(can i say before I start that Paul's voice is even cuter in person than on the podcast? took me right back to my study abroad days in Dundee--but I digress
There were about a dozen bloggers in the room here, most of whom with much bigger readerships than I, and they were all very friendly and gracious. Thanks from the 2.0 newbie. :-) Then the presentation started, and Paul proceeded to shift my paradigms--something that has been happening about every other session so far.
The highlight reel:
Library 2.0=Fundamental shift in how libraries approach users--we must integrate INTO WHERE THE USERS ARE.
--Open the Library
--push the library everywhere
--engage with actual AND POTENTIAL users--The system's broken, not the user
--Disaggregate the ILS (this from an ILS vendor!)...and bring systems together
--Shared innovation
Attempts to harness the innovation: the "mashing up the library contest"
What makes Library 2.0 possible?
--Falling cost of storage
--" " of computing power
--growing connectivity
--"camera 2.0"
--commoditization & virtual servers
the 3 Os
--open source,
--open data,
--open APIs (I gotta learn how to do API programming--we need some gadgets for the new website
The essence of 2.0 is an "architecture of participation", encouraging users to participate in the cataloging process (who just saw their catalogers have a panic attack if they ever heard that Idea?)
"The library is coming down from it's high horse just a bit."
Does your vendor have an open environment/architecture? are they engaging in conversations?
How to create a platform for participation:
--Open SOurce ILS
--Shared Innovation (Talis Keystone)--bolting open-source monules on top of the traditional ILS, enabling connections to the univ. portal,the institution's finance software, etc--2.0 by evolution, not revolution
--OPEN DATA (THIS ROCKED MY WORLD!!!!)--we may wind up with open source software that sends us to proprietary, locked-down data...
THE CURRENT DATA STORAGE MODEL (AKA OCLC, though he didn;t say that flat-out) IS FLAWED!!!!
--WHY DO WE PAY TO CONTRIBUTE OUR OWN DATA?
--Limited data mobility (as my institution is trying to set up a resource sharing scheme with our non-OCLC public library, I know this issue intimately)
--If we don't address the data portability/freedom issues, we're just "putting lipstick on a silo"
--CONTRIBUTION CAN AND SHOULD BE FREE--we can make it mobile and accessible, while policing data integrity (we can rebuild OCLC in open source--we have the technology. we can make it better, stronger, more open...*thwacks self back into sense*)
The coming of the OPEN SYSTEMS--check out the silkworm directory at Talis, and Bigfoot data stores
What open data enables:
--greasemonkey scripts that let you automatically look up amazon or librarything items in the opac
--grouping web service--search multiple library opacs IN ONE SEARCH WINDOW, or build an api widget for that search...
--Aquabrowser for the library portal
--Cenote--mashes multiple opacs and amazon data
Conclusions:
Liberate the data
Get the data to the user, not vice versa
Open Thinking
Shared Innovation
~~~~~~~~~
My thoughts--WOW. I'm still trying to sort this out in my head, but I think some of these technologies could have some profound implications for my rural-ish, 3-campus university. so what to introduce, how to do it, and how to get buy-in...Watch this space. :-)
