Hectic Pace

Time Flying and Fun Having

2010-01-08T16:18:48Z

I woke up yesterday slightly startled by the realization that it was my two year anniversary with OCLC. A lot has happened in those two years. Besides all the personal adjustments, which of course are not trivial, work has been unbelievably busy and rewarding. But don't take my word for it--apparently moving library management services to the cloud attracted a lot of attention last year as the number one story at Library Journal.

But the year was more than a news releases, we've actually got working software and it's being tested by the initial pilot libraries. We've got great engagement from our Advisory Council as well. I was going to start holding forth on what the future will hold, but my good friend Roy Tennant just warned me about doing that. I'll get back to trying to make the future.

If you want to catch me at ALA, I'll be pontificating and/or presenting in a couple of venues:

RMG 2010 ALA/Midwinter Annual President's Seminar
Friday, January 15, 2010
2:00 - 5:00 p.m., Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 162 A/B
No, I was not promoted to President, but I am honored to sit amongst the peers whom I used watch on this yearly panel.

Web Scale for Libraries: A Sea Change for the 21st Century
Saturday, January 16, 2010
4:00 - 5:30 p.m., Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Room 162 A/B
Come learn about OCLC's effort to move library management system functionality to Web scale. New network-level functionality will include cooperative services for circulation and delivery, print and licensed acquisitions, and license management.

You can sign up for that second one and other OCLC events here. You can also find me at the OCLC Breakfast on Sunday morning, Top Technology Trends (10:30-12 on Sunday in 162 A/B...man, I should just sleep in that room!), and the LITA Town Meeting on Monday morning.

Another busy ALA, but I'm looking forward to it.

Jingle Books

2009-12-23T03:45:02Z

Dashing through the stacks

with a Kindle in my arms

Dodgin' folks dirty looks

They're immune to e-book charms

Hand-held ring tones sing

Mine plays Three Dog Night

What fun it is to mobilize

My library tonight.

Oh, blog and chat, LOL

Facebook all the way

Oh, what fun it is to Tweet

my deep thoughts every day

Blog and chat, LOL

Facebook all the way

My status says "I'm almost home."

More WordTwist I will play.

I used to go offline

But now it makes me Jones

How can you dodge the grid

with Netbooks and iPhones?

I need something more real

I'll go and play the Wii

And do my printing with e-ink

It's green to save a tree.

Oh, blog and chat, LOL

Facebook all the way

Oh, what fun it is to Tweet

my deep thoughts every day

Blog and chat, LOL

Facebook all the way

My status is an inside joke

Is that clever or cliché?

A dozen years ago

There was no Google search

No fickr, eBay, or YouTube

The world was in the lurch

One-forty keystrokes more

What did we do before?

We read whole books and saw our friends

It really was a bore.

Oh, blog and chat, LOL

Facebook all the way

Oh, what fun it is to Tweet

my deep thoughts every day

Blog and chat, LOL

Facebook all the way

I'll see you all in Twenty-Ten

Enjoy the holiday!

-----------------------------------------------

Happy Holidays everyone.

For previous Hectic Pace Christmas parodies, see:

The Grump Who Stole Libraries (2006)

Twas the Night Before Migration (2007)

Dewey the Decimal Maker (2008)

Hectic Shame

2009-12-22T04:59:44Z

Shame has always been a good motivator for me. My colleagues remind me of the dry spell that is my blog. I've barely kept up on Twitter and FaceBook. If you're waiting for a LinkedIn respsonse, my apologies. But the best shaming came last night when my 11-year-old daughter, Emma pointed out that a quick glance at my blog indicated that I had not written anything new in months. Of course, she said it with a tone that also indicated that my blog posts were somehow akin to an LP collection, as in "how quaint that you still try to keep it going."

So shame is my motivator, not only to get the blog going again, but to prove to my digitally born child that the medium is still worthwhile.

It's almost time for my annual holiday post, so look for that in a couple of days...and my New Year''s resolution will be to use this forum to update folks on the initiatives that have kept me too busy to write about them.

Getting it right

2009-09-25T19:16:30Z

Since announcing OCLC's web-scale management services strategy, it seems that the term "web-scale" (or "webscale" depending on your editing preferences) has been catching on a bit.

At first, some users diluted the meaning that Lorcan Dempsey had labored to establish in the library space. And I will continue to argue that web-scale in the context of library automation--especially management systems--is a major sea-change. 5000 transactions per second may be no great shakes for Google, Amazon, and Twitter, but in library automation, we've never seen anything like this before.

