Systems Librarian -- Computers in Libraries / Information Today by Marshall Breeding

Systems Librarian column

Marshall Breeding has writen the Systems Librarian column since January 2000. It was published in Information Today through December 2002 and has appeared in Computers in Libraries magazine since January 2003.

The terms of my agreement with Information Today allow me to publish the full text of these articles 90 days after they appear in the printed magazine.

	Breeding, Marshall Beyond the current generation of next-generation library interfaces: deeper search May 2008

	Breeding, Marshall Content, Community and Visibility: a winning combination April 2008

	Breeding, Marshall Making a Business Case for Open Source ILS March 2008 We’re living in a phase of library automation characterized by an increased interest in open source-not just in back-end infrastructure components but also in the mission-critical business applications such as the integrated library system. Open source library automation systems, including Koha and Evergreen, have been propelled into the limelight. Recent survey data fails to corroborate broad interest that libraries are ready to adopt open source ILS. The success of early adopters of open source ILS now serve as a catalyst for others. Paths now exist with more mature systems and professional support options. As the open source movement matures, these system will need to compete on their own merits and not solely on a philosophical preference.

	Breeding, Marshall Circulation Technologies From Past to Future February 2008 Breeding examines the circulation function of library automation, first taking a look at technologies used in the past, and then looking at some of the technologies that find use today. He discusses the interoperability available through protocols such as SIP2 and NCIP, the benefits offered through the use of RFID technologies, and how some libraries can gain efficiences through automated material handling systems. Moving in to the future, libraries need to reconceptualize this aspect of automation, looking toward solutions less compartmentalized then those in use today.

	Breeding, Marshall An analytical approach to assessing the effictiveness of Web-based resources January 2008 In order to determine whether a site’s new service or design change has a positive or negative impact, it’s important to have a good understanding of what constitutes normal patterns of use. Sources of this data might include web server logs or the logs and statistical reports from applications such as online catalogs, search engines, federated search tools, or any other applications with interfaces that the public uses. Some of the other patterns that I look for include the average time for a user session, which individual pages get the most use, the number of items viewed per session, which pages are most used to enter the site, and which pages are common exit points. After some investigation, I eventually realized that no personally identifiable information was being recorded or transmitted and that utilizing this tool did not violate the privacy of the site’s users. For search-oriented applications such as online catalogs and digital repositories, you can study the percentage of searches that produce no results and the ones that return too many.

	Breeding, Marshall It's Time to Break the Mold of the Original ILS November / December 2007 Breeding anticipates that the next cycle of library automation developments will focus more on the ILS, but hopefully in a completely redefined form. The basic structure of today’s ILS was cast more than 20 years ago. The next generation of library automation systems needs to be designed to match the workfLows of today’s libraries, which manage both digital and print resources. In order to provide efficient and effective support, the software needs to be designed around the processes and tasks that meet the goals of the organization. The current slate of ILS products works on many assumptions about library workflows that have long since changed. The next generation would benefit from a thorough re-examination of the day-to-day work that takes place inside libraries.

	Breeding, Marshall The Birth of a New Generation of Library Interfaces October 2007 A new vision of library interfaces has emerged, and it’s more in tune with current Web technologies and user expectations. It’s broader in scope, takes advantage of search technologies and techniques that are closer to the state-of-the-art, and offers more dynamic interactions with library users. A new genre of software is being defined, and it may displace the traditional online public access catalog. Today’s environment of diverse resources demands a library interface that spans many different sources and types of content.

	Breeding, Marshall Librarians face online social networks September 2007 Breeding provides an introduction to onine social networking using Facebook as an example that my be of interest to libraries. Facebook.com, originally established as a site for college students, has recently burst beyond its roots and captured broad interest. In academic libraries, Facebook plays a part in the lives of almost all of our student clientele. The more that library professionals use social networking environments like Facebook, the more that they will discover good ways to use it to improve library services and to expand their outreach.

	Breeding, Marshall The sun sets on Horizon June 2007 SirsiDynix announced that it had discontinued development of Horizon and would consolidate its future ILS efforts on Unicorn. Events such as SirsiDynix’s decision to consolidate to a single product cause a great deal of uncertainty and disruption for libraries and detract from the trust that’s necessary for a successful relationship between a library and its automation products supplier. SirsiDynix faces a large challenge in shoring up the trust with the Dynix/Horizon half of its customer base. The prompt delivery of truly outstanding replacement products is the only salve that will heal the wound.

