"Overview of LIS"
In this article, the author makes the point of stating that since the 1980s, the world of integrated library systems has changed dramatically. Instead of just keeping track of print material, ILS have become a tool for users to access multimedia as well as print materials. They have become necessary to keep track of information that libraries license the rights for, rather than buying them outright. Any type of digital resource is now made available through ILS. This article also provides a list of vendors and the kinds of services they offer on today's market. Many of them focus on web databases and media storage. In the end, the focus is always on the modern library user and how ILS can best serve the user.
I think that while it is necessary for ILS to be dominant in the library field, it is also necessary to make them easier to use and make them more accessible. Many ILS of public libraries are just bought because the vendor had the best price, rather than had what the user needs. If people cannot easily pick up how to use the ILS, then having the resource is pointless.
"Re-integrating the integrated library system"
This article offers an opposing viewpoint to the previous article. The author states that ILS are not being used as much as they once were because of a lack of integration and cohesiveness of the resource. Rather than having software that works well with other packages, libraries have just been buying what is convenient and what is purported to do the job. Customizing a library's online environment is wonderful, but only if it can do its job seemlessly, which most systems can not. Supplements of ILS need to run well enough with the ILS in order for libraries to do their jobs properly.
I think that this article does a good job of noting how people tend to grab at new technologies without seeing if they are the best option or how they will work in the future. Libraries need to think ahead and anticipate users' needs and build ILS for those needs rather than just buying ILS because it is the most up to date version. Libraries need to offer more simple interfaces that are more coherent, or else they will lose their users.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
9/21 Post
C. N. Mooers (1960). “Mooers’Law or, Why Some Retrieval Systems Are Used and Others Are Not. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 1996 vol:23 iss:1 (via ProQuest database)
This article encapsulates a lot of different reasons on why users tend to use certain systems, whether or not those are the types of systems that would benefit the most. Mooers basically states that users are kind of lazy, and that they are more likely to use a system that will give them less information, because less information means less work. Supervisors will also prefer getting less information because it gets them a result more quickly, rather than getting a result that is well researched. Librarians like the systems that will get them the most information, and have it be accurate information, but this also means that they must spend a lot of time trying to find it and then sift through it in order to analyze the information.
This point that I took away from this article is that people are more likely to use a system like Google, which will get them a concise amount of information quickly, rather than search with more reliable sources for better information. As a future librarian, this is difficult to understand from a personal viewpoint, as I have always sought out the best information using the best resources that I can find.
K. Antelman,
This article follows the journey of a school to find a better online catalog. They use the Endeca IAP application which solves the problems of a lot of existing catalogs. Many online catalogs are difficult to use because they are not intuitive for the user. This application tries to better itself by adding spellcheck, returning relevant ordered keyword searches, and improving subject heading access. The end result of the study on this new catalog proved that the Endeca IAP application provides more accurate and relevant search results and is overall a better fit for this institution.
I think that online catalogs are one of the biggest problems that libraries have to work with. At my own public library, our catalog does not return results based on relevancy at all, it is hard to find the location of the item, and it holds a lot of inaccurate information. If more institutions were to carefully consider the catalog for its users, they might be able to deliver better service.
Question for class: Should librarians try to change the way people search for information and the systems they use? Or should they develop systems that are more targeted to how the user searches?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Blog Post #1
Kochtanel and Matthews (2002). Ch.1. The evolution of LIS and enabling technologies. In Library Information Systems pp.3-12.
In this article, the authors discuss the start of LIS and the technologies that helped spur on this informational revolution since the 1930s. Four different eras have encompassed the span of ILS existence: the Systems Era, the Era of Functionality, Focus on the End User, and the Globalization of Information Resources. In the Systems Era, software and hardware were being developed to help process this information, putting technology at the forefront of informational studies. The Era of Functionality focused on getting the most out of newly developed softwares in order to make the library a more efficient machine. Focus on the End User put the patron at the head of the list of priorities when developing new technologies. What does the customer need? How can we deliver the product to the customer more efficiently? The Globalization of Information Resources has erupted with the globalization of the internet. People all over the world have access to the internet, so information is at our fingertips at any moment.