Then web-scale began to catch on a bit, and I thought the library technology lexicon was beginning to change, but the more I saw and heard it used, the more I feared that we might be getting away from it's original meaning.

Then I see that Mark Dahl has articulated so clearly what my colleagues and I have been discussing...what the library community in general has been discussing in many forums. While experimenting with metaphors, trying to explain a major initiative in one sentence, and living in powerpoint (all while simultaneously keeping up with a massive product development effort), I was struck by one simple turn of phase:

"it gets better the more people use it"

What a great way to sum things up. While I've been grappling with analogies, cloud computing, the web-scale landscape, and library sea-changes (that's four metaphors in one sentence for those of you keeping track), Mark, I think, gets it right. The only extension that I would add to Mark's distinctions about Web-scale is that they apply equally to library management systems and not just discovery-to-delivery.

We've begun testing of the web-scale circulation component. Print and licensed acquisitions and license management are soon to follow. I can't wait for more people to start using these services because I know they will only get better.

What is our ROI?

2009-09-11T00:49:53Z

Welcome back guest-blogger, Matt Goldner.

ROI (Return on Investment) is not commonly used among librarians while it is a key issue for commercial business. This is somewhat natural given our different missions, libraries typically serve the public and businesses serve their shareholders. I have been wondering about a possible application of this same measure to libraries and where it might be applied.

Commercial businesses have over the last half a decade moved more and more of their business processes up to the cloud, e.g. as Web delivered applications. Areas that might have been unthinkable to have stored and maintained offsite are now routinely placed on external platforms. Examples are a business's customer relationship management system, HR systems, payroll systems. Why are they doing this, because it allows them to reduce their costs for these systems and re-allocate time and effort to moving their business forward thus enhancing the opportunity for a better ROI.

Why should this matter to libraries? On what would a library ROI be based? To answer the second question I would say it is how well we have served our constituency. Are they delighted and amazed with our service? Or are we the last ditch resort when they can't find what they need elsewhere.

As to why it should matter if we are spending too much of our financial resources on maintaining infrastructure we are reducing our opportunity to increase the value of our services to our constituency. So perhaps we have something to learn here from commercial businesses who have found value in reducing local infrastructure and moving it to the cloud. It could give libraries the opportunity to increase a good measure of return on investment, delighting and amazing our constituencies.

Meet you at the Forum

2009-08-27T13:09:15Z

On of my favorite conferences is coming up. LITA Forum will be in Salt Lake City this year and the theme is "Open & Mobile." Save the dates--October 2-4, 2009. There are some great concurrent sessions planned--mobile technologies, open data, open source software, lightening talks, and some really great looking poster sessions. Lest I forget three fantastic keynoters:

If you're in the mood for an extra day in Salt Lake, two LITA members are sure to dazzle with their pre-conference offerings. Jason Griffey will be talking about the future of Mobile, a great pre-conference that extends the excellent article Jason wrote for netConnect last year. And Nina McHale will help libraries navigate the tricky issues surrounding Accessibility with updates, a live tour of several assistive technologies, and industry updates.

I love the programming at the Forum, because it is literally the only conference I go to where I am torn between which session to attend. This headache for conference organizers (just too much good stuff!) should be joy for conference attendees with shrinking professional development budgets or concerns about getting the most for their money. I should mention that I have never witnessed such a hard-working and dedicated group of volunteers as the ones who put this Forum together. They are to be congratulated.

But I have thus far neglected the best part about LITA Forum--the people. If you want to socialize, network, chat with vendors and sponsors in a relaxed atmosphere, or make that connection that will spark an idea or solidify a fleeting thought, then LITA Forum is the place to be. LITA is fun and inclusive. LITA is valuable. These are tough financial times for travel and professional development. Librarians, IT professionals, and support staff need to choose wisely from an array of conference offerings. If I had to narrow my choices down to one conference per year or pay for extra professional development out of my own pocket, you'd find me at the Forum.

Did that sound too much like a commercial? If not, then let me add that you should ACT NOW! and save $50 off of registration. I'm already registered, are you?

Seriously, this year's Forum is shaping up to be fantastic. I'll be in Salt Lake City the first weekend in October and I hope to see lots of people there.

Web-scale: Portfolio Director's Cut

2009-08-18T20:21:05Z

As you might imagine, I've been doing a lot of presentations about Web-scale lately...both the general concept and how it applies to the web-scale management services that my team is building for circulation and delivery, print and licensed acquisitions, and license and rights management.

