ILS, the Next Generation: Modularity and Outward Integration

1. ILS, the Next Generation: Modularity and Outward Integration Karen Calhoun OLA Super Conference Session 1412 February 2, 2007

2. Next Generation: Modularity • “ILSes should think in terms of linking rather than building” • Decoupling discovery and inventory management functions • Standards • E-resource management systems Calhoun

3. What Did Users Say They Want? (2002) • Faculty and students do more work and study away from campus • Loyal to the library, but library is only one element in complex information structure • Print still important, but almost half of undergraduates say they rely exclusively or almost exclusively on electronic materials • Seamless linking from one information object to another is expected • Fast forward to 2007: these trends many times stronger! Calhoun

4. Methods and tools Web-accessible lists + catalogs Federated searching Reference linking (OpenURL) Portals E-resource management systems Digital asset management systems Objectives Integrate access to all library resources (print, archives, digital, e-) Simplify digital and e-resource management (lower costs AND improve service) Become visible in the user’s environment (i.e., on open Web, on course pages, etc.) Toward a New Library Information Space Calhoun

5. Levels of Access • Web-accessible lists • Browsing • Searching • Both • Online catalog (morphing) • Federated searching • Reference linking Calhoun

6. Web-Accessible Lists (Database Driven, Searchable) Calhoun

7. Catalog Records for E-Resources Calhoun

8. What’s Federated Searching (Metasearch)? • Helps users more easily discover what resources are available • Provides searching of many resources at the same time • Unifies search results • Links search results to full text • Authenticates and authorizes or blocks user access Calhoun

9. Metasearch: what’s missing • Response time comparatively slow • Practical limits to number of databases that can be: • Configured for searching • Searched at once • Incomplete search results (also due to practical limits) • Lack of control over what is returned in search result sets • Order of search results displays not as useful as they should be • Other limitations on what can (or can’t) be displayed Calhoun

10. Hope for Metasearch • NISO Metasearch Initiative: • http://www.niso.org/committees/MS_initiative.html “Metasearch services rely on a variety of approaches to search and retrieval including open standards (such as NISO's Z39.50), proprietary API's, and screen scraping. However, the absence of widely supported standards, best practices, and tools makes the metasearch environment less efficient for the system provider, the content provider, and ultimately the end-user.” Calhoun

11. Google Scholar: Forget Metasearch? Find It At Cornell You can do this for articles too

12. Reference Linking • Users expect fully linked information environment • Partnerships between content providers, database producers, and library system vendors, utilities … Calhoun

13. Limitations of Reference Linking • Incomplete or inaccurate metadata from source; can’t match knowledge base • Knowledge base is incorrect or out of date • Metadata alright but doesn’t match target • Varied application of citation standards; non-use of citation standards • Library has full text for journal but not the volume/issue the user wants • Full text availability lags behind citation availability • And on and on Blake, Miriam and Frances Knudson. 2002. Metadata and reference linking. LCATS 26 (3): 219-230. Calhoun

14. Prediction • Of the two, OpenURL will be the core technology, not metasearch Calhoun

15. The Portal Dream, Version 1: A Unifying System Model Unified Web Interface (“Google-like”) Authentication layer Federated searching (metasearch) Other Libraries Catalogs Local Library Catalog Digital Collections Licensed Databases Other (e.g.,DSpace) Many diverse, separate interfaces

16. But…Look From a Distance! Calhoun

17. Outward Integration “Integration should be outward rather than inward, with libraries seeking to use their components in new ways” --Interviewee for LC report on future of the catalog Calhoun

18. Longer Term Vision • Switch users from where they find things to library-managed collections of all kinds • Local catalog one link in a chain of services, one repository managed by the library • More coherent and comprehensive scholarly information systems, perhaps by discipline • Infrastructure to permit global discovery and delivery of information among open, loosely-coupled systems • Critical mass of digitized publications and special collections online • Many starting points on the Web leading to many types of scholarly information objects Calhoun

19. Find It on Google,* Get It from My Library • Open WorldCat, worldcat.org • Google Scholar, Book Search • Google Library Project • Million Book Project • Microsoft Live Search Books • Open Content Alliance • Amazon *The word "google" was first used in the 1927 Little Rascals silent film "Dog Heaven", used to refer to a having a drink of water. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_(verb) Calhoun

20. Calhoun

21. Live Search Books Calhoun

22. Cornell University Library Digital Collections Amazon/ BookSurge Acquisition “The acquisition will allow Amazon to profitably market hard-to-find books which can now be produced by BookSurge in quantities as low as one.”—press release

23. Intermediate Vision • Shared OPACs: begin to aggregate discovery function for books, serials, and their e-counterparts • Metasearch for e-journal articles • Reference linking ubiquitous • Draw on the local catalog’s strongest suit: support for inventory control and delivery • Larger scale collaboration on collection development/resource sharing, storage, preservation Calhoun

24. Intermediate Vision, 2 • Greater use of Web services to link in and out, tie applications together • Start to build bigger scholarly information environments—with libraries playing a role—to aggregate more of the expanding universe of scholarly digital assets • Metadata and outreach skills = strategic assets Calhoun

25. Intermediate Vision, 3 • Beginning of the era of special collections • Aggregate discovery of digital collections • More emphasis on visual resources • More collaboration with faculty on digital assets • Rise of best practices for digital asset management • Digital collection delivery platforms will continue to proliferate Calhoun

26. Digital Collections Ralph, Julian. Canada’s El Dorado. Harper’s, Jan. 1891. Making of America Collection Calhoun

27. Google It and Get It Calhoun

28. Good Advice for Digital Librarians At this stage, no new effort should be undertaken without a sense of how it will be merged with other existing collections and where the resources for long-term maintenance will come from. —A CUL digital projects librarian Calhoun

29. Aquifer Calhoun

30. Bridging Digital Islands Calhoun

31. Teaching, Learning, and Research, the Next Generation Thank You! Karen Calhoun, Cornell University ksc10@cornell.edu Calhoun