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Hot Conference, Cool Technology
Head of Systems, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh. Column for August 2004 It would be easy to overplay the puns or double-entendres about the heat in Orlando during the ALA Annual Conference, but I could not help thinking that if one could not stand the heat, spending some time in the vendor’s kitchen that is the exhibit hall was sure to add some cool relief. With literally hundreds of booths dedicated to hardware, software, or some sort of product that requires network access, to be thorough I figured I could spend approximately 45 seconds in each booth and report back to the readers of American Libraries. Instead, I decided to group the vendor floor into six trends, some of them obvious, others in their infancy but on their way to maturity with almost too much alacrity. If there’s a theme to the trends, it is resources management—a good area on which to concentrate during an era of state-of-the-art technology and shrinking budgets. From electronic resources and digital images to protection of computers and physical materials, good technical stewardship will prove to be the requisite skill for both the library administrator and the library technologist. Managing electronic resourcesIf last year’s hot product was federated searching, then 2004 belongs to electronic resources management (ERM) systems. With dozens of portal applications and journal title aggregator services to choose from, the public display of electronic resources is well controlled in the 21st century. The technical services management of these resources, however, still resembles herding cats. All types of libraries are grappling with how the workflow surrounding electronic databases and journals—license management, renewal, legal use, access management, and collection development decisions—depends on usable data about our electronic resources. Generally speaking, the traditional integrated library system has not been the place to keep this data. In 2001, a small group of academic librarians, led by Tim Jewell (University of Washington) and Adam Chandler (Cornell University) began creating specifications for a system to manage electronic subscriptions and their associated titles. Later, the Digital Library Federation formally tasked the group to deliver formal specifications. The specifications were developed specifically for vendors, so that they could create a system that could replace numerous heterogeneous homegrown systems. In a nearly unprecedented move, nearly every large automation vendor has used the specifications created by librarians. Innovative Interfaces wins the “first to market” prize for its development of the electronic resources management module. The firm is also well ahead of the pack, with sales to over 60 libraries, including Cornell and the University of Washington. Dynix, Endeavor, Ex Libris, Sirsi, and VTLS are all rapidly developing systems based on the DLF specifications. Subscription agents, middleware providers, and secondary publishers are also joining the fray, as evident by product offerings from Harrassowitz, Serials Solutions (ProQuest), and EBSCO, to name a few. However, the goals of an ERM system are less clear than those of federated searching. Talking to various vendors, I could not help concluding that they are all desperate to distinguish themselves with a product they do not fully understand. Good development partners, initial adherence to the DLF specifications, and innovative thinking about ERM systems (like the inclusion of print periodical information) will be the key distinctions in this fledgling market that could very well be the Trojan horse product that ILS vendors have been seeking in order to get their products and technology inside the gates of libraries using competitors’ products. Digital asset managementERM systems are almost exclusively about managing licensed third-party resources. But libraries know that their own local collections could potentially change the nature of online collections. Digital asset management systems are designed to organize and display digital content of various media types. The content is usually locally owned and controlled. So, if managing e-journals isn’t enough to keep most librarians up at night, then digital asset management will make libraries appreciate the implied acronym. From special collections digitization projects and academic institutional repositories to obituary databases and local visual resources, digital collections will force all types of libraries to seek products other than the traditional ILS for support. And like their efforts with ERM systems, vendors are racing to be best on the market. Described as both digital asset management (DAM) and digital object management (DOM) systems, some are offered as stand-alone solutions, while others are loosely integrated with traditional systems. Regardless, the common denominator is freedom from the constraints of the MARC record, and attempts to adhere to newer standards, such as XML, the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH), Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standards (METS), and JPEG2000. The extent of a vendor’s awareness of this alphabet soup of standards will indicate the maturity of its DAM system. Most of the big ILS vendors have gotten into the DAM game, most notably Dynix (Horizon Digital Library), Endeavor (ENCompass), Ex Libris (DigiTool), Innovative Interfaces (MetaSource), Sirsi (Hyperion), and VTLS (VITAL). Metasearch/portalsFederated search, or metasearching, already received detailed coverage in my June/July column. Suffice it to say that the marketplace is now mature, and vendors are turning their attention to new and improved versions and the weightier issues that plague most of their products (personalization, merging and deduplication of search results, etc.). Short of the development and adoption of a newer standard that will lower the bar on broadcasting searches to non-Z39.50 targets, several companies will continue to make a cottage industry out of so-called “connector files.” Make no mistake, the maintenance and upkeep of these http parsers, or screen-scrapers, is no small task—simple yet tedious and never-ending work. MuseGlobal, Ex Libris, and WebFeat maintain their front-running positions in the connector file niche market. All or some of MuseGlobal’s technology has been licensed by several other metasearch vendors, including