	Breeding, Marshall We Need to Go Beyond Web 2.0 May 2007 Web 2.0 risks hampering the true potential of the Web by casting a particular approach or subset of technologies as preferred and neglecting others that may have higher strategic value. While the technologies branded as Web 2.0 represent a positive step in the evolution of the Web, they are but an incremental shift in a much larger continuum of progress. Web 2.0 has become a trendy marketing concept. The emerging generation of interfaces sports much-needed improvements such as relevancy ranking, faceted navigation, visual search, user tagging, and results delivered through RSS. It’s even more important to go beyond superficial user interface features and to develop library automation technologies that fully embrace the architecture associated with Web 2.0 and beyond, that of Web services and the service-oriented architecture.

	Breeding, Marshall Thinking About Your Next OPAC April 2007 We’re seeing a tremendous amount of effort being put toward creating new library interfaces, both by the commercial automation vendors and in the open source arena. Each of these endeavors focuses on a different set of assumptions, features, and functions related to the ideal library Web environment, but each of them advances the state of the catalog far beyond what we’ve seen in the previous round of offerings. Characteristics of the new generation of library interfaces include: relevance ranking, faceted navigation, search result clustering, breadcrumb trails, and a faster, more comprehensive search environment.

	Breeding, Marshall An Update on Open Source ILS March 2007 While open source software has flourished for a number of years for infrastructure-level components, it has not gained a stronghold in the library automation arena. The overwhelming majority of library automaton software is offered through commercial companies as propriety, closed-source software. Though that continues to be true, in the last few years some viable open source integrated library systems have emerged to challenge the commercial offerings. While Breeding still doesn’t expect open source to become the dominant model for library automation software anytime in the near future, he expects the numbers to continue to increase much faster than we’ve seen in the past.

	Breeding, Marshall Working toward transparency in library automation February 2007 Breeding asserts the need for transparency with regard to the automation systems used in libraries. Librarians need to have access to information about the financial interests of the companies they do business with. As librarians make decisions regarding automation software and services, they should have convenient access to information about how other libraries have done in similar circumstances. The library automation arena stands at the cusp of several important changes. Industry consolidation, strategic acquisitions by major private equity firms, and breakthroughs in open source library automation stand to effect significant changes over the next few years. Now is the time to gather data and to closely track the trends so that librarians will be well informed and better prepared to deal with the changes that lie ahead.

	Breeding, Marshall Spam Wars: the battle of the formbots January 2007 There seems to be no end to spam, phishing, viruses, worms, and other malicious activity. Much of the spam out there relates to phishing and identity theft, which causes economic and personal damage to its victims. Fill-in Web forms have become the favorite targets of spammers for the last year or so. It’s often necessary to implement a captcha (Completely Automated Public Turing) in order to deterring formbots. The battle against the purveyors of spam and other forms of attack on the Internet continues. While we’ve looked at some small tricks that help in the current round, we can be sure that it’s good only for the short term. The main point is to stay vigilant, monitor the threats of the day, and implement the appropriate security responses. While time and resources for library systems always seem to be stretched too thin, we can’t afford to neglect important security issues.

	Breeding, Marshall Technology for the next generation November / December 2006 It’s important for libraries to understand how persons from the millennial generation deal with information if we are to succeed in delivering our services to them. To appeal to millennials, library interfaces need to have: more intuitive library interfaces, relevancy ranking, improved search models, more digital content, and better coherency. Millennials have less of a tolerance for slow, nonintuitive, and unattractive Web sites and will quickly turn to other sources if the library’s doesn’t meet their expectations.

	Breeding, Marshall Knitting systems together October 2006 While the specifics vary from one library to another, these systems and their associated databases serve as an example of the intricacy of managing and providing access to complex collections with both physical and digital components. In contrast to the earlier, more monolithic approach, the various applications in the modern library environment operate in a loosely coupled, often nonintegrated way. The functionality involved in managing electronic resources has been addressed by the development of separate products rather than as evolutionary extensions to the existing ILS architecture. The library’s environment must be seamless and simple for patrons to navigate. When implementing the multiple components necessary for managing and delivering both print and electronic content, it is important to avoid redundant work and counterproductive work flows. The modern environment of complex collections and the multiple products to manage and provide access to those collections place the librarian in the role of systems integrator. We have to select, configure, and administer a number of applications to create an environment that meets user expectations.

