For many years, libraries have been dreaming about a simple, easy, fast search solution that unifies all of the resources into a single repository. In the current model, the user is faced with the problem of dealing with multiple information silos and no-compelling starting place in implementing their search. Recently, the introduction of a “Web-scale discovery” layer, or Next-Generation Catalog, can provide this starting point for library patrons. This talk will discuss how these Next-Generation library discovery applications can go beyond the local library holdings and beyond federated search to offer a single Google like search service across all local and subscription resources.
VAC: create nebulous paths for existing products: Voyager, Aleph support will continue, but how much longer will it really be in EL’s interest to continue developing them, given URM? Some niche modules like Media Scheduling have already fallen by the wayside. How much longer will it make sense for us to stick with the current ILS? If libraries offer alternatives to the front-end, they’ll learn lessons about the backend too. The vendors know that in these budget times, we need better back-office efficiency. CLIR’s No Brief Candle report and plenty of other sources say we need to change. sometimes reduce choice as products are merged 360Search + WebFeat = ?? new products evolve rapidly See Primo -> services -> Central insert new consortia/vendors into existing markets Not just for “library automation” vendors anymore – using corporate relationships to leverage content (SerSol and ProQuest) OCLC’s WorldCat Local, now it’s adding articles and Web-scale acq, cat and circ functions One company sticks its neck out and does something innovative, and other companies and industry players then race to catch up to that: SerialsSolutions launched Summon, and now EBSCO, Ex Libris, and OCLC are all chasing after them into that market segment. Open source: Evergreen’s acq/serials not very mature yet, and many academics are hanging back to watch UPEI and Conifer for a while. We have the Michigan Evergreen consortium of public libraries, and the academics have had one conversation so far about it, but that’s all to date. Products years away: OLE’s still to work out funding to have something non-partners can use by mid-2013 (not to mention the tectonic shift that’s going to need to happen for enterprise IT to allow the library to leverage systems like Banner, PeopleSoft, and Blackboard rather than continuing to have a “patron database” in the ILS). Ex Libris just announced URM development partners, so who knows when there’ll be a mature URM that the larger customer base can implement? Flux, uncertainty and disruption force very careful choices in tight budget times – now’s not the time to be changing ILSs or implementing fed search tools, IMHO
Nina McHale spoke about this at length yesterday. You can create some metasilos If one silo fails, you may get incomplete results PsycINFO may be fast, but what about other silos that are slower? WebFeat: you can’t do a three-term search with Booleans if all X databases haven’t implemented such functionality the same way It’s a starting point.
Early Primo was an overlay that still showed you Voyager records, still ran a db search federated Later Primo started harvesting and using Web services so you didn’t have to see Voy anymore, but Vanderbilt still uses fed search – watch the timebar Now PrimoCentral is a big index that’s Web-scale/cloud based. Growing number of publishers joining. That’s three evolutions libraries and users have had to grok over 2-3 years. The best new systems use tools like Lucene/Solr: Ex Libris, VuFind, etc. Why bother cataloging things in such detail if we can’t use the fields? We need to choose how we index things (though public services and tech services may not agree – the more fields we include, the broader the search), though we need to think carefully about how much time to spend on things that go further and further down the long tail.
Early Primo was an overlay that still showed you Voyager records, still ran a db search federated Later Primo started harvesting and using Web services so you didn’t have to see Voy anymore, but Vanderbilt still uses fed search – watch the timebar Now PrimoCentral is a big index that’s Web-scale/cloud based. Growing number of publishers joining. That’s three evolutions libraries and users have had to grok over 2-3 years. The best new systems use tools like Lucene/Solr: Ex Libris, VuFind, etc. Why bother cataloging things in such detail if we can’t use the fields? We need to choose how we index things (though public services and tech services may not agree – the more fields we include, the broader the search), though we need to think carefully about how much time to spend on things that go further and further down the long tail.