Library Technology Guides

Libraries expect continuity from the organizations that they rely on for strategic technology products. Libraries tend to make use of their automation products for incredibly long periods and expect them to be supported and enhanced throughout a prolonged life cycle. I observe that a typical lifespan of an integrated library system implementation in a library exceeds a decade, with some libraries keeping systems in place for as long as 25 years. It's even more common to see a library transition through a series of automation products provided through the same vendor. While many libraries do change vendors, I observe that the tendency is to be loyal to automation suppliers.

Innovative Interfaces, Inc. has appointed Kim Massana as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective upon the announcement on August 27, 2012. Jerry Kline continues as Chairman and Neil Block as President.

Bibliotheca, the consolidated global company specializing in RFID products for libraries, announced a change in executive management of its North American operations. Shai Robkin will step down as President, and Al Coalla, formerly North American Sales Director will step into this position on October 1, 2012. Coalla joined Biblioteca in November 2011 and previously served as Director of Sales at EnvisionWare.

In previous issues of Smart Libraries Newsletter, we reported on the partnership for the BIBSYS consortium, comprising more than 100 research and special libraries in Norway to implement OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS). The BIBSYS project has been presented by OCLC as an example of a large-scale project based on WMS that uses it as a foundation to support applications and services created by libraries and other third parties, as is the vision for the WorldShare Platform. OCLC and BIBSYS have recently announced that the project has been discontinued.

OCLC and Europeana have recently reached an agreement that would allow member libraries to contribute data to the Europeana.eu portal and remain within the WorldCat Rights and Responsibilities guidelines. Under this agreement, OCLC member libraries can contribute metadata derived from WorldCat using the Creative Commons Zero public domain license. Europeana and OCLC would then request that subsequent users of that contributed metadata give attribution to OCLC and the contributing institution.