	Breeding, Marshall High-Tech, low power: how to reduce computer-related energy costs September 2006 Breeding offer suggestions on ways to reduce the amount of energy consumed by library computers. Reducing energy consumption not only makes sense from the environmental perspective, but it’s increasingly a major budget concern. In order to save power, PCs need to be off when not in active use. That’s no longer in question. This practice reduces energy consumption, saves money, and extends computer and monitor life. While the benefit for a single PC may be small, the aggregate effect among all the computers in an organization can yield measurable, even significant, savings.

	Breeding, Marshall Comprehensive cost planning yields successful tech projects June 2006 It is important to consider all the cost components of a technology project. At least some of the costs may be hidden, and it’s easy to overlook them. Trying to anticipate all the cost implications of a technology-related project is common sense. The total cost of ownership model can be applied to library technology projects. TCO just reminds us to think broadly and long-term. You don’t have to be an economist to incorporate this broader view into the budget projections of a library technology project proposal.

	Breeding, Marshall Web 2.0? Let's get to Web 1.0 first May 2006 It seems that everyone is talking about Web 2.0. This new vision of the Web enables greater interactivity, more user control of information, radical personalization, the development of online communities, and more democratic management of information. Supporting technologies include blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, tagging, XML, and Web services. Today, there’s an uneven deployment of Web technologies in libraries. On the one hand, I see many well-designed Web sites that deliver library services to users. Lots of these sites already embrace many aspects of Web 2.0.1 also see a large number of libraries that either have no Web site at all or that try to get by with a site that’s underdeveloped and not able to meet the expectations of the current generation of Web users.

	Breeding, Marshall How we funneled searchers from Google to our collections by catering to Web crawlers April 2006 To reach more potential users, we needed to expose the content of our database to the open Web and allow Google and other crawlers to harvest and index it. The goal was to seed as much information into Google as possible and to design a path that would lead users through the front door of our Web site. To achieve this, The Vanderbilt Television News Archive implemented an automated system to facilitate the harvesting and indexing of its metadata in a controlled way in order to increase the number of visitors to its Web site funnelled through Google and the other search engines.

	Breeding, Marshall Musings on the state of the ILS in 2006 March 2006 While librarians may quibble about how any given piece of functionality works, one cannot deny the extensive capabilities of the major ILS products, especially for the treatment of traditional library materials. [Editor’s Note: see the Nov./Dec. 2005 issue of CIL for our Helping You Buy installment on ERM.] These systems provide a specialized application for managing electronic subscriptions, which involve a number of additional complexities not applicable to print content. Marshall Breeding is the library technology officer at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and a consultant, speaker, and writer in the field of library automation.

	Breeding, Marshall Addicted to Data February 2006 All of these, including a directory of the companies that produce library automation software, a bibliographic database of literature of the field, and a full-text archive of news releases and announcements from all the automation companies, are related to library automation in some way. lib-web-cats functions as a standalone directory of libraries, but its primary purpose is to help me track the automation systems used in libraries throughout the world. The NCES listings come with basic information, such as the library’s name, organization, and address, but they lack the info I track in lib-web-cats, such as the URLs of the libraries’ Web sites and online catalogs and various details regarding their library automation environments.

	Breeding, Marshall Designing Web sites for distributed content January 2006 Library Technology Guides, a Web site that I created and maintain to provide access to information related to library automation, and Abzu, a guide to information on the Web related to the study of the ancient Near East, offer quite different types of information, but they share a similar technology platform-a content management system that I have been developing over the course of the last 6 or 7 years. From the perspective of layered technical components, the search options specified in the link are passed to the Web server through the standard CGI (common gateway interface) as name/ value pairs, which are parsed by a Perl script and translated into a database query statement expressed in SQL.

