By Andrew K. Pace
American Libraries Columnist
andrew_pace@ncsu.edu
By Andrew K. Pace
American Libraries Columnist
andrew_pace@ncsu.edu
Head of Systems, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh.
Column for March 2005
This report from the Exhibit Hall of the ALA Midwinter Meeting will try to stick to themes, rather than verbose details about specific vendor offerings. It���s affirming to see so many of the promises from last summer���s Annual Conference in Orlando come to fruition on the vendor floor in Boston. This column could have easily been filled with those fruits, punctuated with the flavor of so many colorful press releases. Press packets were filled to overflowing this winter with some grand (and grandiose) announcements.
Making sense of new products, vendor changes, alliances, and acquisitions is a daunting task for a single column. This month I will highlight three themes in evidence at the Exhibit Hall.
Who isn���t nostalgic once in a while? Luddites long for the days before computers, technophiles wax poetic about the days of 64K hard drives and 300-baud modems, and librarians everywhere recall those mythical library patrons and researchers who knew exactly how to use a library and were forever grateful for the bountiful resources provided for their consumption.
But nostalgia and technology are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I���m calling one trend the nostalgic application of library automation. Rather than introducing a dozen new products with bells and whistles, several vendors are going back to basics.
Raising the bar on user-centered design, Endeavor Information Systems announced a new usability initiative intended to create clear and simple interfaces for public and staff users of the Voyager ILS. As part of an ongoing collaboration with their parent company, they are capitalizing on Elsevier���s User Centered Design Team and building on the experience gained from usability testing on Encompass, Endeavor hopes to improve both the end-user experience and patron satisfaction.
Arguably first to market with a reinvented OPAC, TLC proudly demonstrated its own improvements to the traditional online catalog. Technology from search and discovery software companies MediaLab and Endeca are completely reshaping the look and feel of the traditional online catalog for a more graphically oriented and commercially savvy patron base, who have come to expect more from an online resource discovery experience. VTLS has also announced a partnership with MediaLab to distribute Aquabrowser as part of its Vectors portal. Sirsi launched Rooms 2.0���revamped as an "enterprise portal solution"���for one-stop library resources and services.
Not to be outdone in the OPAC arena, several online databases are also rethinking their searches. Several features of faceted searching���the ability to narrow or sharpen searches using different elements from a record���s metadata���can be found in several of Elsevier���s new product offerings, including Engineering Village 2, the free Scirus search engine (www.scirus.com), and Elsevier���s latest offering, Scopus. Endeavor���s new usability engineering will certainly incorporate some of the functionality found in other Elsevier products. One wonders how long it will be before the Elsevier name is used interchangeably for Endeavor.
Of course, search and discovery is only the first step in the traditional library experience. Self-checkout and RFID have gone from marginal technologies to mainstream in just a few years. Self-checkout stations certainly don���t look like they used to. Bulky and clumsy hardware has been replaced by ergonomic and aesthetically pleasing machines like the new V-Series system from 3M.
Notable on the floor were Libramation���s stackable multiformat self-checkout stations, with intuitive interfaces and quick receipting. Libramation is also reportedly working with Comprise Technologies to devise a method for online payment from self-checkout stations. Comprise���s SAM continues to integrate computer-session management, cash handling, and print-recovery systems in a comprehensive access-management system.
TLC is also getting into better PC management with its distribution of Reclaim It (from Leapfrog Software), an alternative to Symantec���s Ghost software for system-image recovery, an increasing problem for libraries battling corrupt files, spyware, and malicious internet attacks on public computers.
Bibliotheca, the largest RFID company in Europe, is enjoying some success with its newer BiblioChip for CD and DVD media, as well as with its partnerships in North America, namely with Bibliomondo, Dynix, and Sirsi. Similarly, Checkpoint Systems has introduced DiscMate for securing and circulating DVDs and CDs. Multiple format checkouts are no longer the barrier to self-checkout stations that they used to be.
Make no mistake, there���s still a lot of new���and newly packaged���content out there. While we tend to think of library automation as a way to enable access to content, the lines between technology and content are increasingly blurring.
Following its efforts to reorganize, Swets Information Services has expanded its content with several new publisher partnerships that include Peter Publishers, PNG, New Statesman, and others. They have also branded Openly Informatics��� 1Cate OpenURL resolver as SwetsWise Linker, improving Swets��� links to local library holdings.
Thomson Scientific���s ISI Web of Knowledge is also expanding. Its coverage now includes Zoological Record, as well as direct links to over 800,000 articles in the Highwire Free Archive. The aforementioned Scopus is also getting a lot of attention from academic librarians. Touted as the ���world���s largest abstract and indexing database,��� Scopus is a direct challenge to not only ISI���s Web of Knowledge, but to several small abstract-and-index providers on the market.
In a major power play for content, Google announced that it will partner with Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Michigan, Oxford University, and the New York Public Library to digitize portions of their holdings. Google���s ambitious plan to digitize millions of volumes over the next several years has sparked more conversation than there is room for in this column. But while Google made its mark on the conference in Boston, more interesting is the effect Google Print has had on library reaction to e-book content. Still hotly debated less than a year ago, e-books now present themselves as the sine qua non of the library collection. Several companies seem poised to capitalize on���lest they be overshadowed by���the grandiose plans of Google.
