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The conference started for me on Friday afternoon by my participation in the RMG
Presidents’ Seminar: “The View from the Top”. This year’s topic was entitled: Industry Leaders Give Their Best Advice to Libraries in These Changing Times. Now in its
eleventh year, this annual midwinter program has traditionally featured only the presidents or their delegates of the major ILS vendors. During the past couple of years, however, the
representation and content of this program has shifted away from functional and competitive comparisons among the various ILS vendors toward broader and more open
discussions of issues confronting libraries arising from deployment of new technology. One specific topic this year, for example, was on the effects of public library “filtering”
derived directly as a consequence of public policy and legislation driving librarians to deploy technology, that is today still deficient (technically), to deliver the required
outcomes. As we are coming to recognize, a specific consequence of web content “filtering” is often to disqualify web
sites that use “bad words” or discuss topics like pornography in its proper context.
Several aspects of this pre-conference are worth reviewing because they represented what was observed later on the exhibit floor.
This year only three ILS vendors were represented: Vinod Chachra for
VTLS Inc and Steve Silverstein for Innovative Interfaces Inc
—both of whom have participated in all previous conferences, and Ms. Lana Porter, representing epixtech Library Services Inc
this year and for the past several years. Two major booksellers, Baker & Taylor, Inc. and Ingram Library Services were represented; and the remaining
panelists were from a cross-section of information aggregator and content providers, including netLibrary,
ebrary.com, ISI ResearchSoft,
Rowecom, and Questia Media Inc..
A simple conclusion might be that librarians now expect their integrated library systems to
incorporate the management of digital information external to the library by integrating its Internet access in harmony with access to local collections. Furthermore, this online
technology is being driven by the consumer interests of the Internet and not directly by many external or library-imposed standards. Any number of new library services enabled
by technology are likely to require the ILS vendor to make deals with digital content providers in new and perhaps paradoxical ways.
This “morphing of services” among these vendors is continuing to play out in several ways.
The emerging e-book industry is being heavily financed not only by the many specific publishers who invest because they expect to digitize their books, but also for netLibrary,
it turns out that Blackwell’s and epixtech are examples of companies who became capital investors (and distributors for) this start-up venture.
The first issue of the ALA conference Cognotes, published Saturday, January 13,
contained a full two-page program advertisement for netLibrary’s midwinter conference series where 15 programs(!) describing use of eBooks in various types of libraries were
sponsored, including specific programs detailing the ILS integration of eBooks with Innovative Interfaces, Sirsi Corporation’s iBistro,
Follett, and epixtech’s DYNIX and HORIZON products.
While not directly related to this conference, readers may appreciate knowing of a report,
announced January 4th in Publishers Weekly (PW), that Barnesandnoble.com will launch Barnes & Noble Digital, an electronic publishing imprint expecting to produce thousands of
new, out-of-print, public-domain and original titles in e-book editions over the next few years. PW regards this as “…a challenge to traditional publishers,” and certainly this also
represents an example of an online bookseller staking out a leadership position by competing directly with its original content publishers. In a striking coincidence, on the
same day as the PW announcement, the New York Times extensively reviewed four major e-book readers and their supportive reading and downloading technologies,
basically concluding that “ … until the cost of portable, digital reading is reduced, it would be unlikely books would be replaced”.
Another area of convergence for Bookseller, Publisher, ILS vendor is the OPAC,
specifically linking the library catalog to content on the Web. In last year’s coverage of ALA Midwinter it was noted a discernable trend toward implementing the idea of a
customized and personalized OPAC to reflect the interests and needs of the individual user. In addition to this web-based OPAC, there continues to be an integration of browser
functionality resulting in a “look and feel” of the customized browser experience.
The Library Corporation/CARL Corporation There is nothing not to like about one positive result of this particular ILS corporate
merger, the Kid’s Catalog Web that now lets local libraries enhance their “Kid’s Catalogs” with links to external web resources using the WebBuilder software. TLC calls its
personalized OPAC design YouSeeMore, and indeed you can see more, including your local weather, book reviews, access to Encyclopaedia Britannica, and to any Z39.50
library catalog. This is a new product, with promise of many more features to come.
