The Future of the Integrated Library System?

Walter Nelson, Manager, Library Systems, RAND Corp.

Webinar presented by the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS)

Prognostication

• I don’t know the future of the ILS – but that won’t stop me from making predictions

• I predict: If we continue with the status quo, it has no future

• I predict: If we free the ILS from its current constraints it will be free to evolve and…perhaps…survive

Tales of OPACS Past (and present)

The OPAC as Destination

• It has a distinct identity and whimsical name

• It is the digital equivalent of the card catalog room

• Your customers must go to the information, the information does not go to the customers

The Library as Place

• A destination catalog is tied to a library place

• The library place is where the physical books and paper journals live

• Libraries aren’t the places they used to be

ILSs Are Good at Books

• Catalog records are the digital analog of catalog cards

• Catalogs are really good at physical monographs

• Not so good at Journals (people want articles, especially full text, not issues)

• Not so good at digital content

• Most research content now resides outside the ILS – though much is imported as an afterthought

Integrated? Library System

• ILS integrates with itself

• Inward facing integration is an artifact of the pre-internet days

• In 2012 integration is the ability to integrate OUTSIDE the ILS

• The rest of the library/enterprise website

• Other data sources, aggregators and discovery tools

• HR & Accounting/Purchasing systems

• Communication & Feedback

• Social networking

The Fallacy of Integration

• ILS contains multiple systems/modules (purchasing, circulation, serials, search etc.) linked with a catalog

• Each piece has very different requirements

• None is “best of breed”

• A system that tries to do everything will do nothing really well

• Example: SharePoint

And now I’d like to ask a few questions

User Experience

• Do your customers (or your own staff) prefer OPAC search to Google etc.?

• Does the design of your OPAC meet current UX standards? Can it be easily modified as standards in your organization evolve?

The “Go To” System?

• Is the OPAC the first place your customers look?

• Is it the first place your own staff look?

• When presented with a new Knowledge Management project, is the ILS ever the best tool for the job?

• Does it even talk to the best tool for the job?

Integration

• Does your OPAC look and feel anything like your website?

• Does content in your ILS display anywhere else on your website?

• Do you use modules like Serials and Acquisition as intended, or do you need to use spreadsheets, personal databases and post-it notes to get your real work done?

• Does your ILS interact well with systems outside your ILS?

Relevance?

• Is your OPAC increasing or decreasing in relevance to your users?

• Can you foresee a future where the cost of the ILS exceeds its relevance?

• Might you be there already?

• If it did more useful stuff, might it be easier to justify the cost?

Return on Investment

• Is the ILS the best use of your limited budget?

• What else could you do with the money you spend on your ILS?

Perception?

• Do your funders (who may not be your actual customers) understand that your library is more than just your catalog?

• If they decide your catalog is irrelevant, will it be an anchor that drags your library down with it?

Depends on Where You Are

• In academia, libraries and their ILSs seems secure for now

• In public and school libraries, shrinking budgets put libraries and their ILSs in growing peril

• In corporations, agencies, law firms etc.; special libraries are disappearing

• A “value proposition” is essential

• The same old “libraries matter” arguments are wearing thin

• If the “why are you useful” argument has your ILS at its center, you may have a problem

Question Time

Ask anything but “Should we just give up and go home?” because the answer is “no” and that’s my next bit

Hope?

What the Catalog is Good At

• “Clean” data

• Consistent standards

• If you are doing it right, it’s where the good data live

• Good catalogers = good data

• HOWEVER, data standards must evolve to fit current information needs (topic for another day)

An Instructive Example

• RAND Corporation needed metadata about RAND publications as content for internal and external websites

• Publications Department data was messy and inconsistent

• Attempts to use it failed

The Library to the Rescue

• For many years, the Library had been cleaning up Pubs records to incorporate them into the catalog

• Consistent standards, taxonomy, authors etc.

• Data extracted (with great difficulty) from ILS and used to populate websites

• Success!

