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 State of the Art in Library Discovery 2010 January / February 2010 Resource discovery tops the charts as the foremost issue within the realm of library automation. As a new year commences, I see a more pressing need to accelerate the pace with which libraries deliver content and services in ways that our users will find compelling, relevant, and convenient. The evolution of the web advances relentlessly, and librarians have to work hard to ensure that our offerings stay reasonably competitive among the wares of the many information providers on the web. In this month’s edition of The Systems Librarian, well review the current state of discovery tools for library content and consider some of the challenges that need to be addressed this year

	Breeding, Marshall The Advance of Computing From the Ground to the Cloud (full text ) November / December 2009 A trend toward the abstraction of computing platforms that has been developing in the broader IT arena over the last few years is just beginning to make inroads into the library technology scene. Cloud computing offers for libraries many interesting possibilities that may help reduce technology costs and increase capacity, reliability, and performance for some types of automation activities. Cloud computing has made strong inroads into other commercial sectors and is now beginning to find more traction in the library technology sector.

	Breeding, Marshall Social Networking Strategies for Professionals (full text ) October 2009

	Breeding, Marshall The Elusive Cost of Library Software (full text ) September 2009 A question that I’m often asked involves how much a library should expect to pay for automation software. As much as I try to understand all the various aspects of the library automation industry, I have never been able to discover a great deal of data describing what libraries actually pay for their automation products. While I have an informal sense of initial license payment and annual support fees paid by libraries of various types and sizes, it’s based only on sketchy information.

	Breeding, Marshall Libraries Thrive Through Enterprise Computing (full text ) June 2009 Enterprise computing ranks as one of the most firmly established trends in IT over the last decade. This approach involves building a single technical infrastructure, designed as an organic whole, that spans an organization. Enterprise networks address each aspect of computing with a single industrial-strength solution, rather than having individual units within the organization each solve the same problem. Libraries gain many benefits as they shift from self-contained silos to full partners within the enterprise networks of their parent organization.

	Breeding, Marshall Moving Forward Through Tech Cycles (full text ) May 2009 It’s a given that technology changes continually. Fve been working with automation in libraries long enough to have experienced a number of major changes in technology. I started in the days of mainframe computers, which gave way to midrange systems, which were later replaced by client/server systems. Today, the preferred technology platforms involve web-based systems, service-oriented architecture, and cloud computing. These preferences in technology shall also pass and will be replaced by new approaches to computing not yet invented

	Breeding, Marshall Maximizing the Impact of Digital Collections (full text ) April 2009 Libraries have been increasingly involved in the creation of digital library collections and other content repositories. It’s not unusual at all for libraries to be involved in digitizing collections of manuscripts, photographs, newspapers, postcards, or multimedia content such as audio recordings and radio or television programming. Academic libraries have become increasingly active in building repositories of content produced within their institutions and in other aspects of publishing scholarly content as well. While books and journals - both the print and electronic variety - stand as the mainstays of library content offerings, it’s the collections of rare, historic, or local material that provide the greatest opportunity to increase the impact that the library makes on its community. These collections of nontraditional content provide the best jewels of the library, and delivering them digitally can amplify their impact tremendously.

	Breeding, Marshall Library automation in a Difficult Ecomomy (full text ) March 2009 The downturn in the economy has taken its toll on libraries. Even in the best of times, most libraries have to work with budgets that are barely adequate to support their essential activities. In these recent months, the recession has subtracted significant funds from the parent organizations of many libraries: city, county, and state governments; public and private colleges and universities; schools; and corporations. In the sphere of libraries with which I’ve interacted, some have faced drastic budget cuts, including givebacks in their current fiscal cycle; others have been more lightly touched, facing only a year or so of zero-growth budgets. I’ve not heard from any libraries that expect increases in funding on the order of what they had a year ago.

	Breeding, Marshall Opening up library automation software (full text ) February 2009 One of the major themes that I’ve observed in the recent era of the library involves the demand for more openness in all aspects of the technology infrastructure. Libraries often articulate frustration at automation systems that fail to offer adequate access to the data and functionality of their automation systems. Libraries increasingly resist rigidly closed automation products that do not provide flexible access to the data and provide ways to connect to other products. Today’s library automation environment favors systems that can deliver, in one way or another, products that break away from closed, proprietary systems to allow libraries more liberal access to their data. Open source software has caught on in a big way within the library automation arena, but we’ll see that this is not the only approach possible as libraries seek options to gain more access and control over their data and other aspects of their technology environment.