Lots of people have been asking for copies of the presentation that I gave at ALA. I used to always have problems sharing slides. For one thing, the joke slides never work out of context; for another, I try very hard to avoid bulleted lists of things, also making context-less Powerpoint viewing difficult. Now I can gladly say, "Let's go to the video tape!"

OCLC Web-scale Management Services

Powerpoint, slides, and video all in one. Unlike movie directors, however, I find video of myself a bit hard to watch, so I hope the rest of you will enjoy it. There's a good Q&A session at the end that was actually my favorite part of the presentation. The presentation covers not only the general web-scale strategy and cloud computing platform, but also more specifics about the Web-scale management services Library Advisory Council, pilot participants, component functionality, and development timelines.

There are a lot of other great conference presenatations and updates available on the OCLC Presentations site--a little something for everyone.

Why do we continue to silo our supply chains?

2009-08-13T18:27:51Z

Okay, so I have not been the most faithful blogger, lately. I was going to make an excuse about increased micro-blogging on Twitter or social activity on Facebook, but those have fallen rather dormant as well, so I have no good excuses. I do, however have some good news, and that is some guest postings from my friend and colleague, Matt Goldner.

So today, guest columnist, Matt Goldner, Product and Technology Advocate, contributes his thoughts on sharing systems and workflows to deliver a more effective experience to patrons. In his new role, Matt will be on the road visiting libraries to see what new things are happening in the community. I'm hoping he will be a frequent poster to Hectic Pace (Hectic Goldner?) and make up for my periodic slacking.

Take it away, Matt....

While attending the 2009 Information Delivery Services (IDS) Conference in Oswego, I saw a challenging presentation on a new service the project is building for the members. The Getting It System Toolkit (GIST) was discussed and demonstrated. The service offering itself was interesting and well thought out but it is the concept behind it that really challenged me.

For the last 12 years most of my focus has been on breaking down the silos users experience in trying to discover and access
library collections. The focus of GIST is instead to break down the silos that library staff experience in their supply chains for information selection, acquisition, accessioning and description. The truly radical part is the premise that libraries are simply another supply chain to each other and that the workflow between inter-library loan departments and acquisition departments should be broken down.

The end goal of GIST is for ILL and acquisition departments to use the same service to manage their selection and ordering process with the ability to also get the descriptive record into the systems it needs to reside in. I view this type of thinking as critical to the future of libraries. We often continue to maintain workflows and look for new systems that will support these old methods. Instead projects like GIST challenge some basic concepts and assumptions and give us the opportunity to change workflows to match the real needs of today's library.

For more information on GIST: http://idsproject.org/Tools/GIST.aspx

-Matt

My Kind of Conference, My Kind of Town

2009-07-06T21:27:45Z

I'm used to wearing many hats at ALA Conference. In fact, it was the number of hats and the frequency with which I changed them that led to name of my blog. When I joined OCLC 18 months ago, I shed one of those hats--American Libraries columnist. Nevertheless, the other two hats--OCLC and LITA--seem to have gotten much bigger (please no snide comments about the size of my head). This Annual Conference in July is gearing up to be one of my busiest ever.

Rather than bore you with the details of that busy-ness, I thought I would share what I hope will be the two highlights for me--one for each hat.

LITA President's Program: Make Stories, Tell Stories, Keep Stories

Intercontinental, Grand Ballroom

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

In 2007, Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, and Geert van den Boogaard took off from DOK Delft Public Library to embark on a North American tour of libraries en route to the Internet Librarian Conference. Their popular video tour captured the passion and enthusiasm of the people working on library innovation in the States, a theme that they have recently repeated in Australia. Now it's time to tell their story. Come learn about innovations from our library colleagues in the Netherlands and join Erik Boekesteijn (DOK Delft Public Library), Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian), and Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) as they discuss the current state and future of library innovation and the opportunities to learn from the vast network of international stories about library innovation.

Speakers: Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, Geert van den Boogaard, Jenny Levine, and Michael Stephens

This is just part of the "Afternoon with LITA" that starts with Top Technology Trends and has LITA Awards sandwiched in the middle. I hope to see many people there all afternoon. I'm especially pleased that my President's Program speakers will be able to sign their book at the program and then will be following me as I sprint with them to the OCLC Blog Salon.

My second plug is for a presentation on the work I have been doing at OCLC. There's still plenty of room for folks to attend the presentation on Web-scale Management Services. I will be sharing general information about OCLC's strategic direction, as well as details on the components under development, timelines for availability, and information about the Library Advisory Council and pilot sites.

I think Chicago is one of the best places to have ALA and I'm looking forward to holding onto whichever hat I'm wearing.