Endeavor, Innovative, and VTLS. Learning management systemsWith librarians poised between information and knowledge, libraries have begun to question how they can integrate learning management systems (a.k.a. e-learning)—software that delivers and manages online courses—into their daily operations. As alternative portals to academic information, software solutions such as Blackboard and WebCT are often inaccurately perceived as threats to library information gateways. Moreover, the inadequacies of integrated course reserves modules—similar to the inadequacies of MARC for digital assets or serials modules for ERM—have shown that the traditional ILS is (yet again) unable to support the management of learning resources. But in the spirit of “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” several ILS vendors have begun partnerships to integrate LMS applications into their systems. The partnerships are too numerous to mention, but the trend is notable since integration of LMS information could conceivably relegate course reserve modules to the legacy status that most of them deserve. On the other hand, standalone course reserve systems (Docutek remains one of the leaders) will likely see increased integration of course web management systems into their product offerings. Virtual reference services, like those provided by Tutor.com, and live homework help could also radically change the way libraries are used to providing service. RFID on the riseWhile the privacy and ethics debates will certainly continue for years to come, libraries are beginning to grasp the advanced technology available through radio frequency identification (RFID). Library use of RFID would include placing small ID chips in library collections to facilitate self-checkout, aid item routing for reshelving, and streamline inventory control. Once an expensive pipe dream, RFID for libraries is one of the most rapidly maturing technologies in the industry. Biblioteca, one of the leading European RFID technology providers, has made inroads in the United States in the last six months. Checkpoint remains the leader in North American installations, with 3M rapidly developing new business models for RFID technology. In 2003, VTLS created a new division, VTRAX, to exclusively market and sell its Fastrac RFID solution, which implements Gemplus RFID tags. Besides the privacy concerns (which in my opinion are largely overblown), the biggest barrier of entry into the RFID market has been the price of the RFID chips, which has hovered for a year or so around 60–90 cents per chip. This price is falling rapidly, however, and measured in cost savings for inventory control and security as well as patron service, RFID technology can seriously enhance a library’s stewardship of its resources. PC managementIf there was a booth on the vendor floor with a new or mysterious name that sounded technical, chances were good that the exhibitor was peddling a PC management system. While some of these companies have been around for a while, others seem to have sprung up overnight or have added PC management to their IT repertoire. PC management is a growing industry, especially for public libraries that need to maintain kiosk or time-limited access to their computers. Most companies also offer Internet filtering or security patching. GIS recently also announced a centralized product for managing wireless access in the library. Geac is backAfter a noticeable absence in the North American market, Geac was back in the exhibit hall with a completely revamped ILS called Vubis Smart. With steady growth and several successive profitable quarters, Geac has decided that the time is right to introduce its newest solution to North America. The re-engineered ILSTLC, which for the last several years has developed and supported two systems—Library Solution for small-to-mid-sized libraries, and CARL Solution for its larger public libraries and consortia—has introduced CARL X, its next-generation product for larger libraries. No longer constrained by the older technology in its large system application, CARL X is a re-engineered version of CARL Solution. Dynix has also undergone several re-engineering projects, which will culminate with the release of the new Horizon 8.0. Although it’s difficult to predict before the product’s full release (late 2004 to early 2005), Dynix and TLC have raised the bar with re-engineered systems, something not attempted since DRA’s Taos, which was overshadowed by the Sirsi buyout and eventually abandoned. TLC and Dynix will certainly go head-to-head with each other, as well as marketing their newer systems as alternatives to Sirsi, Innovative, and that other up-and-comer, VTLS. VTLS, TLC, and Dynix—one small, one medium, and one large company that the competition and library customers should be watching closely in the next few years. VTLS winning combinationsFinally proving that it’s serious about the academic market, VTLS successfully signed New York University’s Division of Libraries. With Carl Grant at the company’s helm, VTLS not only enjoyed a successful fourth quarter in 2003, but has launched new product development and marketing initiatives on several fronts: digital asset management; RFID technology; ERM; and Grant’s latest endeavor, VIEWS (Vendor Initiative for Enabling Web Services), a joint effort to discuss and develop web services. Web services encapsulates technology that allows disparate information servers to communicate with each other. The initiative draws from a cross-section of the library software industry, including Dynix, Fretwell-Downing, Index Data, MuseGlobal, OCLC, and VTLS. NISO also is closely watching this effort, as should libraries and their vendors. Book digitizerIn the “coolest new toy” category, the new Kirtas book digitizer takes the prize. Endeavoring to break the “100-pages per hour” constraints of digitizing bound content, Kirtas, Xerox, and PARC have partnered to create the APT Bookscan 1200. The APT will scan 1,200 pages per hour, using its patented book cradle and automatic page turner, delicate enough to turn single pages of a phone book. Associated software allows for metadata creation at the time of scanning, as well as optical character recognition transition and multiple format output. With over 1 trillion pages of bound material in the world (not counting public, private, and government documents), machines such as the APT 1200 will have their work cut out for them. |
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