Transcript Information Technology in Academic Libraries

Technology in Academic Libraries
TOOLS, PROCESSES, AND
PRODUCTS
Technology Topics
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 Systems & Methods
 Resources & Services
 Devices & Device Related Issues
 Social Networking & User-Generated Content
 Policy Issues
Purpose of Technology
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 The ends?
 Increased productivity for both user and staff
 24/7/365 access and availability
 The means?
 Application of evolving technologies evidenced by
modernization
 transformation
 decentralization

Life Cycle
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We employ life cycles to implement and manage IT
as an infrastructure:
 Planning
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Strategic and long term plans
Technology plan
 Budgeting
 Initial Costs
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Cost models and financing, such as buy or lease?
Recurring Costs
Life Cycle
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 Investigation
 Negotiation/Acquisition
 Installation
 Training
 Evaluation
 Does it work?
 How do we know?
 Upgrade, migrate, or replace
Life Cycle
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 Operations
 Staffing
Increasingly skilled
 Internal relationships with other campus information technology
providers
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Licensing of access and availability

Use of proxies
 Accountability
 How do you measure and report a “hit”?
Life Cycles
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 The most important aspect of the life cycle is the
ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency
of the system
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must be aware of when it is time to consider upgrade, migrate,
replace or abandon
Keep a technology beyond its usefulness and you lose both
effectiveness and efficiency

As a result: accountability and credibility suffers
IT: Modernize and Transform
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 Modernization and transformation
 important and visible concepts
 Modernization
 Use of computers to replicate tasks


such as acquisitions, cataloging, circulation
Idea is to improve efficiencies
 Transformation
 Fundamentally altering the nature of the organization and/or
the services it provides
History of Technology
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IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES
Historical Overview: 1960s-70s
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 Libraries offered some of the first public access to
technology:
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Dummy terminals connected to mainframes which
supported workflow of backroom operations or created
systems of local inventory
Development of databases that could store massive amounts
of information centrally which could be accessed worldwide.

Dialog becomes first commercial online database in 1972
Historical Overview: 1970s-80s
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•
Local inventory systems built on ordering, acquisition, and
cataloging of materials= move to integrated library systems
 Commercial development of library systems
 Library systems became “off-the-shelf”, using parameter tables
to locally customize systems to modernize applications, such
as circulation
Historical Overview 1980s
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Minis and Microcomputers
Use of CD-ROMs for bibliographic data by a librarian (Murphy
– BiblioFile)
Networking
OS appears – UNIX
 Serial internal from muxes to terminals
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Computer labs became common on college campuses
Productivity software leading to office suites
IT: Transformation
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 1990s: Transformation Begins
 Transformation
 Fundamentally altering the nature of the organization through
these capabilities
 Examples:
Providing user access to full text content stored remotely from the
library
 Distance education opportunities

IT: Transformation
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 Microcomputers and supermicros
 Now called multiprocessors
 Internet to colleges via NSF grants
 GUIs (Macs and Windows)
 Web browsers (Mosaic  Firefox)
 ISPs (dialups such as AOL)
 Full text availability
IT: Transformation
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 E-everything (books, journals, reserves, etc.)
 Wireless networks
 Mobile ubiquitous phones
 Client/servers
 Simple definition: client requests and server provides over
standard communication protocols
IT: Transformation
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 Hand helds
 Digital libraries
 Customized access
 My library portal
 Movement of reference into virtual
Transformation = application of learning/user
centered technology
IT: Transformation
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We could not achieve transformation
without:
 Standards
NISO Z39.2: Bibliographic Information Interchange
Format (MARC)
 NISO Z39.50: Information Retrieval Application Service
(interoperability)
 TCP/IP: Terminal Control Program/Internet Protocol
 HTTP
 SGML (HTML and XML)

IT: Transformation
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 Integrated Library System
 All modules share a single bibliographic database
 Share a common command language
 Changes in one module are immediately reflected in all other
modules which use that information
 The OPAC is an example of a transformational
application to “user centered” technology.
IT: Decentralization
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 Movement from automating staff and backroom
functions to providing direct services to end users
through technology
 Reduce staff mediation and replace with end user
empowerment
IT: Decentralization
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As a result of decentralization:
 The library is “virtual”
Resources available 24/7/365
 Not the same as a digital library

 Reduced or, in some instances, eliminated barriers
and boundaries of geography and time
Distance education (Asynchronous)
 Digital reference
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IT: Decentralization
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Decentralization also impacts:
 Instruction technology
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Becomes much more complicated
Transformational to learning and teaching
 Information literacy
 Skills are needed by users to effectively access, retrieve AND
evaluate information, especially its quality
IT: Decentralization
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 Authentication
 Need to authenticate remote users to comply with information
vendor licenses
 Often done through proxy servers, many mounted on ILS (use
of patron records)
 Security
 Application of firewalls
 Why? To ensure continuity of services to end users
Times, They Are A Changing …
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 Because of modernization, transformation and
decentralization, the academic library has changed,
evidenced in part by its:
organizational structure
 staffing

fear of the unknown and uncertainty
 position descriptions

communication methods
 services offered (remote access; proxies, etc.)
 cooperation with other information services
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IT: Change
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 Management issues and challenges must be dealt
with or we will become extinct
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Accountability and evaluation
Assessment of student learning outcomes
Perceptions:
University administrators really think that everything is on the
Web
 Also think that libraries are becoming ghost towns
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It trends & Challenges
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LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
Trends and Challenges
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 Systems and Methods
 Catalog- Next generation catalogs
http://sccl.bibliocommons.com/
 http://cat.danburylibrary.org/
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Discovery-to-delivery tools
Customization/personalization
 Devices
 Smartphones/handhelds/ebooks
 Location-based services (privacy issues)
 Pushing content to mobile devices
 Designing (webpages, apps, etc) for mobile devices
Trends and Challenges
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 Resources, Publishing, & Services
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Libraries as publishers
Digitization opportunities and challenges
OpenURL (connecting to accessible material)
Metadata harvesting
Metasearching
http://www.dogpile.com
 BC Library Holmes
(http://library.bc.edu/F?local_base=BC_CATALOG)
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Automated Reference
Semantic Web
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Hakia (http://hakia.com)
Gaming Technology
Trends and Challenges
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 Social Media and User-Generated Content
 Preservation of new media (end-user content)
 Citizen journalism
 Participation- e.g. tagging library content
Trends and Challenges
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 Policy Issues
 Digital divide
 Privacy is dead (?)
 Open source/content/access
 Copyright
 Self-publishing
 Openness, sharing content
 DRM
The Future
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 The so what: focus has, and will continue to shift
from the place (the library) to providing services
directly to the clientele (in anyplace)
IT is Cyclical ….
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 Modernize
Transformation
then
 We modernize a transformation

an example: PDFs over full text ASCII
 That, in turns, leads to another transformation.
Therefore, the ultimate
future
is:
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 Virtual Reality
 Sit at home and physically browse a book remotely stored
 Eliminates the criticism “well, I can’t read it in bed …”
 Contextual experience
 3D reference chats
 We may never leave home ……. except for the need
of the “human moment”
IT: System
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 Information technology is a means to an end, not
the end in itself. It is a tool to improve
efficiencies and to increase effectiveness