Renaissance Geek

2009-06-24T01:04:26Z

Last week, I addressed a group of librarians about cloud computing trends, web-scale, and how OCLC plans to apply them to library management systems and services. One of the thematic questions before I took the podium was whether libraries are entering a renaissance period. That discussion might have been more interesting had the previous topic not been the very sorry state of library funding.

As I am always inclined, I tried to mix the topics all together. A few folks asked me to reproduce my brief remarks, so I will attempt that here.

Technology applications makes for a boring topic in comparison to state funding, the indispensible nature of libraries, and a pending or impossible library renaissance. But my interest in this space--the very reason I became a systems librarian, for spending the last decade as a "practical advocate" for next-generation library automation--is the opportunity to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.

If "scale" is the theme, then the challenge is to use technology and technological platforms not only to consolidate services and make them more efficient, but also to create the capacity for libraries to concentrate their efforts on first principles and their collaboartive ethic. Put simply, and without implying mutual exclusivity:

Disciplinary support and collection-building in academic libraries
Physical space, local touch, education, and reader services in public libraries
From planting the seeds of reading to the first taste of the fruits of research in school libraries

Could there be more proof that libraries are indispensible? If you're willing to believe Wikipedia (gasp!), then renaissance can mean a rebellion against teaching and learning based on classical sources. Consider thinking less of the output of the time period and what was required to create those outputs. So, yes, I would say we are entering a renaissance.

I hope it does not seem like a non-sequitur to encourage everyone to "get your geek on" to help libraries into their renaissance. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is supporting this effort to raise community-based awareness and support for libraries.

I think due to the altruistic nature of our profession, we're sometimes a little too good at telling our sob stories and not as good as telling our success stories. Getting our geek on from community-to-community will give libraries a great advocacy opportunity, in a way that, frankly, rebels against classical teaching and learning. I didn't realize it at first, but I geek a good renaissance.

Working Furiously and Happily

2009-06-05T00:29:52Z

Six weeks goes by fast. Yes, it's been six weeks since OCLC announced WorldCat Local "quick start" as the first step toward a web-scale, cooperative library management service. Not only does that six weeks represent two full iterations of agile development for the three main web-scale components--circulation, print and licensed acquisitions, and license management--it's also been several interviews, speaking engagements, and lots of pressing product management work.

One of the things I'm asked repeatedly is to explain the distinctions of OCLC's effort in this space. Here they are, taken directly from my powerpoints, listed as succinctly as possible, but with some attempt at further explanation:

A Web-based platform for all basic library management functionality

That is, it's completely web-accessible. Not browser-based; no massive plugin or extension downloads. It's not "web-technology based." It's web-based.

Reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and increased efficiency through a unified management platform for all types of materials, regardless of format or method of acquisition

If we had it to do over again, would print and licensed acquisitions be so completely separate? Would vendors and licensors be separate lists? Would it be so hard to cross-train on library management systems?

A flexible and customizable workflow platform

I've complained before about all the "twiddly bits" that libraries like to tweak on local systems. I feel strongly that much of this customization replaces what libraries really want--a service that allows libraries to define and/or select the processes (made up of tasks and activities) that define their workflows.

Network effects by sharing applications and data between libraries

Cloud computing is essentially about sharing applications in a web-based scalable way. This is hardly new for libraries that subscribe to databases and ejournals. It is fairly new when it comes to running applications. But libraries also have another tool at their disposal--cooperation. Copy cataloging, resource sharing, and a strong ethos of cooperation position libraries to take advantage of cloud computing in ways that few other industries or organizations would embrace. The potential for building "cooperative intelligence" tools for libraries out of the shared data and shared ethos is nearly staggering. WorldCat Collection Analysis is a fantastic tool, but it is also just he tip of the iceberg.

Concentrated data registries and repositories

Web-scale is not only about high transaction rates. It's about what Tim O'Reilly refers to as one of the major (missed) themes of Web 2.0--providing access to best-of-class data. Chris Anderson goes even further, writing, "The Web is all about scale, finding ways to attract the most users for centralized resources, spreading those costs over larger and larger audiences as the technology gets more and more capable."

A Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) for interoperability with local environments and 3rd party business process systems (e.g., financial management, HR systems, and course management)

The services are being developed with full cognizance that libraries and organizations must interact with business process systems other than library management systems. That is, not only does library software require interoperability with other library software (e.g., self-check, receipt printers, EDIFACT), it also requires interaction with other enterprise solutions like financial management and HR. A service-oriented approach to the development, in combination with the OCLC Developers' Network empowers libraries to build, share, and maintain the interoperability they need.