	Breeding, Marshall The growing trend toward larger-scale cooperative library automation (full text ) January 2009 As I follow the library automation arena, one of the trends that I notice involves the movement toward more libraries cooperating to share automation systems. Libraries have a long history of cooperating in order to provide improved services to their users and to reduce their costs. In my area of interest - library automation - consortia and other cooperative arrangements provide opportunities to deliver access to broader collections to library users at lower costs to participating libraries.

	Breeding, Marshall Library Technology International (full text ) November / December 2008 I’ve been extremely fortunate over the last few years to have had the opportunity to travel to many different parts of the world and speak and work with librarians in many countries. It has been great to have the chance to see firsthand some incredible libraries that demonstrate creative approaches to library services, innovative uses of technology, expansive resource sharing, and pragmatic approaches to library automation. Let me give you a quick tour.

	Breeding, Marshall Digitizing Brings New Life to Video Collections (full text ) October 2008 For the last 5 years, the Vanderbilt Television News Archve has been working to digitize its collection of national news broadcasts. In 2002, the National Science Foundation funded a 1-year project to explore technologies and methodologies that could be applied to begin recording newscasts digitally and to digitize our existing videotape collection. The Archive won two sebsequent grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities to digitize its collections of evening news and special news broadcasts.

	Breeding, Marshall Managing Resources Comprehensively (full text ) September 2008 Breeding considers some of the broader issues at play in the way that libraries manage and provide access to electronic resources versus how they manage their print collections.

	Breeding, Marshall Winning the competition for attention on the Web (full text ) June 2008 Those involved in developing library Web sites can consider a number of measures to ensure that their own site runs counter to this trend and sees increased use over time.Some helpful techniques include search engine optimization to ensure the best possible exposure in the search engines and the highest rate of delivery of users from search engine results to your Web site, help out the Search Engines through XML Sitemaps, make good use of meta tags in Web page headers, leverage social bookmarking, and use RSS to draw users to your site. But more then anything else, the key to increasing interesting your library’s Web presence involves offering compelling and interesting content. Design your site to enhance, promote, and deliver access to the library’s collections and services

	Breeding, Marshall Beyond the current generation of next-generation library interfaces: deeper search (full text ) May 2008 One of the top issues in the library automation arena in the last couple of years involves the development of a new generation of interfaces to replace online catalogs that have fallen behind the expectation of Web savvy library users. This aspect of library automation currently attracts incredible interest—almost all libraries are giving consideration to how they can bring the search tools they offer for their collections and their overall Web presence up to the level expected on the Web today. Even in this early point in the adoption cycle of new library interfaces, it’s time to press onward toward even more effective and powerful search tools. In this month’s column I’m especially interested in exploring the expansion of metadata-based search into deep search based on the full content of digitized materials.

	Breeding, Marshall Content, Community and Visibility: a winning combination (full text ) April 2008 Today’s libraries operate in a dual existence, divided between in-person and online services. In the business realm it’s not at all unusual to have brick-and-mortar establishments and to offer ecommerce on the web. Library-asplace and the delivery of excellent service to patrons visiting in person remains the heart of most libraries. I think the need to deliver the library’s content and services both physically and virtually is just part of our reality. The online presence of a library is increasingly important and demands the same degree of creative thinking and planning as that devoted to its physical facilities and activities. This month’s column explores some issues related to attracting a growing and engaged community of patrons surrounding the library’s web presence.

	Breeding, Marshall Making a Business Case for Open Source ILS (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) December 2002

	Breeding, Marshall Using the lib-web-cats directory (full text ) 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 (full text ) October 2002

	Breeding, Marshall The never-ending battle against spam (full text ) 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 (full text ) July / August 2002

	Breeding, Marshall The benefits of library partnerships (full text ) June 2002

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

	Breeding, Marshall The Open Archives Initiative (full text ) April 2002 One of the most interesting recent developments in the digital library arena involves the Open Archives Initiative (OAI). Developed only within the last few years, many of the major players in digital libraries and scholarly communications have lent strong support to this new approach to information discovery, search, and retrieval. While still in the early phases of its deployment, we can see this initiative gaining significant momentum, and will likely be a key piece of the future digital library landscape.

	Breeding, Marshall The Benefits of Wireless Technologies (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) May 2001 Authentication, authorization, and proxy are the keys to success.

	Breeding, Marshall Perking up library applications (full text ) 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? (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) 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 (full text ) January 2000

Library Technology Guides

Key resources in the field of Library Automation

Systems Librarian column