Ebrary can boast over 500 library clients in 60 countries, while also adding 20 new publishing partners and boosting usage of its content 200% in 2004 over the previous year. Along the way, Ebrary has created some very good technology that will serve as the foundation for a new product, code-named Isaac. The beta product being tested by several libraries will serve as a server platform for any and all pdf-format documents that an institution cares to provide access to���from Ebrary content itself to journal pre- and post-prints, and even institutional repositories. Isaac is slated for release in the third quarter of 2005.
The American Council of Learned Societies had a presence in Boston this year to support its fledgling History E-book Project. The project, which includes digitizing over 1,000 books in various fields of history, was started with Mellon grant funding. This major initiative deserves much more attention than it has gotten, not only for its high-quality content, but also for its humanities subject focus, an area that has received less attention in the e-book space to date.
Ebooks Corporation���s E-book Library (EBL) made its second floor showing in the exhibit hall, touting even more content in the Science, Technology, and Medicine subject areas. Cooperative deals with Dawson���s Books and Blackwell���s Book Service makes EBL very attractive to academic libraries wishing to add a simultaneous user model to their e-book repertoire. Overdrive has also expanded its e-book content by offering audio books from Blackstone Audible Book, which distributes over 2,500 spoken-word titles.
OCLC���s NetLibrary also continues to grow in use, titles, and available formats. NetLibrary now offers over 80,000 titles from 500 publishers. In addition to offering new audiobook titles from Recorded Books, Net-Library has also expanded its alliance with Baker and Taylor by making its titles available from the B&T acquisitions platform.
Despite the altruistic nature of the library profession, making a profit still drives the vendor world, and always will. This column regularly addresses the integrated library system marketplace and its dedication to expanding its market with new products and services. Some 25 years ago, there was a lot more entrepreneurial spirit sparking innovation; today, much of the impetus for new products and services comes from a desired return on capital investment in the ILS market, which often occurs through partnerships and acquisitions. Innovation will continue from ILS vendors, but librarians must have a much more critical eye to discern exactly who created the technology they purchase.
GIS has joined the data-mining craze with a new suite of reporting services provided through the Microsoft SQL database in Polaris. The embedded reporting capabilities will be available with Polaris version 3.2 due out early this year. GIS is also doing its part to integrate wireless in public libraries with Wireless Access Manager (WAM). Using a number of ILS systems other than Polaris for authentication, WAM authenticates users, measures bandwidth usage, and prevents after-hours access for single and multibranch wireless access providers.
When it comes to managing some of libraries��� most expensive content���namely journals, e-journals, and electronic databases���it appears that electronic resource management (ERM) is coming of age in 2005. Still enjoying its first-to-market status, Innovative Interfaces has introduced version 2.0 of its ERM solution. The Library of Congress is Innovative���s latest high-profile customer. But Innovative is no longer alone in the market: Ex Libris has introduced Verde. Sleek and functional like its companion products, SFX and Metalib, Verde extends the ERM functional requirements as set out by the Digital Library Federation (DLF) by extending use to consortia and building in new cost-analysis tools. Verde can stand alone or be integrated with the SFX, Metalib, and Aleph databases.
Endeavor has already sold its ERM solution, Meridian���slated for a June 2005 general release���to two of its library customers. Endeavor is partnering with Cognos, an information management company, to integrate reporting capabilities into Meridian. The Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries is also expanding its offering of Gold Rush, a centralized digital registry of databases and e-journals, to small-to-medium-sized academic and public libraries that have expressed an obvious need to manage electronic resources. Though not officially launched, Dynix is also promising a fully functional ERM system in the near future. EBSCOhost and Serials Solutions���who both offer e-journal subscription and A���Z list services���are also well poised to offer hosted ERM solutions in 2005. These less comprehensive, yet lower cost, solutions will likely be an essential part of ERM for smaller libraries.
Sirsi has acquired Docutek, furthering its goal of integrating comprehensive library technology into its product suite. Docutek is best known for its electronic course reserve product and its virtual reference software. Docutek will be a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirsi, maintaining its base of operations and personnel, and reporting to the Sirsi board and its CEO, Patrick Sommers. Following a growing trend���Elsevier���s purchase of Endeavor and Isacsoft���s acquisition of Bibliomondo���Sirsi and Docutek have mutual customers without any competing products.
Coming off the success of 23 international sales of Virtua and the Fastrac RFID system, VTLS has made a number of announcements in 2005. VTLS has chosen TDNet for its link-resolver technology. Partnering with one of the leaders of digital library development, VTLS and the University of Virginia will work to develop Vital, VTLS���s client software for Fedora, an open source repository software.
Combining the transactional data of more than 300 North American library systems with collections valued at a combined $1 billion, the GeoLib program at Florida State University and Sirsi are partnering with participating libraries to create the Normative Data Project (NDP). The goals of NDP include linking transactional data in public libraries to geographic and demographic data on communities served by libraries, empowering library decision makers with real-world data. The NDP data, available in the second quarter of 2005, will certainly help libraries optimize operations with a view of detailed national data never before available. More details are available at www.librarynormativedata.info.
With a conference floor filled with bells and whistles over the last few years, libraries should be very happy with the return to "doing simple things well" exhibited by so many vendors. Moreover, recognition that Google has raised the bar not only on search and retrieval technology but also on content will inspire libraries to look up to that bar, rather than pass under it without noticing. Finally, that libraries, their vendors, and their content providers can still innovate is without question���how we will do it in the next five years is up to all of us.