The Moral of this Story

• The information was in the ILS, but was useless hidden in there

• We could not say “just search the OPAC”

• It was only useful when exported

• Export and repurposing required extensive programming and multiple skill sets

• It was valuable because it was CLEAN data, conforming to consistent LIBRARY standards

• PS: A plan to expand this model to a wider range of ILS content was abandoned due to resource constraints

Another Example: Boeing

• Needed corporate KM solution

• Innovative Interfaces ILS + outlay of vast resources =

• Enterprise wide Knowledge Management System

• Library now in the KM “driver seat”

• Most of us don’t have the resources to do that

The Fundamental Essence

Data is Data

• Your OPAC is a database-driven website

• Nearly all major websites are these days

• ILS and Website infrastructures are identical

• Content resides in linked data tables

• Queries cause appropriate content to be assembled

• Stylesheets and “views” define how content will be displayed

• Differences between OPACs and other websites are deliberate design choices

Enter One, Display Many

• In a database driven website, you enter data in one place and it displays in as many places, and in as many ways as you define

• Same infrastructure can support:

• Bibliographic records

• Regular old web pages

• Apps for tablets and smart phones

• Multi-media

• RSS Feeds (static & dynamic)

• XML and other easily shared data extracts

For Example:

• You create a master record for an online resource

• You select a bibliographic item format so the system knows to distinguish it from the sort of web page that shows where the restrooms are

Taxonomy & Menus

• You have the option of assigning it to a taxonomy hierarchy that would automatically add it to a dynamic menu on your website

Web Display

• The record displays as a web page, and can include RSS feeds, “Cloud” content, Web 2.0 features or what ever else seems appropriate (not limited to traditional catalog record)

Access Links On the Website

• You tag it as “Core health list” (with an option for additional tags) so links appear on the website in multiple locations as part of a list of core health related references

Syndication

• It appears, according to defined selection criteria, in RSS feeds

• It exports easily as XML and other easily shared formats

Single Data Source

• If you need to change something, you change the master record and the changes flow out to everywhere they need to be

Multi-Search

• It is visible to your core search engine, but since it is a web page, it is also searchable by any tool that can search XHTML

The REAL Competition

ILS Vendors: Your real competition is not other ILS vendors; it’s everything else

Example: Drupal

• Widely used Open Source CMS (e.g. The Whitehouse)

• Multiple authors for varied and rich web content

• ILS-like Modules

• MARC import, export and display

• XML import and export tools

• Full text (inside digital documents) and faceted search

• Also search engine and web 2.0 friendly

• One tool manages your whole web presence

• Features like Circulation, Acquisition and Journal management are primitive compared to an ILS

• The Question: are those additional features worth $n thousand a year?

Question Time

Ask anything that isn’t about the future of libraries and librarianship, because that’s my next bit

The World of Tomorrow Today

New Organizing Principles

• Traditional libraries evolved because

• Information resided in books

• Many books together created a powerful symbiosis

• You needed catalogers to organize your books

• You needed reference librarians to find the information in your books

• To work properly everyone and everything needed to be in the same place

• This model no longer applies

The New Reference Librarian

• A tiny and ever-shrinking proportion of useful information resides in the physical objects owned and cataloged by your library

• “The collection” is not a thing inside your walls, managed by YOUR catalogers

• It is a thousand different collections, cataloged by a thousand strangers

• That cataloger down the hall contributes very little to your daily information hunt

The New Cataloger

• You may catalog for a far wider audience than your own little library

• Thousands of catalogers contribute pieces to a vast cloud of information

• Unless you are a copy cataloger who merely imports the work of others into your ILS

• Your days may be numbered

• Your skills are applicable to activities that have nothing to do with libraries

New Dynamics

• The Reference Librarian doesn’t need to inhabit a place called a “Library”, since that’s not where the information is

• A Cataloger does not need to inhabit a place called a “Library” since the audience for her work is networked and global

• Cataloging and Reference are very different skill sets that attract very different sorts of people, and their relationship is in flux

• When a library as a place or organizing principle persists, it is for reasons other than those that originally brought books, catalogers and reference librarians together

The New World

• Cataloging is consortial, global and cloud based

• Reference is local, personal and client driven

• But reliant on consortial, global, cloud based content

• Local physical collections are shrinking in importance

• Even physical collections are becoming consortial

• The collection that matters is accessed but not owned

• You didn’t catalog it

Whither the ILS?