Have no illusions that even a fantastic team (which I am happy to say is what I have) cannot do this alone. It will take a group of professionals that share and understand the vision and even more folks in the trenches guiding and facilitating the development of a next-generation of library management services. And these are the next steps--the assembly of a Library Advisory Council to help with the overall strategy, and the selection of test / pilot sites to ensure the proper functionality is developed.

Stay tuned.

Web-scale Blogging

2009-05-08T17:00:00Z

This week I had the good fortune to participate in a Talk with Talis with Richard Wallis. I can't quite tolerate listening to the sound of my own voice, but I hope others will give it a listen.

One of the questions he asked me was about OCLC's use of the term 'web-scale' (often hyphenated as a compound adjective, and not hyphenated otherwise, but I am now erring toward hyphen consistency). Some have referred to it as synonymous with 'the web', however, I think there is a distinction that those more familiar with the history and state of library automation can better appreciate.

The sad truth is that most locally deployed inventory management systems are not built for massive scalability. This is partly the nature of the the age of the pre-web technology on which these systems were built, and partly the fact that a solution built to scale to hundreds or thousands of libraries was simply never within the defined scope of library management systems.

So, from the perspective of library automation, "web-scale management services" is an important distinction--as important as the cooperative nature for which the web-scale solution is built.

So, okay, that was not a very technical explanation. Never send a product manager to do an engineer's job. Thankfully, we can turn to the inaugural post of "OCLC Engineering" to help clarify Web-scale. Thank you, Mike Teets!

In case you didn't realize it, OCLC Engineering is not just one of a dozen OCLC blogs, covering everything from products, research, and various musings of OCLC bloggers!

A Week at Web-Scale

2009-05-01T21:10:07Z

I've had a great time this week, talking to media and bloggers, tweeting, talking to colleagues in libraries, and engaging the community towards OCLC's new Web-scale effort. The amount of energy and curiosity around this new effort is amazing. The cooperative nature of this profession makes this effort worthwhile. I'm looking forward to the opportunities in the months ahead to share more details and gather more reaction to the web-scale management services strategy. More specific details on my project are forthcoming, on this blog, and on the OCLC Product Works page. I'm convinced that it will be some time before the fun stops.

And now for something completely different

2009-04-23T17:45:40Z

Five years ago, I wrote an article for Library Journal about "Dismantling the System." At the end of that article, I suggested that it would be necessary for us to dismantle systems so that we could rebuild them. Of course, I left out how exactly we should do that.

Now it's time to be more explicit about what I have been up to for the last 15 months. I've been pretty busy listening to the library community, trying to put their views into a strategy, and creating something new that I hope will represent a real sea-change for libraries and the OCLC cooperative.

If you haven't seen it already, I would encourage you to take a look at OCLC's latest press release. It announces an exciting strategic direction for OCLC and its members and I'm thrilled to be a part of it. OCLC is extending the WorldCat Local platform to include circulation and delivery, print and electronic acquisitions, and license management components. A quick start version of WorldCat Local--available at no additional charge to FirstSearch WorldCat subscribers--is a first step to WorldCat Local and to a truly next-generation cooperative library management service.

Library testing of the circulation component of the web-scale management service will begin this summer, with other components to follow in phases. Initial pilot libraries will be named soon. An advisory council is in the works to help guide the development and rollout of this new solution. You're invited to follow details of the project and I encourage everyone out there to use the comments section of this post to submit their thoughts, questions, ideas, and opinions.

Five years after I advocated dismantling library management systems, I am confident that using web-scale architectures and a cooperative service model are the right way to put things back together again. The OCLC cooperative is not only uniquely positioned to provide this solution, it is part of our obligation to libraries.

HIbernation's Over

2009-04-17T20:15:23Z

Okay, I'll admit it. I miss the occasional 70 degree days in January in Raleigh, NC. It's fair to say that Ohio doesn't really have any of those. I do, however, prefer snow storms to ice storms, Canada Geese to mosquitoes, and Graeter's ice cream to just about anything.

But one of he most exciting events that happens in a central Ohio Spring is the end to the Winter's hibernation. Dormant neighborhood streets are suddenly filled with kids on bikes, excited pets, and families squinting at the sun like bears emerging from caves. People start eating outside, running errands at lunch, and the extra daylight makes non-work time all the more glorious.

I think today is that day. Everyone I work with is great, but today the smiles were bigger, the jocularity was funnier, and the "spring" in people's steps seemed a little bouncier I think the water even tasted better.

Next comes the energy and excitement that I always have an easier time equating with Springtime. I can't wait to see what happens next.