Hectic Pace

Starting from Scratch

2008-07-08T19:11:37Z

Carl Sagan once said: "If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch, you must first invent the universe."

I've been taken lately with all the efforts in library land to build things from scratch, as if there is no starting point, no viability--either technically or philosophically--from which to begin. Ironically, the "2.0" true believers seem to be talking as if they are reinventing the universe more than moving libraries from version 1.0 to version 2.0. It's pretty hard (though not impossible) to move to v.2 when the first step is to throw away everything from v.1.

Where do I stand? I think one must make a really, really good case for starting over.

When I am done building this thing, how will it distinguish itself from the thing that I replaced?
How do those distinctions shift the market, shift perceptions, shift total cost of ownership, or make life better for users of the thing?
Has starting from scratch created benefit for those who don't or will it require others to start from scratch as well?
Assuming that starting over will take longer and cost more (this can be a big assumption that one should question), what won't get done because I am recreating functionality or services that already exist?

I have never (really...never) met a software developer who didn't want to start from scratch, so I have some experience here. I fear starting from scratch because I think that if you rebuild things from the ground up, you wind up with something that looks exactly the same. I think Karen Schneider applied this theory to organizations, namely the ALA, and I believe it. It's probably true of other large organizations. And how many times have we seen outsiders approach the library industry only to reverse-engineer the things that we have been doing for decades (the problem, of course, is sitting on the sidelines saying "we've been doing that for decades!").

So are you starting from scratch on anything? In the end, I think most folks are simply making apple pies from different recipes--open source ILS, classification schemes, faceted catalogs, RDA. Who's going to invent the universe?

OOOOOOCLC

2008-06-24T18:45:00Z

A while back, I made a joke on April 1 about Google buying OCLC. This was actually a well coordinated April Fool's Day attack between myself and the folks at ALA Techource (none of our bosses from back then want to know how much time actually went into this coordination). I guess one true test of a joke is its staying power, and this one has it, oddly enough (I suggest using Google to see the folks who took it seriously, and that way I can avoid embarrassing anyone). From time to time, I even find current links to the announcement treating it as real news.

So, either this joke was really funny, or the juxtaposition of two "big switch" players is intriguing to librarians. My money is on the latter. I'm pretty pleased that OCLC has embarked on record-sharing deals with Google because I have always thought that search companies with great algorithms generally undervalue the power of metadata. I'm convinced that they only way to prove the point is to show them, as libraries are starting to do with faceted browse catalogs.

I'm also insatiably curious as to what the first page of search results in Google Book search will look like when there are 100 million books in the database. What will Scholar look like with 100 million books and 100 million articles? The best answer I am able to get from Google is "highly relevant." Relevance ranking is hard, as we have learned in enhancing WorldCat with non-monograph metadata. Done well, however, it greatly enhances the discovery experience for patrons.

Other people are beginning to wonder out loud about the prowess of Google and WorldCat data. Another recent post had me wondering about the future of Google Books. CrossRef has created a new plagiarism screening service called CrossCheck (clever!). Another indicator of my love of data and what it empowers us to do and discover. It got me thinking (un-originally, apparently) about what Google could cook up in searching for plagiarism once it has millions and millions of books scanned. I understand that Google is doing duplicate checking in its scans to keep from scanning books twice, so I imagine that "plagiarism checking" would be rather simple for them too. Literary crime detection using Google could be a fun pastime.

I heart ALA Conference

2008-06-17T12:26:07Z

Okay, maybe I'm a little strange, but I really like ALA conferences. Until I started writing for American Libraries and getting uber involved in LITA, I was an occasional attender, but my love for the conference goes back to the fact that I got my first job at an ALA, over a 7am breakfast with an Innovative Interfaces VP. When I started attending regularly, I would fill literally every minute of the day with activity, usually for the magazine, but mostly out of a desire to get as much as possible out of being there. You'd have to check with Leonard Kniffel, but I'm pretty sure this is where the idea for "Hectic Pace" actually came from.

I mistakenly thought that "retiring" from the column would amazingly free up half of my time at the next ALA, but I was wrong. Between LITA, OCLC events, and programming, I find myself completely booked again, and perhaps it's just as well. I will feel normal.