•The traditional ILS is based on the traditional library

•As the traditional library fades away, so will a traditional ILS

A Glimpse of the Future

The Catalog in the Cloud

• Pervasive consortial cataloging builds massive virtual collections (e.g. Worldcat)

• You don’t import data into your ILS, you access it “in The Cloud”

• Your unique contributions flow out to “The Cloud”

• The OPAC is your portal to “The Cloud”

A New Path? KM

• A new discipline is emerging – the Knowledge Manager, who helps enterprises like online retailers, universities, journal databases, large corporations etc. organize, retrieve and present their data:

• Metadata and taxonomy

• Interface design and user experience

• Web technology

• The Library community and the ILS can embrace and take the lead in this new discipline or concede it to others

ILS Becomes a CMS

• The ILS could become a complete database driven website

• Include flexible metadata templates for non-traditional content

• Content open to external search

• One interface creates all types of web content

• Focus on wide-ranging integration (the “Catalog in The Cloud”, data feeds, web search, vendor databases, federated search, accounting, HR etc.) not inward facing integration

• Optimized for easy data sharing (incoming and outgoing)

Library Content Management

• Most organizations need effective content/knowledge management and many haven’t found it yet

• If the ILS becomes a real Content Management System, then libraries can leverage that to become viable competitors in the enterprise information marketplace

• Library Knowledge Managers come to the table with their own robust, capable system that offers a viable alternative to chaotic open source and multi-zillion dollar proprietary systems

• If the ILS doesn’t do this, then we should ditch it and hitch our cart to a better mule

Why is ILS CMS Cool?

• Most CMS focuses on internal content management and concedes the outside world to Google

• ILS CMS brings internal and external together in a single architecture

• Web scale discovery

• Subscription databases

• Internal holdings

• Enterprise website

• Smooth integration with internal systems (accounting, HR, etc.)

My List of Demands

Set My Data Free!

• Problem: Exquisitely crafted data is trapped in an obscure and ignored corner of the web

• Solution: Present data in multiple ways in multiple places and in flexible formats. Share your data easily and blend it seamlessly with your website and The Cloud. Let it go where it needs to go.

• Corollary: Focus on strong standards and consistent quality. This is essential for justifying the very existence of the “data management” aspect of your library

Set My Interface Free!

• Problem: OPAC designers are never as good at interface design as the current state of the art

• Interface improvements are “upgrades”, in the queue with everything else the vendors do

• Solution: Open it up to let your interface be tinkered with by lots of different people who are better at it than you

• Blend OPAC and website – consistent look and feel

• Encourage open-source style template sharing among your customers

• Pages more “Web 2.0” compatible

Set My Architecture Free!

• Problem: The ILS is rigidly focused on bibliographic record management

• Solution: Turn the ILS into a flexible CMS driven website

• Provide flexible and easily customizable data and content formats

• Use taxonomies for site-wide organization

• Create something flexible enough to handle today’s challenges and adapt to future challenges

Set My Search Free!

• Problem: OPAC search fails to meet complex and varied needs and is perceived as inferior to Google and other tools

• Solution: Facilitate searching the same data with a variety of tools in a variety of ways

• Solution: Blend internal and external (vendor, “Cloud” etc.) data in a single intuitive interface

Why is the ILS That Way?

• Vendors give us what we ask for

• We, the customers, are stuck in obsolete mindsets and are asking for the wrong things

• If we don’t wake up and start demanding things that are relevant, we and the vendors will meet the same sorry fate

Vendors: Please Make it Easy

• All of this is possible (and being done) now

• We just need to hack your system

• All that requires is vast resources and tremendous technical expertise

• SAAS/”Cloud” installations are harder to hack

• Provide flexible, easy to use CMS and data integration tools “out of the box” or the risk the Geek Gap

• Libraries with coders & API programmers evolve and survive

• Under-resourced (i.e. most) libraries stagnate and die

• Will the geeks decide they don’t need you?

In Alternate Universes, cake may be had and eaten too

You Can Have it All

• Presenting content in a new way doesn’t stop you from ALSO presenting it in the old way

• Multiple “Views” and templates can be applied to the same data

• Searching your content with new tools doesn’t stop you from ALSO searching it with the old librarian-friendly Boolean tools

Your old buddy the OPAC

• The same data that’s propagating all over your Content Management System and blending with the Cloud can still be accessed in the OPAC, your old friend with the funny name, in its quiet digital backwater

A Parting Shot

A Parting Shot

• I am not suggesting new technology

• I AM suggesting new ways of thinking about the ILS that makes full use of current technology

The ILS Evolved

• We need a tool that is

• Flexible

• Malleable

• Up to date

• It must provide a full range of content management tools

• It must make interaction with the greater digital world a focus and not an afterthought

• It must facilitate user-initiated experimentation and innovation

The Librarian Evolved

• We in the Library community must look for and embrace new ways of managing and thinking about information

• We cannot afford to be sentimental. What does not meet our needs, be it a tool, an assumption or a mindset, must be cast aside

Does the LIBRARIAN OF TOMORROW

Need an ILS?

Final Question Time

Feel free to comment or ask anything that’s on your mind