Innovative Interfaces reports that with both cataloging and ILL modules in beta, their
Millennium integrated library system is complete. Innovative’s digital strategy is built upon MAP (Millennium Access Plus) which provides users direct access to the Web through
the OPAC, returning all results in a consistent interface. An example of a Circulation service extension now available using MAP (and an example of e-commerce) is
Innovative’s deployment of a web-based payment system. Patrons can pay their fines and other charges using credit cards through their web browsers. Innovative is also developing
a product called “WebCrawler” in a joint project with Michigan State University. Michigan is building a digital collection of recordings to be made available on the Web using
XML-encoded Web pages, with descriptive metadata employing EAD. The joint project provides for the extraction of metadata from the XML EAD records and loading the descriptive fields into the MSU
Web OPAC. This project appears to reflect similar thinking to that of Brodart and SIRSI; namely, cataloging web resources with MARC
records and indexing them in the local OPAC (see following).
Specifically, and among the trends for content “linking”, there has emerged at least two
instances where vendors are creating MARC cataloging records for web sites and physically merging them into the library’s catalog; now being available for search and
display along with traditional records for books and media.
iBistro (from SIRSI) enables the OPAC user to keep track of favorite authors and other
materials of interest. It provides best seller lists from the New York Times, PW, and other sources, thus melding various content into the OPAC. The presentation is visually
stunning. Some of the content for iBistro comes through recent alliances formed with netLibrary, Syndetic Solutions, Inc,
Cahner's Business Information, and
Northern Light Technology, Inc. For example, Syndetic Solutions provides a digital scan of a book’s
cover, its table of contents, summary, the author’s biography, along with other information designed to enhance the user’s experience of the OPAC. Cahners provides book reviews
from PW, LJ and School Library Journal.
SIRSI used the conference to officially announce the appointment of a new president,
Patrick C. Sommers, recently CEO of Dialog Corporation, leaving Jim and Jacky Young (two of SIRSI’s founders) to continue devoting their efforts to strategic developments.
SIRSI is also funding an affiliate company, LibraryHQ, to create MARC cataloging records for selected web sites (some 20,000+ cataloged so far). The bibliographic service is being
marketed under the name SiteSource. These MARC records comprise a database that can be indexed into the library’s catalog for OPAC display when searched by the various
indexes supported by the ILS software. Dr. Jim Veatch, founder of SiteSource, claims that by cataloging web sites in this fashion, his company is doing a form of “white-listing”
(as opposed to “blacklisting”) and thus filtering, or mediating information in the best tradition of librarianship. SiteSource records will be sold to non-SIRSI customers directly,
as well as to other ILS vendors for integration with their respective products. Can librarians “tame the Web” by selectively cataloging sites?
Along with SIRSI is a new product from Brodart Co
called DartClix. Starting this January, Brodart will offer libraries a monthly database of some 500 professionally selected and cataloged web sites.
As with SiteSource, each record will be in MARC format and contain LC
subject headings and 520, 521 content annotations. DartClix records will be provided to Brodart’s Amlib customers and will also be offered for sale to libraries using other vendor systems.
This matter of Web linking and web site cataloging causes lively discussions among
librarians about how extensively they should enable their OPAC terminals to freely surf the web. Some vendors attempt to “lock in” their users by authorizing access to specific sites
only. Others argue that selected PCs can be designated for open or restricted access. Time and experience will tell.
VTLS announces they will partner with RLG (Research Libraries Group) to bundle RLG’s ILL Manager with their Virtua ILS suite.
In a bold move, Pigasus Software, Inc
intends to start giving away a portion of its ILL WINGS capability under the label of INDEPENDENCE Request Management System. To be given free of charge
to any library is the capability to send and receive requests using ISO 10161 peer-to-peer messaging without also providing other WINGS features. According to published sources,
the official launch will be Summer ALA; meanwhile Pigasus has previously structured deals with VTLS, TLC, , and other ILS vendors for integrating software with their offerings.
Pigasus has also announced its agreement with Sea Change Corporation to include that company’s
WebClarity Z39.50 broadcast search capability into the WINGS ILL system. Library staff
can use WebClarity to locate possible suppliers for ILL requests or to search and download bibliographic citations without need to re-key as requests in the local system.
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Other news from system vendors
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The development of Taos continues. Data Research Associates,
Inc.
reported twenty-two sites had been upgraded, most recently Torrance Public Library, which did a complete migration locally and
independently, i.e., without any direct technical support from DRA. All Taos sites still lack the Acquisitions module, now promised for spring delivery this year.