I have the great pleasure this year of kicking off my ALA by moderating the OCLC Symposium--"The Mashed -Up Library." I've been in on the planning for this and would encourage folks to register for this great event. Yesterday I got to speak to the keynoter, Michael Schrage, who has some wonderful writings and spot-on observations about innovation. I would say that any library that has worried about relevance, funding, and establishing persistence in the information space would be interested in hearing him speak. I'd be interested to meet the librarian who wasn't worried about any of those things!

Schrage will be joined by three fabulous librarians--Susan Gibbons, David Lee King, and Mary Beth Sancomb-Moran--on a panel that will share creative library mash-ups that are not the kind you've heard about over and over again. Insert an ice cream break in the middle of the event and I can't think of a better way to start ALA in Anaheim. I am certainly looking forward to it.

Artificial Unintelligence

2008-06-03T19:00:20Z

Five years ago, I wrote a book. Originally titled "Strange Bedfellow," this work on the relationships between libraries, vendors, and dot-com entities was re-titled The Ultimate Digital Library: Where the New Information Players Meet. Some of the better parts of that book seemed so radical then and look entirely passe now. It's hard to believe it's been five years since it came out, but where was I supposed to go from "Ultimate?" The More Ultimate Digital Library?

I was actually looking to see if I could pick up some used copies since I have given all but one of mine away, when I was pleased to see that I had joined the ranks of Wikipedia, albeit in an unusual way. My Wikipedia entry mentions my book, but apparently has me confused with a professor of artificial intelligence at U. Penn. The cite for Dr. Pace's book came from Google Book Search. I could not help but note the irony that I have been mashed up in cyberspace by a combination of Wikipedia and Google.

Some of the more famous entries in WorldCat Identities have links out to Wikipedia. It occurs to me now that Wikipedia could use some links in the other direction for us much less famous.

No, It's the Network, Stupid

2008-05-29T13:25:43Z

My friend and colleague Chrystie Hill reminded me the other day that I was wrong about something. This was no revelation, this happens quite frequently. In a conversation about OCLC's various assets, I was going on again about leveraging the vast amounts of data in the WorldCat bibliographic database and all the potential of the WorldCat Registry.

Chrystie reminded me, as anyone working in the WebJunction group should, that it is the network of people that matters. They create the data in WorldCat. They are the institutions in the Registry.

This truism was made all the more poignant by a really great Members' Council meeting in Dublin last week. This was my second one, and this time, there was a lot about "the network." Having been heavily involved in several professional and personal groups where I have interacted with boards and members' groups, I can say that this board and members' group is among the best I've seen. And I'm not just saying that because the truth of it is seen in their determination to make difficult yet important decisions, like the one they made last week about OCLC Governance. Decisions like these are the teeth behind catch phrases like "Local, Group, Global." The network of members provides the focus for a vision statement like "The world's libraries. Connected."

Some people have teased me about my new title, Executive Director of Networked Library Services. And I'm the first to admit now that I was mistakenly approaching the "network" as piles of hardware and software--sitting there at my disposal to build something great, increase efficiency, and reduce costs for libraries. I'm still gonna try to do all that, but in the meantime, my colleagues and the membership reminded me to stay focused on the real network.

On Being Networked

2008-05-20T18:58:47Z

You won't find it hard to believe that I am an extrovert (ESTJ for all you Myers-Briggs people out there). Over the last several years I have tried to build a vast array of personal and professional contact, not because I am just an obsessive-compulsive networker (which I am), but because I sincerely enjoy getting to know librarians, vendors, service providers, and various hangers-on of the library world.

Knowing others well has always served me better than being well known.

But how much is enough? I find myself needing a social networking strategy. What seems to have started as an implicit popularity contest--how many friends, how many followers, how many degrees of separation--has turned into an overwhelming array of networking opportunities.

So I do have a bit of a strategy that is likely similar to others':

Facebook: Come one, come all. "Friend" no longer means what it use to and any friend of a friend is a friend of mine. But frankly, I don't care too much if you would spend a million dollars the same way I would, and should I care which Indiana Jones character you would be? I use Facebook for communication and for (surprise, surprise) seeing what people's faces look like. When I'm ready to thin out my garage of friends, I will likely start with those who don't want me to know what they look like. Facebook, people...come on!

