Week 7 - Musings...

Andrew K. Pace - Dismantling Integrated Library Systems

This article made a very interesting point that I hadn't really considered - the idea that the development of integrated library systems had plateaued in the 1990s. It's so difficult to imagine libraries functioning without integrated library systems, yet the truth of the matter is that many of these critical ILSs haven't managed to keep up with the rapidly changing needs of all libraries (especially large ones) and the functionality potential provided through the web. In my personal opinion, not all the potential functionality of the web is necessarily useful for a library end user. I think careful and well-planned advancement and integration of web functionality can make a huge difference in how patrons access information, but advancement for advancement's sake isn't productive. The library where I work recently added WorldCat Local's catalog search interface to our website. The new interface provides many useful features but also contains a number of completely superfluous ones that really have little practical use in any library setting. The new functionality of this interface wasn't so groundbreaking as to warrant the costs and the hassle of implementing it in place of our functional 'old' catalog system.

Considering the broad swath of smaller libraries with limited funding, access to any ILS is critical in promoting access to their collections. Many public and academic libraries are already organized into consortia to help collectively bargain with ILS companies to provide the best deal for their constituent organizations. In an ideal world, ILS companies could provide individualized support to institutions with needs outside the ability of the ILS to handle. Unfortunately, the cost and technical requirements needed for the frequent upgrades even to the basic ILS services often prove difficult for smaller institutions to keep up. While open source systems seem like an attractive option for cost and customization reasons, the reality is that many libraries (again, smaller ones) generally lack the technical resources (namely, individuals with programming skills) to develop such an ILS effectively. Proprietary ILSs seem to be the only option for smaller institutions who, without them, would otherwise lose access to their entire collection.

Jeff Tyson - How Stuff Works - Internet Infrastructure

A very good article - especially helpful was the overview of DNS servers, about which I had almost no knowledge. Considering how central the Internet is to the access of library resources now, this is great information to have entering the profession. To be sure, it's information that many people take for granted and simply don't think much about because of how ubiquitous the system itself has become. In my work experience on a college network, understanding how IP addresses work (and especially the changes between IPv4 and IPv6) has been critical. This article served to reinforce much of that knowledge and to actually introduce some new concepts that I hadn't been as familiar with.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page - ...on Google

An enlightening presentation and another example of a system that's become so ubiquitous in daily life that the volume of searches they handle becomes an abstraction until it's presented in graphic terms such as they did with the globe. What I took away from the presentation more than anything technological was the idea of a collaborative work space as a means of fostering innovation. I think many libraries struggle with this and the institutions themselves, along with patron service tends to suffer from this. Tying back into the ILS article, it seems that some libraries are willing to settle for the status quo because the environment in which they work does not foster or encourage creativity and the practical constraints often seem insurmountable.