	Breeding, Marshall Unconventional and innovative: the Open Croquet Project November/December 2005 Although computer technology appears to advance quickly, it seems that most of the progress lies in speeding up or adding features to existing hardware or software components. Here, Breeding describes the unconventional and innovative Open Croquet Project.

	Breeding, Marshall Analyzing Web server logs to improve a site's usage October 2005 With his involvement as systems librarian with Vanderbilt University’s Television News Archive, Breeding says that the effectiveness of the TV News Archive’s Web site can ultimately be measured in the number of successful searches that are performed and the quantity of videotape requests that are placed. He discusses the methods of analysis available to study the usage of the site, which are necessary to identify any problems and to make improvements to its use and visibility.

	Breeding, Marshall The new landscape of the automation business September 2005 The Big news that broke just before this year’s ALA Annual Conference, which was held June 25-28 in Chicago, was the acquisition of Dynix by rival Sirsi. The combined company, Sirsi-Dynix, is by far the largest in the library automation industry. Here, Breeding discusses the new landscape of the automation business.

	Breeding, Marshall Building trust through secure Web sites June 2005 Electronic commerce transactions that require the exchange of money and/or sensitive information require a very high level of trust between the consumer and the company that is offering its services on the Web. Here, Breeding discusses some basic components that one can employ to strengthen one’s sites security to help one earns one’s patrons’ trust.

	Breeding, Marshall Looking toward the future of library technology May 2005 Breeding makes some forecasts about what might play out in the next few years as he observes the current state of the art in library automation. One could argue that library automation cannot and should not exist as an independent endeavor. Rather, it needs to be tightly integrated with the other business systems of an organization.

	Breeding, Marshall Reflecting on 20 Years of Library Technology April 2005 Breeding relates that his career in the Vanderbilt University Libraries that span 20 years has taught him a few successful strategies. Here, he shares a few lessons that he learned including seeing the big picture by maintaining a broad awareness of the key trends and the latest hardware and software developments.

	Breeding, Marshall Implementing wireless networks without compromising security Mar 2005 Breeding examines the details underlying each of the basic networking concepts and understanding the security issues involved with wireless networks (Wi-Fi). Among other things, Wi-Fi offers great benefits to which library users increasingly have the interest and the means to take advantage of this technology.

	Breeding, Marshall Plotting a new course for metasearch Feb 2005 Breeding discusses the limitations of distributed search and the advantages of centralized search, which are the competing approaches of metasearch. He also weighs on what approach should library-oriented metasearch products rely on.

	Breeding, Marshall Re-Integrating the integrated library system Jan 2005 Breeding discusses the integration and cohesiveness of the automation environment that enable librarians to deal with the better and new world of Web-based electronic content. Among others, he also stresses the historical roots of the integrated library system.

	Breeding, Marshall Now that it's all digital, where do I put it? exploring data storage technologies Nov/Dec 2004 Breeding explores data storage technologies. Among other things, optical storage solutions include optical discs that have taken over as the preferred media for portable storage.

	Breeding, Marshall Wireless networks connect libraries to a mobile society October 2004 Today, mobile wireless computing seems to be expanding quickly beyond the domain of the professional business class; it’s being adopted by computer users of all kinds, from geeks to grandmothers. In an era where the entire service industry seems to be Web-based, it’s becoming increasingly inconvenient to be disconnected.

	Breeding, Marshall Custom applications that power the Vanderbilt Television News Archive Sept 2004 Building a customized application lies in selecting the right technical components for the project and using a modular programming technique. Here, Breeding relates how he has performed his responsibility in Vanderbilt Television News Archive and shares some tips in building customized applications in news archiving.

	Breeding, Marshall Platform evolution: from dumb terminals to PCs to the Web and beyond Jun 2004 The advancements in computing power and communications speed are impressive, it is even more amazing to consider the enormous expansion of information that libraries make available to their users relative to earlier times. Here, Breeding shares that twenty years ago, libraries struggle to provide a basic online catalog to their users, but now the key automation issues revolve around dealing with information overload and providing users with tools to effectively search a vast array of information.

	Breeding, Marshall The trend toward outsourcing the ILS: recognizing the benefits of shared systems May 2004 Breeding talks about the lib-web-cats directory, which does not only offer the general public an easy way to find libraries on the Web, but also provides trend data for studying library automation. The database tracks each library’s current automation system, any previous ones, and the years in which these systems were implemented. It also records whether the library implements its own automation system, gains access through a consortium, or relies on its automation vendor to host its system.