LinkedIn: Here, I am selective. If I don't know who you are, haven't shook your hand, talked to you, IMed extensively with you, eaten or drunk with you, then I'm not likely to link to you. Add to that some assurance that I won't be embarrassed by a connection anytime soon--harder to guarantee, even for the people who add me to their network.

Twitter: Sorry. I don't get it. I don't like it. Don't look for me there much longer. It's hard enough for me to keep track of what I am doing. I simply don't have the time or inclination to tell everyone else.

Add to this : LibraryThing, StumbleUpon, Twine, Plaxo Plus, Iminta, etc., etc. How many more of these must I really sign up for? For now, I will stick to Facebook and LinkedIn and continue to employ my current strategy. Everyone else I want to keep up with has my email, IM, or phone number. Someone nudge me when there is a clear winner in the aggregation of social networks.

It's the data, stupid.

2008-05-14T17:00:00Z

I've generally steered clear of much of the debate surrounding Library 2.0. Nevertheless, the catalog work I was involved in at NCSU (somewhat over-hyped as a "2.0 catalog"...as though anything new in libraries must now carry the 2.0 moniker), resulted in several speaking invitations where the invitors assumed I could speak knowledgeably about Library 2.0.

So like a good librarian, I did some research. I read a lot of Tim O'Reilly. I read a lot of Lorcan writing about 2.0 and O-Reilly. I tried to put something together that juxtaposed basic 2.0 principles against the entire workflow of the library. I will admit that what came out was a tiny bit mocking of the 2.0 meme, but I nevertheless kept coming back to O'Reilly.

In April 2007, he gave an interview where he accused much of the 2.0 crowd of missing the point. I've been calling this the "It's the data, stupid" quote:

"[There is] a major theme of web 2.0 that people haven't yet tweaked to. It's really about data and who owns and controls, or gives the best access to, a class of data." (full context)

I think libraries should appreciate this sentiment. I know my colleagues at OCLC do. The conversations that I'm in are invigorating--look at what we can do with all these data! Things like WorldCat.org and Identities. Now the next logical step, and echoing O'Reilly, how do we give the best access to it? The Developers Network is taking shape, and intense internal discussions regarding use and transfer of OCLC-derived records is in full swing. Stay tuned.

I love that the access discussion is happening; and I'm somewhat dismayed about the confusion over 2.0 leading to new discussions of 3.0 and 4.0. Sheesh. Before 3.0 takes hold, I'll be focusing on the use of the data for more and better purposes.

Home Again

2008-05-04T15:56:16Z

I had the great honor to return to my library school alma mater last week to give 18th Annual Elizabeth Stone lecture at The Catholic University of America. It was an opportunity to talk about myself (which is always easy) and to talk about the future of libraries (which is always hard). I was a bit embarrassed to admit that it was my first time back to CUA, but I was suitably punished by the fact that they recorded the talk.

I was quite graciously received by the CUA faculty (which now only includes one member from my time there from 1994-1996), students, and fellow alumni. It was difficult to see firsthand that the Library and Information Science Library where I worked for two years had been dismantled in preparation for a new information commons space. A plant had taken the spot where my desk once stood...a desk that held the IBM 286 on which I created my very first website in early 1995.

I regret having taken so long to return, but the occasion of the lecture was a great way to come back. Elizabeth Stone was still hanging around as Dean Emerita in old Marist Hall when I was there. She seemed omnipresent, in fact, and she was one of the few faculty to actually use the library (which is probably why it got absorbed into the main library). I'll admit to not ever speaking very highly of my library education, but as I reflected on my time there and the faculty who taught me, I suddenly had a new perspective.

Each of them, including ones I never even had classes with, had some impact on my career and the way I think about librarianship. Dr. Hsieh Yee taught me to love cataloging (something I will blog about another time); J.W. Coffman (my advisor, who I learned passed away recently) taught me that the separation of theory and practice was not as wide as many perceive it; Barry Wheeler taught me to question all technological assumptions; Paul Koda taught me never to take myself or the profession too seriously.

