Emerging Technologies Meet the Challenge of Transformed Libraries

1. Marshall Breeding Independent Consult, Author, Founder and Publisher, Library Technology Guides http://www.librarytechnology.org/ http://twitter.com/mbreeding Emerging Technologies Meet the Challenge of Transformed Libraries Academic Library Directors Symposium Feb 21, 2013

2. Summary Major trends are in play that contribute to major transformations underway in libraries.  In the broader publishing and information arena, the explosion of interest in e-books represents another wave in the shift toward electronic content that in previous times saw the near complete transition of journal articles to electronic form.  Web-based and cloud computing stands to bring fundamental changes in the ways that libraries use technology in support of their internal operations and in providing access to their collections and services.  In this keynote presentation, Breeding will help library decision makers explore how to harness these trends and technologies to meet the strategic missions. 

3. Role of Academic Libraries in Motion • Transitions complete • Print > electronic journals • Transitions Underway • E-books • Open access publishing • Metadata management • Uncertain trends • New models of collaboration • Defining new roles with the academic institution • Observation: technology infrastructure created in earlier times unlikely to help libraries today succeed

4. Reshaped collections • Journal content: mostly delivered electronically • Monographs: transition to e-books underway • E-books now largely delivered through database aggregations • Ebrary, E-books on EBSCOhost, etc. • Academic libraries not yet that involved with downloadable e-book lending services (OverDrive 3M Cloud Library, etc) • Legacy print collections will remain indefinitely • Digital collections • Locally digitized materials

5. Fulfillment activities • Print circulation slowing • Interlibrary loan activity rising • Increased pressure for resource sharing • Traditional models of service blurring together • Circulation • Interlibrary Loan • Course Reserves • Consortial borrowing • Avoid placing the burden on the patron to determine the appropriate service

6. Allocation of resources • Collection funds devoted mostly to e-content • If true: • How does allocation of efforts for personnel compare to collection expenditures? • Does the technology and automation infrastructure provide the flexibility needed for proportional resource allocation?

7. Additional academic library roles • Deeper involvement in research process • Ready reference > in-depth research support • Embedded librarian initiatives • Library involvement in research data • NSF data management plans (example) • What technology infrastructure do academic libraries need to support these new activities?

8. Cumulative effect • Library collections more complex than ever • Library services move diverse • Managing electronic and digital content harder than managing print • What technology infrastructure needed to support libraries in this new phase of complexity?

9. Technology in transition • New era of cloud computing • Client/server architecture becoming obsolete • Any new development: • Web-based applications • Designed for delivery through software as a service • Mobile first strategies for end-user applications

10. Fundamental technology shift • Mainframe computing • Client/Server • Cloud Computing http://www.flickr.com/photos/carrick/61952845/ http://soacloudcomputing.blogspot.com/2008/10/cloud-computing.html http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/jw-10-2001/jw-1019-jxta.html

11. Computer infrastructure transitions • Campus mainframes • Distributed / Departmental computing • Library ILS • E-mail • Enterprise computing • Consolidated university services • Campus wide e-mail • File storage • Server management • Cloud-based services • Outsourced student e-mail • Selected business services

12. Major trend in broader IT sector Few organizations have core competence in large-scale computer infrastructure management Essentially outsourcing of server housing and management Usually based on a consumption-based business model Most new software products delivered through some flavor of cloud computing Many flavors to suit business needs: public, private, hybrid Cloud Computing

13. Infrastructure-as-a-service • Provisioning of computing and storage equipment • Servers, storage • Virtual server provisioning • Examples: • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) • Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) • Rackspace Cloud www.rackspacecloud.com/) • EMC2 Atmos (www.atmosonline.com/)

14. MultiTennant SaaS is the modern approach One copy of the code base serves multiple sites Software functionality delivered entirely through Web interfaces No workstation clients Upgrades and fixes deployed universally Usually in small increments Software as a Service

15. SaaS provides opportunity for highly shared data models Shared knowledge bases for OpenURL linking and electronic resource management Indexes of article-level content to support discovery services Shared bibliographic data General opportunity to move away from library-by-library metadata management to globally shared workflows Library automation increasingly driven by knowledge bases Data as a service

16. Almost all library automation vendors offer some form of “cloud-based” services Server management moves from library to Vendor Subscription-based business model Comprehensive annual subscription payment Offsets local server purchase and maintenance Offsets some local technology support Library Automation in the Cloud

