libraries, saas, the cloud and more: participate in our survey

evidence, library2.0 6 Responses »
Oct 202009

A colleague and I have been spending a lot of time lately thinking and chatting about libraries’ use of SaaS solutions and free, third party proprietry cloud-based services to host their systems and software. We’ve thought about it so much that we decided to take that one step further and do a spot of research.

At the VALA 2010 conference (one of Australia’s leading ITish conferences for librarians), we’re presenting a paper called ICT as core business: will we prosper or drown? Here’s the abstract:

Information Communications Technology (ICT) is core business for libraries. Every day, libraries deliver ICT services to their customers, in the form of public access computers, wireless Internet connectivity and technology training programs. We increasingly rely on the Internet and the World Wide Web as a core service and collection delivery channel. And ICT is the single most important set of tools in allowing us to carry out ‘traditional’ library functions such as collection management and circulation.

At the same time as we are seeing our dependence on ICT reach new heights, we are also seeing IT departments locking down and standardising organisational ICT environments in response to an increasing need for control in order to meet efficiency and governance requirements. Often, these efforts occur in response to the organisational needs of the parent organisations to which libraries belong, not in response to the library’s needs. The move towards shared service models for ICT services means that libraries have to compete for ICT services and support, and as a result, do not always obtain the needed support.

Libraries are surrounded by tools and systems that provide new and exciting options for service delivery, but that require a move away from the traditional ICT model. The authors’ conversations with colleagues throughout the industry, commentary in the biblioblogosphere, and even the library literature, suggest that with the proliferation of these new tools and their uptake by libraries, there has been a disconnect between some libraries and their IT support groups. Many libraries are adopting, or at least investigating new models, including Software as a Service (SaaS) options for major systems, cloud computing for hosting of services and resources, and open source systems and software solutions. How does this fit within the broader ICT framework of parent organisations? Often, it simply doesn’t fit at all.

Why is it that libraries have chosen to position services in the cloud, to move core systems to SaaS environments, and to seek out open source alternatives to proprietary software and systems? This paper considers whether the adoption of these tools and environments by libraries has occurred as a result of a lack of appropriate and necessary ICT solutions and support within our corporate ICT environments. Did the disconnect cause libraries to seek out new models and tools, or did our adoption of the new models and tools cause the disconnect?

Given that libraries are adopting strategies and implementing services in this new ICT sphere, what do libraries need to consider in order to ensure sustainability, supportability, and ultimately, success? As the end users become controllers of ICT – as libraries implement ICT solutions quite independently of the ICT groups within their broader organisations – is it enough for library staff to be able to depend on the intuitiveness of the tools, or are there skill sets – ICT, writing, publishing, design and other skill sets – required by library staff, skills that have perhaps been taken for granted as being provided by the organisational ICT group?

If you work with IT in libraries, if you adminstrate a library management system, if you’ve ever implemented a blog or wiki or Facebook page for your library, then we need your input to get a clear understanding of why libraries are looking for alternative models for system and software hosting, and what that means for skill requirements.

If you’ve got 15 minutes to spare, we’d really appreciate you taking the time to complete our survey.

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NLS4 conference wrap-up

Uncategorized 2 Responses »
Dec 072008

So I spent the last couple of days in Melbourne at NLS4. The New Librarians Symposium is a great biennial for new graduates to get together, present a first paper, hear from experts and have some seriously good times do some serious networking.

It was a chock-full program: 30 papers, 5 keynotes, a debate and a handful of other talks in two days. It was exhausting, and for the first time ever, I actually left the conference early and took an earlier flight home. The tiredness might have been made worse by the social program – which included a pre-conference drinks meet up (which a few of us followed up by a late, late, late dinner that kept us all awake half the night), a cocktail party and the conference dinner (which I skipped this time round) – and the fact that I managed to have a hotel room situated right on top of one of Melbourne’s most popular (and loudest) nightclubs. The music was great; it’s just that I didn’t particularly want to feel it vibrating through the floor and all the furniture at 2am after a long day of papers! Next time I book accommodation at the conference venue, I’ll be looking for reviews first.

Highlights of the conference for me:

  • Donna Leung’s paper on transferable skills and using them to help you switch sectors, Any old library job versus the job your really want. I actually put my laptop down and just listened for this paper – something fairly rare! People talked about this paper for the rest of the conference.
  • Alyson Dalby’s paper on being professionally active. I like that Alyson subtly highlighted the difference between being an active association / group / committee member and an inactive member. I think this was a timely lead in to the call for expressions of interest for the ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee (go! express your interest!), of which Alyson and I are both members. People always come away from conferences re energised; I hope some come away energised to get active.
  • Naomi Doessel’s paper on professional development for librarians working in non-traditional library roles. Lots of notes were taken in this session. For me, the most interesting part was Naomi’s run-down of the different mentoring relationships that she makes use of. And the Ian images were highly amusing too.
  • Bruce Klopsteins’ paper Butting heads or building minds, in which he pulled together a bunch of ideas from his reading and presented a paper that felt more like a keynote than a first time paper. Some really intelligent thought went into this one. I’m looking forward to reading the full paper.

Some non program highlights included dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant on Thursday night, followed by dinner at my favourite Melbourne restaurant Cafe Zum Zum on Friday. Also a highlight was catching up with friends from afar – friends from uni, colleagues from my former pow, the people I get to see only on the conference circuit, and a whole bunch of new people.

The New Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) is currently reviewing the future of the New Librarians Symposium and looking for feedback. If this is a topic close to your heart, check out the article in this month’s inCite, which outlines the four models we’ve come up with, then drop us an email with your feedback.

As for me, I think this will probably be my last NLS. I’m feeling a little like I’m at the end of my new grad-ness, and less like I identify with the issues that seem to be facing lots of new grads. I’m also stepping down as chair of NGAC as soon as new members have been recruited, so I can focus on a few other things in the year ahead. It’s been fun, but time to move on.

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