2009

The Open Library Environment Project

Slide illustrates the KSBMcCormick 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.

Screenshot of tweet pollHmmm. Completely different lineup than advertised.
Doing the tweet poll. Thanking OLE and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Research in Information Technology Program.

What is OLE? Carla says, “the project will produce an ILS that is better suited to work with the workflow of libraries” (and will play well with other software and projects. Not just open source, COMMUNITY source. Why OLE? ILS now are too expensive and too inefficient for what libraries need to do now. Libraries need to be able to mod the technologies to adapt quickly. ILS systems don’t work with commercial systems for education and finance.
We want mobile, we want connected, we don’t want archaic.

The OLE Framework:
Flexibility
Community Ownership
Service Oriented Architecture
Enterprise-level Integration
Efficiency
Sustainability.
In poll, FLEXIBILITY ran HIGHEST for what is critical for the ‘future of your library’.
Hey. They had workshops. 11 Regional workshops. And webcasts.
They have developed a scope document here.

Robert says: “Slowed down by consolidation in Library ILS Marketplace.” Koha was not ready for them and if the big three did not have what was needed, oh well…least progress made is ERM components.
Community Source Aspect
Fits the academic model, and want to build the community up front, and then build the product to support the community.

KUALI Why not spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a system that does what you need instead of one that doesn’t. Institutions don’t like to be locked in by vendors.

Beth says, “SOA”. Interesting point is that academics need the curation and management of internally produced content to be integral. And why is there not just one system, and integrated, for say, student info. We should be taking advantage of already installed financial and course management systems. End result, more secure data, more efficiency.
Define SOA Applications should do it once, and reach across the network to other processes. Instead of programming for each system, build it (a service) once and let other apps use it–example is a purchase order system.
Shared Processes which might need services. How do you find out what they are? BPM. (Business Process Model)
John says, “Theory and Reality”. How are we going to build this thing? 30 months is the build time that they have. They are going to have to build on existing good work, and Kuali has much of what they need. I really think this part should be an entire program, exposing the modularity and scalability of using Kuali. They will start with ERM.
Risks of Participation include failure to achieve consensus. Can they acquire the resources to do this affordably? Indications are that pricing can be made very competitive. They must also build a sufficiently large vendor services community. So interested academics willing to stake should open discussions with the presenters.