VTLS plans to launch Virtua SLE in April 2001. SLE stands for “small library edition”, a
packaged low-cost solution for smaller libraries willing to use Linux and Oracle on Intel computers.
Two market leaders in the academic library orbit (Ex-Libris and
Endeavor Information Systems have announced new benchmarks
in their deployment of digital library strategies. DigitToolLibrary from Ex-Libris is being offered to libraries as “the complete management solution to the problems of building and
maintaining digital collections”. Ex-Libris has also invested in a new technology, called SFX, or Context-Sensitive Reference Linking. Briefly, SFX is based on a possible new
standard, called OpenURL, which is an interoperability specification premised on the idea that links may themselves contain information about what is contained in the related
resources. When links are displayed users decide what related services they wish to use. Look for details at www.sfxit.com, including a list of beta users working in association with Ghent University in Belgium. The OpenURL was submitted and accepted by NISO for
fast-track development as an ANSI Standard.
Endeavor calls its architecture for managing the digital library ENCompass. The Getty,
Cornell University and Kansas State are beta partners for what appears as a single, unified user interface providing client searching against all local and remote collections that might
include search terms. Virtual catalogs therefore would include not only local ENCompass repositories, but the traditional local library catalogs, commercial indexes and abstracts,
and remote repositories and libraries.
Announcements of contract awards for Ex-Libris, as of January 11, include the University of California at Santa Barbara, and all 16 components of the University of
Maryland to install the ALEPH 500 ILS system. Endeavor announced on January 12 that Cambridge University had contracted to purchase its Voyager software for the main
University library. As a footnote, Elsevier’s purchase of Endeavor may pay off for some libraries. Customers of both can now receive “free” online access to the full text articles of
Elsevier’s electronic journals through Voyager systems—but only for a year, as the offer is limited to a single rolling year of the library’s subscribed Elsevier journals.
Many librarians come to ALA conferences expecting to hear rumors and announcements
of mergers among ILS vendors. Conference attendees this year were not disappointed. Geac rumors persist that all (or parts) of that company are indeed for sale.
AutoGraphics timed its announced purchase of the software assets of Maxcess Library
Systems to coincide with the Midwinter conference. Through its product suite of Impact/ONLINE cataloging and CD-ROM physical union catalogs, AutoGraphics currently
provides ASP services to more than 9,000 libraries in North America. According to its President, Michael Skiles, the purchase affords numerous new opportunities and older
product replacements for the company. Currently there were no ASP solutions for Circulation, Acquisitions, and Serials. Maxcess has a complete Web-based ILS product,
VERSO (installed in about 40-libraries, and which is likely to be renamed by the new owner), and it will replace SliMS which has been the ‘small library integrated management
system’ installed by AutoGraphics in some 100- libraries. In another bold move, AutoGraphics will integrate the Pigasus WINGS ILL system as part of its ASP solutions.
A very interesting merger recently occurred in Europe (Dec. 5, 2000) as
Best-Seller Inc acquired ALS International and renamed the company BiblioMondo
. According to its ALA representatives, BiblioMondo is preparing for a major play for customers in the U.S. Existing Best-Seller
customers appear to consist largely of corporate types (including America OnLine), so it remains to be seen how effective the efforts will be with other types of libraries. In its
current status the Portfolio product is web-based, and the Acquisitions module looks nifty for its browser-based potential for
downloading bib and cataloging data from web-based suppliers.
Library Systems and Services has been selling digital reference software that allows libraries to offer live, real-time
reference services on the Web. A “Live-Link” on the OPAC screen will take the user to a login to the next available reference librarian (who is contracted by LSSI or who may be
local staff). A number of libraries have signed up for this more recent example of “outsourcing”.
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Goodbye Old Economy - Hello New !
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For those curious about what is going on in other domains, Bernan Press, traditional print
publisher of essential reference books focused mainly on exploiting information in governmental publications, is digitizing its third edition of Government Information on the
Internet. Approximately 4500 government web sites are referenced, many with detailed descriptions of the scope and coverage to their related agency publications. Bernan plans
to offer libraries (and individuals) the option to place Internet-based subscriptions to the content of this database. Sounds like more of a good idea: but why not index these
entries directly into the library’s catalog and enable the user to access the sources directly?
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