% -10% +30% +14% “The unfortunate exception is the use of library Web sites; usage has dropped from 2005 to 2007.” +19% Source: Sharing, Privacy and Trust in our Networked World. OCLC 2007

35. 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?

36. The Competition

37. The best Library OPAC?

38. Better?

39. Better?

40. 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

41. 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

42. Disjointed approach to information and service delivery • 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

43. 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

44. Next-Generation Interfaces: Scope and Concepts

45. Working toward a new generation of library interfaces • Redefinition of the “library catalog” • Traditional notions of the library catalog questioned • Better information delivery tools • More powerful search capabilities • More elegant presentation

46. Redefining the “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

47. Comprehensive Search 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.

48. 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

49. The Ideal Scope for Next Gen Library Interfaces • 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?

50. Next Generation Interfaces: Functions and Features