2009 Annual ASERL
Membership Meeting
Marshall Breeding
Director for Innovative Technology and Research
Vanderbilt University Library
http://www.librarytechnology.org/
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Highly abstracted model of computing
Displaces the need for local hardware and
software
Provisioned on demand
Metered use of storage and computing cycles
Platform-as-a-service
Storage-as-a-service
Emerging model for library discovery and
automation
Increasingly dubbed “Web-scale”
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Lots of non-library Web destinations deliver
content to library patrons
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Google Scholar
Amazon.com
Wikipedia
Ask.com
Do Library Web sites and catalogs meet the
information needs of our users?
Do they attract their interest?
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Print > Electronic
Increasing emphasis on subscribed content,
especially articles and databases
Strong emphasis on digitizing local
collections
New generations of library users:
◦ Millennial generation
◦ Web savvy
◦ Pervasive Web 2.0 concepts
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Silos Prevail
◦ Books: Library OPAC (ILS module)
◦ Articles: Aggregated content products, ejournal collections
◦ OpenURL linking services
◦ E-journal finding aids (Often managed by link
resolver)
◦ Local digital collections
 ETDs, photos, rich media collections
◦ Metasearch engines
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All searched separately
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More comprehensive information discovery
environments
Primary search tool that extends beyond
print resources
Digital resources cannot be an afterthought
Systems designed for e-content only are
also problematic
Forcing users to use different interfaces
depending on type of content becoming
less tenable
Libraries working toward consolidated user
environments that give equal footing to
digital and print resources
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Bound handwritten catalogs
Card Catalogs
Library online catalogs – OPACs
Discovery interfaces
Web-scale discovery services
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A single point of entry to all the content and
services offered by the library
Search:
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Single search box
Query tools
◦ Did you mean
◦ Type-ahead
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Relevance ranked results
Faceted navigation
Enhanced visual displays
◦ Cover art
◦ Summaries, reviews,
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Recommendation services
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Online Catalog
◦ Interface conventions
from an earlier Web
era
◦ Scope: Tied to the ILS
and its content
domain
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Discovery Layer
◦ Modern interface
elements
◦ Scope: aims to
address broad range
of components that
constitute library
collections
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AquaBrowser
Ex Libris Primo
Innovative Interfaces: Encore
Serials Solutions: Summon (under
development)
SirsiDynix Enterprise
The Library Corporation: LS2 PAC
VUFind (open source)
BiblioCommons
eXtensible Catalog (under development)
◦ Tags, user-supplied ratings and reviews
◦ Leverage social networking interactions to assist
readers in identifying interesting materials:
BiblioCommons
◦ Leverage use data for a recommendation service of
scholarly content based on link resolver data: Ex
Libris bX service
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Initial products focused on technology
◦ AquaBrowser, Endeca, Primo, Encore, VUfind
◦ Mostly locally-installed software
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Current phase focused on pre-populated
indexes that aim to deliver Web-scale
discovery
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Summon (Serials Solutions)
WorldCat Local (OCLC)
EBSCO Discovery Service (EBSCO)
Primo Central
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Federated Search / Metasearch use real-time
queries against multiple information targets
No centralized index – presentation of
dynamic results
Shallow results -- only a few results initially
fetched from each target
Difficult to calculate relevancy
Performance challenges
ILS Data
Digital
Collections
Search:
ProQuest
Search Results
EBSCOhost
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MLA
Bibliography
ABC-CLIO
Real-time query and
responses
ILS Data
Search:
Local
Index
Digital
Collections
ProQuest
Search Results
MetaSearch
Engine
EBSCOhost
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MLA
Bibliography
ABC-CLIO
Real-time query and
responses
ILS Data
Search Results
Consolidated Index
Search:
Digital
Collections
ProQuest
EBSCOhost
…
MLA
Bibliography
ABC-CLIO
Pre-built harvesting
and indexing
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Pre-populated indexes
Web-scale
◦ Exploits the full depth and breadth of library
collections
◦ Beyond the bounds of the local library’s collection
◦ Targets the universe of objective, vetted library
content
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Includes full-text indexing to the fullest
extent possible
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Indexing the full corpus of information available
globally
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Or at least major portions
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Not quite comprehensive – partial harvesting of any given
resource
Google aims to address all the world’s information
Discovery Layer Products for libraries aim to address
all content collected by libraries:
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Print
Remotely access electronic content: e-journals, e-books,
databases, licensed and open access.
Local special collections: digital and print.
Addresses the comprehensive body of content held
within library collections
Comprehensive, unified
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New-generation interface
Harvested local content
◦ ILS metadata
◦ Institutional repositories, ETDs, Digital Collection
platforms
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Vendor-supplied indexes of library content
◦ E-journals, databases, e-books
 Full-text and metadata corresponding to e-content
subscriptions
◦ Book collections beyond local library collections
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Entering post-metadata search era
Increasing opportunities to search the full
contents
◦ Google Library Print, Google Publisher, Open
Content Alliance, government publications,
etc.
◦ High-quality metadata will improve search
precision
Commercial search providers already offer
“search inside the book” and searching across
the full text of large book collections
Not currently available through most library
search environments
◦ Will be an important feature of projects such as
HathiTrust
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Deep search highly improved by high-quality
metadata
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Now viewed as separate problem
Many interdependencies
Current model of feeding discovery systems
from many underlying repositories
◦ ILS / e-journal collections / collections of digital
objects
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Will models of resource management change
to consolidate the repositories?
Realign Discovery and management?
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Traditional Proprietary Commercial ILS
◦ Millennium, Symphony, Polaris
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Traditional Open Source ILS
◦ Evergreen, Koha
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Clean slate automation framework (SOA,
enterprise-ready)
◦ Ex Libris URM, OLE Project
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Cloud-based automation system
◦ WorldCat Local (+circ, acq, license management)
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Beyond selecting one brand from an
assortment of similar products
Several conceptually diverse options
Companies and projects now competing on
innovation