	Breeding, Marshall Protecting personal information April 2004 Libraries are confronting new challenges and privacy concerns regarding protecting the privacy of users and staff. Breeding shares his personal perspectives on the need for librarians and other library personnel to simultaneously preserve patron privacy, protect networks against security threats, and defend users from spam, scams, and identity theft. He says that it takes a proactive effort to ensure that the technical operation of various systems within the library’s environment is consistent with the library’s policies and expectations regarding patron privacy.

	Breeding, Marshall The challenge of integration March 2004 Breeding comments that using the Web should be easy and libraries should offer simple information-retrieval interface so that users will not transfer elsewhere. He also adds that providing consistency among the basic pages of the libraries Web site and the pages generated by each library application will create a unified Web Presence for the library.

	Breeding, Marshall Essential elements of a library Web site February 2004 In today’s world, a library’s presence on the Web ranks only slightly behind its building in shaping its user’s impressions. Library Web sites do an impressive job of representing the library in a positive and effective way. Breeding offers some of his observations and tips on issues that strike as essential elements of a library Web site.

	Breeding, Marshall The many facets of managing electronic resources January 2004 As libraries build ever-larger collections of electronic resources, finding ways to manage them efficiently becomes a major challenge. Managing these electronic resources involves providing the library’s user with convenient ways to find and access them and providing staff with tools to keep track of them. Two fundamental aspects in managing electronic resources: back-end acquisition functions and front-end content delivery, are discussed.

	Breeding, Marshall Instant messaging: it's not just for kids anymore November / December 2003 Breeding discusses the significance of instant messaging (IM) in communication today. By anyone’s definition, IM counts as "hip technology" and although it rides on technological components, IM is really about an interactive style of electronic conversations, replete with its own linguistic conventions.

	Breeding, Marshall The right technology: no-tech, low-tech, or high-tech October 2003 Breeding discusses the importance of considering the right technology as a solution to problems encountered by the systems librarian. He cites that technology is not always the answer to all problems, and that less is usually better and simplicity wins over complexity.

	Breeding, Marshall ILS update from ALA/CLA 2003 September 2003 The American Library Association Annual Conference usually provides the best opportunity to gather comprehensive information about the library automation industry. This year’s ALA/Canadian Library Association joint conference suffered from bad luck, with many potential attendees kept away because of concerns related to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.

	Breeding, Marshall Building a digital library of television news June 2003 Breeding comments on his latest project, the creation of a large-scale digital collection of video content from the Vanderbilt Television News Archive. He shares the different phases of his project and offers the various costs and challenges during the development.

	Breeding, Marshall Defending your ILS against security threats May 2003 Breeding discusses how to defend a library’s integrated library system (ILS) against security threats. A list of top 10-server security tips designed to protect ILS is offered.

	Breeding, Marshall Ramblings on the current library automation scene April 2003 Breeding discusses the corporate trends in the library automation industry, as well as the level of functionality available in the major automation systems. Library computer systems upgrades are opted to avail of the improved and user-friendly Web searching features. The standards of meta-searching capabilities of online topical searching have to be enhanced and a dynamic link using the OpenURL specification has to be developed.

	Breeding, Marshall Benchmarking technology: A theory of penultimacy March 2003 Breeding discusses the theory of penultimacy, the principle of choosing "second to the last" technologies. Buying a notch down from the top computer equipments could provide best possible technology for libraries at the lowest cost, though, thorough study of available options is still important. The cycle of technology development is described.

	Breeding, Marshall Protecting your library's data February 2003 As long as Breeding has been managing technology in libraries, one of his main concerns has always been ensuring that libraries manage their data well. In his experience, the only effective way to manage library data involves using network servers.

	Breeding, Marshall What you can expect from The Systems Librarian January 2003 Breeding discusses the job description and requirements of a systems librarian. A systems librarian may not always be a true librarian, they can also be network managers or automation specialists.