17. Moving legacy systems to hosted services provides savings to individual institutions while preserving existing workflow and functionality New systems designed for software-as-a-service may enable libraries to reimagine workflows and functionality Shared data and metadata models have the potential to achieve new levels of operational efficiencies and more powerful discovery and automation scenarios that improve the position of libraries overall Leveraging the Cloud

18. Transition away from local computing • Local computing increasingly less appropriate for libraries • Managing low-level technical infrastructure not a core area of expertise for libraries • Security requirements increasingly challenging • Opportunity to redirect library technologists to high-value activities • May meet cultural resistance

19. Open Systems • Achieving openness has risen as the key driver behind library technology strategies • Libraries need to do more with their data • Ability to improve customer experience and operational efficiencies • Demand for Interoperability • Open source – full access to internal program of the application • Open API’s – expose programmatic interfaces to data and functionality

20. Mobile Computing

21. Social Computing • Web 2.0 as a separate activity largely a distraction • Important to have social orientation built directly into the software and services that comprise library infrastructure • Avoid jettisoning patrons out of the library’s Web presence • Find ways to effectively connect with users, connect users to each other, and especially to connect users to library content and services

22. Academic Libraries as part of the Campus Enterprise • Academic libraries tend to be well integrated organizationally • Increasingly important for the library to integrate into the technical fabric of its parent institution • Interoperate with other business applications • Financial / ERP systems • Student records management • Learning Management Systems • Authentication services • Move beyond batch data exchange to real-time interoperability • Web services and APIs

23. A new world for Metadata Management • Traditional Catalogingvs Metadata support for new collection realities • How to maintain quality as priorities shift • Original and Copy Cataloging based on one-record-at-a-time workflows • Increased need to manage metadata in bulk • E-content packages • E-book collections

24. Cataloging rules and standards • FRBR: hierarchies and groupings • RDA: Next generation of AACR2, but with an eye toward the semantic web • Tiny step • Library of Congress Initiative for Bibliographic Transition • See: bibframe.org • Replacement for MARC as the carrier for bibliographic data • A much more radical change

25. Metadata Management Workflows • Less emphasis on record-by-record processing • Knowledge-base approach • Given model for e-resource management • Comprehensive knowledge base of what content is associated with content packages • Matched against profile of library subscriptions • Useful for e-book collections • Applicable to individual monograph acquisitions?

26. Automation priorities • Current ILS model focuses on technical services • Discovery interfaces and catalog address patron self-service • General absence of customer relationship management • How can new generations of technology infrastructure provide tools to facilitate research support, reference, and other public services • Need to generate performance metrics for these critical library services

27. Data-driven management • Business systems generate high volume of use data • Traditional ILS products have not been strong in generating actionable use data • Increased emphasis on mining use data and providing analytical tools to support operational decisions • Collection development • Personnel allocation • Service definition • Resource allocation • Provide evidence to defend budget proposals

28. Cooperation and Resource sharing • Efforts on many fronts to cooperate and consolidate • Many regional consortia merging (Example: suburban Chicago systems) • State-wide or national implementations • Software-as-a-service or “cloud” based implementations • Many libraries share computing infrastructure and data resources

29. Strategic Cooperation • Shared infrastructure in support of strategic collaborative relationships • Opportunities to share infrastructure • Examples: • 2CUL • Orbis Cascade Alliance • Opportunities to reconsider automation implementation strategies • One library = 1 ILS? • Ability to share infrastructure across organizational boundaries?

30. Technology Support for Academic Libraries • Greater concern with electronic scholarly articles • Management: Need for consolidated approach that balances print, digital, and electronic workflows • Access: discovery interfaces that maximize the value of investments in subscriptions to scholarly articles and research materials

31. AppropriateAutomation Infrastructure • Automation infrastructure must be in step with current realities • Allow administrators to allocate personnel easily among collection management priorities • Adequate data and analytics for administrative decision support • Discovery solutions that fully expose library collections • Library users expect more engaging socially aware interfaces for Web and mobile