I received kudos for the lecture, which included a lot of stuff I have said in other venues. But frankly, I am grateful to CUA for inviting me back because it made me reflect on the last decade plus in a way that I would not have otherwise.

MetaBlog

2008-04-16T19:00:26Z

MetaBlog calls itself the blog of blogs, but since I am a librarian, I will refer to metablog as a blog about blogs. I've come across two new ones from colleagues whom I respect and admire and since they might not be known to the library world, I thought they were worth pointing out.

Abe Lederman, founder of Deep Web Technologies, has launched Federated Search Blog. Sol Lederman (Abe's brother, who has held various positions at DWT) will be doing most of the posting. This is the kind of blog that I wished had existed a couple of years ago when I was working on the NISO Metasearch Inititive. The blog also includes information on various vendors in the federated search space.

Daniel Tunkelang is chief scientist and co-founder of Endeca, a company with which I have obvious familiarity. Daniel has launched The Noisy Channel to "explore the implications of asserting that the main goal of information access is to optimize communication across the noisy channel of human-computer interaction." That is a noisy channel, isn't it?

Good luck, Abe, Sol, and Daniel, I look forward to reading and hope others do as well.

Cold Goose

2008-04-08T03:05:39Z

I'm in Minnesota this week for CNI. Though I proudly wear the "OCLC" label now, I'm actually here representing LITA as part of my vice presidential stint. OCLC is ably represented by my friends and colleagues--Marilee Proffitt, Mindy Pozenel, Constance Malpas, and Jim Michalko.

After a (finally) warm weekend in Columbus, I arrived to a snowy morning in Minneapolis. Someone told me that you can tell it's spring in Minnesota when the smaller lakes begin to thaw. It reminded me of an image that I encountered when I first got to OCLC. Outside my window is one of the large ponds that dot the OCLC campus in Dublin. Slightly frozen, I saw several members of Dublin's rather robust goose population crossing the thin ice covering the pond. Mind you, it wasn't quite comical--it was actually done with as much grace as a goose can muster in such an exercise. (I've actually encountered a scared goose--a long story involving college, alcohol, and the near imprisonment of my college roommate--I was but an innocent bystander).

Image care of eniko at wunderground.com

It dawned on me that these geese were not afraid because if the ice breaks, they can swim; and if the water is too cold, they can fly. Well, the metaphor for librarianship is almost too easy here. I would argue that sometimes fear of the cold water makes people forget they can fly.

Back to CNI...in the opening plenary, Daniel Atkins, recipient of the Paul Evan Peters Award, noted that he viewed tenure as an obligation to take chances--an interesting, if not somewhat rare belief. But he also noticed (comically) that it took 20 years for the overhead projector to make it from the bowling alley to the classroom.

What chances are libraries going to take in the next five years? Will it be migrating away from a telnet-based ILS module to a ten-year-old windows or web client? Will it be using open source applications? Is that the thinnest ice on which we are willing to venture?

I say take some chances. Don't worry if the ice breaks--you can always swim. Don't worry if the water's cold--maybe you can fly.

At Last

2008-04-01T10:00:00Z

Well after only twelve weeks with OCLC, I'm proud to say that I received fantastic support for my first business plan presented to the strategic leadership team. I thought this was going to be a hard sell, but its overwhelming support among libraries was what really pushed things over the top. I take seriously OCLC's commitment to reduce costs for libraries, so I wanted to build a solution that would both shake things up and save more than just a buck.

I have proposed that OCLC begin mass production of card-catalog cards, along with due-date cards and pockets. The first ten libraries to adopt this new old solution will get refinished custom made cabinets for the cards, formerly known as "card catalogs."

I'm no Nicholson Baker, but I think it's time we got back to our roots. When you think about it, the old system wasn't really broken--computerizing the library was just a quarter-century long plot toward raking in the bucks to fix the Y2K problem. With 2000 nearly a decade behind us, I think it's time we forgot about that costly and foolish investment and re-invested in some technology that patrons and librarians both understand. Picture if you will drawers labeled alphabetically, for the alphabet is a classification system that the reading populace understands. Drawer pulls that fit fingers large and small, and an easy-to-use "flip-through" system that allows you to browse the the entire collection in a way that 90% of the electronic catalogs out there don't even allow.