	Breeding, Marshall Know your users: monitoring the use of your website December 2002

	Breeding, Marshall Using the lib-web-cats directory November 2002 The lib-web-cats directory is mainly used by the general public to find libraries and their catalogs on the Web, but it also serves as a tool for tracking automation systems. The newly redesigned site (www.librarytechnology.org/libwebcats) is a completely voluntary, nonprofit endeavor, maintained to support the author’s interest in library automation and to provide a service to those who find it useful. As an academic discipline, library automation has few devotees lately. It is more of a practical interest that comes to the fore when one gets involved in selecting a new system. That is when a tool like lib-web-cats is especially helpful.

	Breeding, Marshall An update on Open Source ILS October 2002

	Breeding, Marshall The never-ending battle against spam October 2002 The spam problem threatens the overall usefulness of e-mail. When one has to spend large amounts of time browsing through hundreds of worthless, unwanted, and even offensive messages just to find the few that are important, the efficiency of e-mail is significantly compromised. Some tips on how to avoid spam are presented, such as keeping e-mail addresses away from spammers’ sight and offer only the essential information when conducting online transactions.

	Breeding, Marshall The challenges of converting to digital video July / August 2002

	Breeding, Marshall The benefits of library partnerships June 2002

	Breeding, Marshall Digital preservation: building digital collections that will outlast current technologies May 2002

	Breeding, Marshall The Open Archives Initiative April 2002

	Breeding, Marshall The Benefits of Wireless Technologies March 2002 Marshall Breeding presents an overview of wireless applications and discusses some of their library-specific uses

	Breeding, Marshall Expanding the systems librarian's toolkit January 2002 Marshall Breeding gives a backgrounder on Perl and suggests that librarians who are interested in developing their technical skills might want to learn this language to gain programming experience.

	Breeding, Marshall Demise of the WINGS ILL System December 2001 Marshall Breeding discusses this interlibrary loan solution, created by Pigasus Software, Inc., and its subsequent sale to Auto-Graphics

	Breeding, Marshall Update on technology trends and events November 2001 Marshall Breeding provides some new information about several library industry topics and issues he has recently covered.

	Breeding, Marshall OCLC announces the demise of SiteSearch July/August 2001 Marshall Breeding discusses OCLC’s impending discontinuation of the SiteSearch suite of products and speculates on the implications for its users

	Breeding, Marshall Offering remote access to restricted resources May 2001 Authentication, authorization, and proxy are the keys to success.

	Breeding, Marshall Perking up library applications December 2000 Marshall Breeding gives a crash course on Java and explains what it is, what it does, and how it works in the library environment.

	Breeding, Marshall Need information about libraries? July / August 2000 Marshall Breeding describes how he created lib-web-cats, a database of libraries, for his university’s library system.

	Breeding, Marshall The battle for bandwidth May 2000 THE SYSTEMS LIBRARIAN column discusses the lack of adequate bandwidth to support library applications, and some recent developments that exacerbate the problem. Says that there is a need for libraries to have sufficient Internet bandwidth to support the information services they provide to their users. Notes that most libraries have become increasingly dependent on the Internet, and it is strategically important to provide sufficient bandwidth for these services. Describes bandwidth-hungry applications, including those that distribute MP3 files. Relates that networks have used filters to block them, and users have become more aggressive in defying these efforts. Advises libraries to plan their acquisitions of Internet-based resources in coordination with proportional increases in bandwidth, and to be prepared to lobby for increased bandwidth to support the library’s operation.

	Breeding, Marshall Helping us keep track of it all March 2000 See how Web-enabled databases can make for smarter work~THE SYSTEMS LIBRARIAN column focuses on a project that might be of practical use to a systems librarian or to someone managing a systems office. Says that author chose this project to write about because it involves exciting technology - Web-enabled databases - and practical experience the author has gained by providing support for the Vanderbilt University libraries. Explains how the library technology team developed a Web-based problem-tracking system (PTS) and the features needed to make it effective. Notes that the technical portion of PTS consists of a database that holds information about each task, Web forms for retrieving information, Perl scripts that process the requests, and a piece of middleware that allows information in the database to be presented on the Web. Says that the project is just one example that demonstrates how useful Web-enabled databases can be.

	Breeding, Marshall epixtech: a new beginning for ALS January 2000

Library Technology Guides

Key resources in the field of Library Automation

Systems Librarian column