Abstract
Opening the ILS/LSP: Steps Towards a Fully Customizable Infrastructure:
""Library Systems and services are at a point where they can be refined to meet the unique goals and needs of specific institutions. In spite of these impressive capabilities, library systems sometimes lack the flexibility afforded by the full interoperability across multiple libraries, vendors, and platforms necessary to ensure peak performance.
The traditional centerpiece of our systems environment, the ILS or LSP, is at a crossroads between allowing the kinds of systems interplay libraries need and the barriers created by contractual issues, technical barriers, and closed infrastructure. This session will highlight specific integration and interoperability concerns with commentary from members of the university, consortia, and vendor communities. The session will also emphasize the benefits of open systems for libraries and vendors, and how NISO could play a role by considering applicable standards through a dedicated working group.""
Expediting Access with a Browser Add-on: Open Source vs. Commercial Approach:
""Providing quick and easy access to the library’s paid resources for researchers has been an ongoing challenge for libraries. One attractive means to achieve this is a web browser add-on, because it has the advantage of being available exactly when and where scholars and researchers spot and try to obtain the full-text content of research materials while online.
LibX, a free and open-source browser add-on developed at the Virginia Tech in 2005, was widely adopted and used by many libraries for more than a decade. But recently it has become defunct due to the lack of development efforts and general support from the wide library community. Now, some libraries have started licensing and implementing commercial products instead. Even though these commercial add-ons and LibX all aim to facilitate and expedite access, there are some distinct differences in their approaches.
In this session, I will (a) explore those differences in the open-source vs the commercial approach, drawing examples from LibX and Lean Library and (b) discuss what may be the ideal user interface design and the feature set for a browser extension that meets the users’ research needs, delivers great user experience, and advances the library’s goal at the same time.""
