I attended this session on Saturday morning. For those not familiar with OLE it is a project to build an open ILS using service oriented architecture and business modelling. The presenters were Robert H. McDonald (Indiana Univ.), Carlen Ruschoff (Univ. of Maryland), Beth Forrest-Warner (Univ. of Kansas), and John Little (Duke Univ.). The project is just finishing its planning phase and its draft document can be accessed at their website oleproject.org While the end product hopes to be an open source ILS right now the project is formed as a community source entity – like an open source but with members that have made committments and thus formed a community dedicated to the project, unlike an open source where one main player hopes others will join in and form a community. It seems to me that the community source approach ensures something will come out of the project. Some of…
Month: July 2009
Science Fiction and Fantasy: Uncovering the Modern World of Information, Society, and Technology through Metaphor and Imagination
This 20th anniversary meeting of the “Imaginary Interest Group” was a well-run affair featuring free books, entertaining stories, and good-humored pandering towards librarians.
Marshall's Top Tech Trends for ALA Annual, Summer 2009
These trends are also posted on Library Technology Guides. Discovery Interfaces Expand Scope The genre of Discovery Interfaces has been an ongoing trend for the last few years. These interfaces aim to replace the traditional, stodgy OPAC with a modern interface, delivering library content through an interface more consistent with what patrons experience elsewhere on the Web. They offer visually appealing design, relevancy ranking, faceted navigation, and other standard Web navigation techniques. These products offer an attractive replacement for the online catalogs delivered with the ILS. The initial phase of this genre of products delivered a new interface. Yet, they remained largely tied to the content managed in the ILS, despite the ever increasing investments in electronic content. In many cases, a federated search component would aim to supplement the primarily print content of the ILS with a clumsy mechanism for accessing e-journals and database. We’re now seeing a new…
LiveBlog for Top Tech Trends 2009
Live Streaming by Ustream.TV Join us in person at the Intercontinental Grand Ballroom, Sunday afternoon at 1:30, or remotely via CoverItLive below. Top Tech Trends, ALA 2009 Pop-out RSS
Net Neutrality and Its Implications for Libraries
LITA Technology and Access Committee Program MCP W-184 Gregory A. Jackson, University of Chicago; Carrie Lowe, OITP for ALA; Clifford Lynch, Director of the CNI  Clifford Lynch tells Cool History. Thinks Net Neutrality is a relatively new phrase, says it happened within last 10 years–but is an old idea. Monopolies, natural or otherwise. Once upon a time, there was a thing called the Bell System aka “Ma Bell”.
The Open Library Environment Project
McCormick Place West, W-196a Building an ILS for Service Oriented Architecture Structure Beth Forrest-Warner, University of Kansas; Robert H. McDonald, Indiana University; John Little, Duke University; Carlen Ruschoff, University of Maryland. Really, this has as much of a positive implication for public and special libraries as it does for academics, especially as regards financial and HR management integration (think payroll and acquisitions). Not initially, but wait and watch for the trickle-down.
Digital Library Hardware Showcase
McCormick Place West, W-180 Digital Library Technology Interest Group
Truly, I vote this the presentation most likely to make libraries say, “Hey, I think I will outsource my scanning to Clemson University”. Loving care is evident in the selection, installation, and use of their equipment.
Put on by the Digital Library Technology Interest Group
Creating Library Web Services: Mashaps and APIs
Title of the Preconference: Creating Library Web Services: Mashaps and APIs Presenter: Karen Coombs The pre-conference session began shortly after 9AM. Ms. Karen Coombs introduced herself and refreshed participants memory about what “web services are?†and why we need Mashaps and APIs, and what we can do with them and how they work. She presented sample. “An application-programming interface (API) is a set of programming instructions and standards for accessing a Web-based software application or Web tool. A software company releases its API to the public so that other software developers can design products that are powered by its service.†Mashaps and APIs both bring different and disparate data together and enhance the accessibility of an existing source of data, and improvs usability and user interfaces, and make web pages more dynamic and engaging. They allow the users (patrons) to make informed decision about the information the want or need….
Live, in your browser! Top Tech Trends 2009
If you are unable to attend the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago later this week (or if you’re just in the next room), please join the Top Tech Trends 2009 panel on the LITA blog via CoverItLive. Sign up for a reminder below. We want to know what you want to know! Please vote in the topics poll.
Top Tech Trends Topic Poll
The Top Technology Trends committee is gearing up for the discussion at annual, and we’d like your help in picking the topics. What issues would you like to hear the trendsters discuss? Please take a moment and cast your vote! http://poll.fm/11sb2 This year’s discussion will be held Sunday, July 12, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom of the Intercontinental.