32. Disjointed approach to information and service delivery • Library Web sites offer a menu of unconnected silos: • Books: Library OPAC (ILS online catalog module) • Articles: Aggregated content products, e-journal collections • OpenURL linking services • E-journal finding aids (Often managed by link resolver) • Subject guides • Local digital collections • ETDs, photos, rich media collections • Metasearch engines • Discovery Services – often just another choice among many • All searched separately

33. ILS Data Online Catalog Search: Scope of Search • Books, Journals, and Media at the Title Level • Not in scope: • Articles • Book Chapters • Digital objects • Web site content • Etc. Search Results

34. Web-scale Index-based Discovery ILS Data (2009- present) Digital Collections Search: Web Site Content Institutional Repositories Aggregated Content packages Search Results Consolidated Index … E-Journals Reference Sources Pre-built harvesting and indexing

35. Integrating e-Books into Library Automation Infrastructure • Current approach involves mostly outsourced arrangements • Collections licensed wholesale from single provider • Hand-off to DRM and delivery systems of providers • Loading of MARC records into local catalog with linking mechanisms • No ability to see availability status of e-books from the library’s online catalog or discovery interface

36. Proliferation of library automation components • ILS for management of (mostly) print • Duplicative financial systems between library and campus • Electronic Resource Management (non-integrated with ILS) • OpenURL Link Resolver w/ knowledge base for access to full-text electronic articles • Digital Collections Management platforms (CONTENTdm, DigiTool, etc.) • Institutional Repositories (DSpace, Fedora, etc.) • Discovery-layer services for broader access to library collections • No effective integration services / interoperability among disconnected systems, non-aligned metadata schemes

37. Comprehensive Resource Management • No longer sensible to use different software platforms for managing different types of library materials • ILS + ERM + OpenURL Resolver + Digital Asset management, etc. very inefficient model • Flexible platform capable of managing multiple type of library materials, multiple metadata formats, with appropriate workflows

38. Libraries need a new model of library automation • Not an Integrated Library System or Library Management System • The ILSwas designed to help libraries manage print collections • Generally did not evolve to manage electronic collections • Other library automation products evolved: • Electronic Resource Management Systems – OpenURL Link Resolvers – Digital Library Management Systems -- Institutional Repositories

39. Library Services Platform • Library-specific software. Designed to help libraries automate their internal operations, manage collections,fulfillrequests, and deliver services • Services • Service oriented architecture • Exposes Web services and other API’s • Facilitates the services libraries offer to their users • Platform • General infrastructure for library automation • Consistent with the concept of Platform as a Service • Library programmers address the APIs of the platform to extend functionality, create connections with other systems, dynamically interact with data

40. Library Services Platform Characteristics • Highly Shared data models • Knowledgebase architecture • Some may take hybrid approach to accommodate local data stores • Delivered through software as a service • Multi-tenant • Unified workflows across formats and media • Flexible metadata management • MARC – Dublin Core – VRA – MODS – ONIX • New structures not yet invented • Open APIs for extensibility and interoperability

41. New Library Management Model Unified Presentation Layer Search: Self-Check /Automated Return Library Services Platform ` Digital Coll Consolidated index Discovery Service ProQuest API Layer StockManagement EBSCO … Enterprise ResourcePlanning Smart Cad / Payment systems JSTOR LearningManagement AuthenticationService Other Resources

42. Challenge: How to Harness new technology to meet the needs of Transformed academic libraries?

43. Many previous assumptions no longer apply Technology platforms scale infinitely No technical limits on how libraries share technical infrastructure Cloud technologies enable new ways of sharing metadata Build flexible systems not hardwired to any given set of workflows Reassess expectations of Technology

44. ILS model shaped library organizations New Library Services Platforms may enable new ways to organize how resource management and service delivery are performed New technologies more able to support strategic priorities and initiatives Reassess workflow and organizational options

45. Cloud-based services allow libraries to re-focus technology personnel Less emphasis on routine infrastructure Technologists can focus on higher-level services Reassess the role of library technologists

46. Shift from customization and enhancements to open APIs Less encumbered by vendor priorities More empowered to create local value-added services From monolithic closed system to flexible platform Opportunities to build more unified virtual services for patrons Reassess how to shape software to local needs

47. Transition to new technology models just underway More transformative development than in previous phases of library automation Opportunities to partner and collaborate Vendors want to create systems with long-term value Question previously held assumptions regarding the shape of technology infrastructure and services Provide leadership in defining expectations Time to engage

48. Questions and discussion