2009 Annual ASERL Membership Meeting Overview and Context

2009 Annual ASERL Membership Meeting Overview and Context of Cloud Systems for Libraries Marshall Breeding Director for Innovative Technology and Research Vanderbilt University Library http: //www. librarytechnology. org/

What is Cloud Computing? Highly abstracted model of computing Displaces the need for local hardware and software Provisioned on demand Metered use of storage and computing cycles Platform-as-a-service Storage-as-a-service Emerging model for library discovery and automation Increasingly dubbed “Web-scale”

Crowded Landscape of Information Providers on the Web Lots of non-library Web destinations deliver content to library patrons ◦ ◦ Google Scholar Amazon. com Wikipedia Ask. com Do Library Web sites and catalogs meet the information needs of our users? Do they attract their interest?

Libraries in Transition Print > Electronic Increasing emphasis on subscribed content, especially articles and databases Strong emphasis on digitizing local collections New generations of library users: ◦ Millennial generation ◦ Web savvy ◦ Pervasive Web 2. 0 concepts

The Competition

Disjointed approach to information and service delivery Silos Prevail ◦ Books: Library OPAC (ILS module) ◦ Articles: Aggregated content products, ejournal collections ◦ Open. URL linking services ◦ E-journal finding aids (Often managed by link resolver) ◦ Local digital collections ETDs, photos, rich media collections ◦ Metasearch engines All searched separately

More than the “library catalog” More comprehensive information discovery environments Primary search tool that extends beyond print resources Digital resources cannot be an afterthought Systems designed for e-content only are also problematic Forcing users to use different interfaces depending on type of content becoming less tenable Libraries working toward consolidated user environments that give equal footing to digital and print resources

Evolutionary Path Bound handwritten catalogs Card Catalogs Library online catalogs – OPACs Discovery interfaces Web-scale discovery services

A simple vision A single point of entry to all the content and services offered by the library Search:

Modernized Interface Single search box Query tools ◦ Did you mean ◦ Type-ahead Relevance ranked results Faceted navigation Enhanced visual displays ◦ Cover art ◦ Summaries, reviews, Recommendation services

Online Catalog vs. Discovery Layer Online Catalog ◦ Interface conventions from an earlier Web era ◦ Scope: Tied to the ILS and its content domain Discovery Layer ◦ Modern interface elements ◦ Scope: aims to address broad range of components that constitute library collections

Discovery Products

Decoupled from ILS

Discovery Interface Products Aqua. Browser Ex Libris Primo Innovative Interfaces: Encore Serials Solutions: Summon (under development) Sirsi. Dynix Enterprise The Library Corporation: LS 2 PAC VUFind (open source) Biblio. Commons e. Xtensible Catalog (under development)

Social discovery ◦ Tags, user-supplied ratings and reviews ◦ Leverage social networking interactions to assist readers in identifying interesting materials: Biblio. Commons ◦ Leverage use data for a recommendation service of scholarly content based on link resolver data: Ex Libris b. X service

Discovery product Trend Initial products focused on technology ◦ Aqua. Browser, Endeca, Primo, Encore, VUfind ◦ Mostly locally-installed software Current phase focused on pre-populated indexes that aim to deliver Web-scale discovery ◦ ◦ Summon (Serials Solutions) World. Cat Local (OCLC) EBSCO Discovery Service (EBSCO) Primo Central

Beyond Federated search Federated Search / Metasearch use real-time queries against multiple information targets No centralized index – presentation of dynamic results Shallow results -- only a few results initially fetched from each target Difficult to calculate relevancy Performance challenges

Federated Search ILS Data Digital Collections Search: Pro. Quest Search Results EBSCOhost … MLA Bibliography ABC-CLIO Real-time query and responses

ILS Data Discovery Interface Local Index Digital Collections Meta. Search Engine Search: EBSCOhost Search Results Pro. Quest … MLA Bibliography ABC-CLIO Real-time query and responses

ILS Data Web-scale Search Results Consolidated Index Search: Digital Collections Pro. Quest EBSCOhost … MLA Bibliography ABC-CLIO Pre-built harvesting and indexing

Beyond local discovery interfaces Pre-populated indexes Web-scale ◦ Exploits the full depth and breadth of library collections ◦ Beyond the bounds of the local library’s collection ◦ Targets the universe of objective, vetted library content Includes full-text indexing to the fullest extent possible

Web scale discovery Indexing the full corpus of information available globally Google aims to address all the world’s information Not quite comprehensive – partial harvesting of any given resource Discovery Layer Products for libraries aim to address all content collected by libraries: Or at least major portions Print Remotely access electronic content: e-journals, e-books, databases, licensed and open access. Local special collections: digital and print. Addresses the comprehensive body of content held within library collections Comprehensive, unified

Pre-populated discovery services New-generation interface Harvested local content ◦ ILS metadata ◦ Institutional repositories, ETDs, Digital Collection platforms Vendor-supplied indexes of library content ◦ E-journals, databases, e-books Full-text and metadata corresponding to e-content subscriptions ◦ Book collections beyond local library collections

Deep indexing Entering post-metadata search era Increasing opportunities to search the full contents ◦ Google Library Print, Google Publisher, Open Content Alliance, government publications, etc. ◦ High-quality metadata will improve search precision Commercial search providers already offer “search inside the book” and searching across the full text of large book collections Not currently available through most library search environments ◦ Will be an important feature of projects such as Hathi. Trust Deep search highly improved by high-quality metadata

Discovery / Library Business Automation Now viewed as separate problem Many interdependencies Current model of feeding discovery systems from many underlying repositories ◦ ILS / e-journal collections / collections of digital objects Will models of resource management change to consolidate the repositories? Realign Discovery and management?

Competing Models of Library Automation Traditional Proprietary Commercial ILS ◦ Millennium, Symphony, Polaris Traditional Open Source ILS ◦ Evergreen, Koha Clean slate automation framework (SOA, enterprise-ready) ◦ Ex Libris URM, OLE Project Cloud-based automation system ◦ World. Cat Local (+circ, acq, license management)

A new phase of library automation Beyond selecting one brand from an assortment of similar products Several conceptually diverse options Companies and projects now competing on innovation