I think that the biggest idea that I took away from the article is that the library world and its technologies are constantly evolving. In the last 70 years we have seen technology develop more quickly than any other time in history, and libraries have gone under dramatic changes because of it. I think that this means that librarians need to be ahead of the game in following the development of new technologies that will directly impact library functionality, rather than wait for new technologies to develop and see what happens.
Arnold Hirshon (2008). Environmental scan: A report on trends and technologies affecting libraries.
This article addresses the different issues that arise in the library world as new technologies re developed and accepted into general use by the public. With the recent downfall of the world economy, people's ideas about what is important are changing. Along with Generation Y, people put more value behind technology and have different expectations about information gathering than in the past. Privacy is becoming easier to violate because we put more information out there, but we do not know how to protect it. Mobile computing is becoming the main way people access information online. Generation Y puts a different value on the library as an institution because of the evolution of e-books and online texts. The library needs to understand its new functionalities as a physical space and in the virtual world.
What I have taken away from this article is that the younger generations actually think differently than previous generations of library users. Because of technological resources, we now process information differently than our predecessors. I think that university and public libraries need to become more adaptable to the technologies that are developing so rapidly, but they also need to realize that there are some ways of doing things that are still tried and true. I love thinking of the library as a quiet sanctuary for books and people who want to learn, but this definition is changing, and I am going to have to adapt with each new definition in order to remain relevant as a professional.
My question for this week is: will there be a backlash against all of these changes based on technological developments? Will people experience a digital overload and want to return to older ways of processing information?
In this article, the authors discuss the start of LIS and the technologies that helped spur on this informational revolution since the 1930s. Four different eras have encompassed the span of ILS existence: the Systems Era, the Era of Functionality, Focus on the End User, and the Globalization of Information Resources. In the Systems Era, software and hardware were being developed to help process this information, putting technology at the forefront of informational studies. The Era of Functionality focused on getting the most out of newly developed softwares in order to make the library a more efficient machine. Focus on the End User put the patron at the head of the list of priorities when developing new technologies. What does the customer need? How can we deliver the product to the customer more efficiently? The Globalization of Information Resources has erupted with the globalization of the internet. People all over the world have access to the internet, so information is at our fingertips at any moment.
I think that the biggest idea that I took away from the article is that the library world and its technologies are constantly evolving. In the last 70 years we have seen technology develop more quickly than any other time in history, and libraries have gone under dramatic changes because of it. I think that this means that librarians need to be ahead of the game in following the development of new technologies that will directly impact library functionality, rather than wait for new technologies to develop and see what happens.
Arnold Hirshon (2008). Environmental scan: A report on trends and technologies affecting libraries.
This article addresses the different issues that arise in the library world as new technologies re developed and accepted into general use by the public. With the recent downfall of the world economy, people's ideas about what is important are changing. Along with Generation Y, people put more value behind technology and have different expectations about information gathering than in the past. Privacy is becoming easier to violate because we put more information out there, but we do not know how to protect it. Mobile computing is becoming the main way people access information online. Generation Y puts a different value on the library as an institution because of the evolution of e-books and online texts. The library needs to understand its new functionalities as a physical space and in the virtual world.
What I have taken away from this article is that the younger generations actually think differently than previous generations of library users. Because of technological resources, we now process information differently than our predecessors. I think that university and public libraries need to become more adaptable to the technologies that are developing so rapidly, but they also need to realize that there are some ways of doing things that are still tried and true. I love thinking of the library as a quiet sanctuary for books and people who want to learn, but this definition is changing, and I am going to have to adapt with each new definition in order to remain relevant as a professional.
My question for this week is: will there be a backlash against all of these changes based on technological developments? Will people experience a digital overload and want to return to older ways of processing information?
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