Economic Benefits.
Not only will this change remove the costly and ineffective integrated library system from a library's bottom line, but ALA's upcoming "National Shelf-reading Month" would be a great time for libraries to replace flimsy and needlessly anonymizing date stamp slips with sturdy checkout cards that give readers a handy list of other patrons who have enjoyed the book they are enjoying. Face it, those cards and scribbles in the margins were the real first social network for books.

I'm really pretty confident that this idea will spread like wildfire There are hundreds of card catalogs available at consignment stores and on eBay. And once all the books themselves have been shipped off to remote storage, just think of the square footage that could be devoted to a truly workable finding aid for libraries.

I'm taking orders now.

First Principles

2008-03-25T01:50:18Z

My very first professional writing gig was with Computers in Libraries. A patient and wonderful editor named Kathy Dempsey took a chance on an opinionated upstart who had just barely worked in libraries, having recently come from the dark side (that is from a vendor, not as some might think, from California or D.C., the two domiciles that preceded North Carolina).

I told her I had an idea for a new column and that I was calling it "First Principles," the notion being that there is nothing new under the sun, and that approaching technology from the starting point of the library science's first principles would create better services. I have a vivid memory of standing on my back porch trying to explain this idea on the phone to a more than patient Kathy. The polite silence and occasion hem-and-haw on the other end of the phone made me think I had blown my chances of ever seeing my name in print--I was sure I had lost the job before I had typed my first word. Thankfully, my somewhat obtuse notion for a column, with Kathy's help, turned into a pretty nice run as "Coming Full Circle."

So here I am, glutton for punishment, returning to first principles again. The last thing I want to do in my new job with OCLC is to give the impression that I have too much time on my hands, but I will admit to having spent some time a couple of weeks ago with the papers of Fred Kilgour. Wow. Here's what his report, co-authored with Ralph Parker, in 1965 said about the purpose of what would become OCLC two years later:

Fast, complete bibliographic information retrieval
On-line acquisition of machine-readable catalogue records from the Library of Congress
Machine searching of machine-readable indexes such as those produced by MEDLARS and Chemical Abstracts
Supplying bibliographic information for acquisition procedures
Provision of central, real-time computer services for processing serials and circulation records

By 1983, the list had been modified and simplified:

Shared cataloging and online union catalog
Interlibrary lending
Acquisitions
Serials Control
Public service including online local catalogs
Circulation control

So here I am thinking that maybe I can bring some new contribution to the OCLC network, only to realize that I am trying to help deliver on Fred Kilgour's vision from over 40 years ago.

First Principles indeed.

Reporting from Sheffield

2008-03-20T16:22:20Z

In my previous life, I was infrequently lucky enough to have a speaking gig or work meeting that took me someplace new and exciting. Now, I've made my first trip to Sheffield, UK, where OCLC has an office, and it's been fantastic. Though the scenery and terrain is different (read more interesting), the weather has been a lot like Columbus in March...cold and cloudy, cold and sunny, cold and rainy, cold and snowy, in somewhat quick succession.

I've also had a fair number of cultural lessons. I know now that one should not suggest "tabling" a topic in a meeting because over here that means you want to talk about it. I figure out the money, that was pretty easy, except the dollar is in a declined position at the moment.

I've also had a fantastic time getting to know some of my European colleagues better. I've been busy enough not to meet as many people as I might have liked, but it's been a productive week despite the long travel back and forth. It's been a great week but I am also anxious to get home.

I'm Back

2008-03-11T02:25:41Z

Actually, I never really left, but like the kids say about library content, if it ain't online it doesn't exist. Or as Peter Wojtowicz put it:

So what will I blog about? Some of the same old stuff I used to, some new things, and ultimately much, much more about what I am doing here at OCLC. While I will continue to editorialize, I cannot escape the fact that my opinions will now be taken with a much larger grain of salt than they used to be. Sometimes salt makes things taste better, sometimes not. I will endeavor to be careful with my saline spices.