Welcome to the Talis Library Platform News

Open is the theme word of this issue. Be it the Harvard University move to provide open access to scholarly journals published by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences; or the open APIs that our Meet the Team candidate Julian Higman is working with; or the activity with Open Source Library systems; or the open APIs used by the Talis Library Platform.

The word open is being used, and some would say over used, in the world of library technology at the moment, as I discuss in this month's featured podcast with Brad Lajeunesse.

If this was a printed newsletter, I could have made a pun about opening it up and reading on. But it is not, so I will not - read on anyway and enjoy this month's issue.

If you are new to the newsletter sign up, pass it on, tell your colleagues about it and join us in creating a community that shares, innovates and learns from each other. If you would like to contribute an article or offer comments please email richard.wallis@talis.com.

Richard Wallis, Editor

Open Source Library Systems

Koha, and more recently Evergreen, have been the subject of interest, speculation and debate on library blogs and newsletters for some time now. Is an Open Source solution the way forward for the Library System of the future? Does Open Source mean free? Do you need highly skilled technical staff to run one? What about support? Are they serious solutions? - all questions that have been asked.

Koha is an open source system developed in New Zealand, originally by Katipo Communications, the Koha division of which was purchased by the US company LibLime. Evergreen started off with the objective of running the PINES consortium of libraries in Georgia State, soon morphed into an open source project, excited many after its launch, and has spawned Equinox Software the commercial support company. For more background on these you may find the podcastsinteresting: LibLime’s Josh Ferraro recorded last year, their new Open Source Evangelist, Nicole Engard, and the most recent one with Brad Lajeunesse of Equinox.

The obvious theme through the podcasts is that in many cases libraries are increasingly becoming dissatisfied with their traditional systems, and Open Source is an attractive way forward. The key to the increase in the numbers of libraries following this option seems to be the emergence of the commercial support organizations who can provide the support for their commitment to an open source solution.

Koha and Evergreen are not the only ones making the news recently. From India we have NewGenLib which appears to be from a co-operation between Kesavan Institute of Information and Knowledge Management and Verus Solutions. It will be interesting to see if this gains any traction beyond the borders of India. To add to the scene, Duke University, as announced on several mailing lists, are putting together a proposal to “convene the academic library community to design an open source Integrated Library System (ILS)”.

So where next for the Open Source implementations of the Library System? Will Duke get their funding and come up with a specification for the ideal academic version? If they do, will a community form to help them build it? Whatever the answers there is a groundswell of interest forming around Open Source, and I can only see it increasing.

Brad Lajeunesse

This Talking with Talis podcast is with Brad Lajeunesse, President of Equinox Software. Equinox was founded by the software team that developed Evergreen, the open source integrated library system (ILS).

We talk about the origins and development of Evergreen, and the setting up of Equinox. We then go on to discuss some of the issues associated with Open Source Library Systems in general.

Meet the API

In earlier issues of Meet the API we have visited individual Platform API functions. This month we visit the home interface page of a Platform Store. For instance, click this link to the UKBib store, containing bibliographic records held by UK libraries. The ability to go to a store’s home was introduced only recently. Such an enhancement is a great example of how, because of the architecture used and because the Platform is delivered as Software-as-a-Service, it just gets better without you having to do anything. As you can see from the home, it now gives you access to each individual function via a simple click. As you will also see the API functions we have previously covered, Search, Facet Browse, and Augmentation, have now been joined by some others.

Search metadata using Sparql provides, what in the world of RDF and Semantic Web storage is called a Sparql End Point. In the same way the SQL is the standard query language that you use to search relational databases, SPARQL is a standard language you can use to query data held in RDF. We will cover Sparql in a later edition of the Library Platform News, but if you would like some more detail now, you can do no better than take a look at the live Sparql Query Demo built by our very own Danny Ayres.

Joining Sparql are three functions that, in the UKBib Store are not configured for public access. The first would enable you, if you had permission, to query privately held metadata in the store. The final two allow you to view the state of administration processes and data snapshots of the store contents. These can be used by a Store owner to maintain their store.
All stores regardless of their content, be it bibliographic records, images, reviews, people records, whatever, share the same set of APIs with the same syntax. As can be seen from this example, access to particular areas of functionality can be controlled for individual users.

Open Access Repositories - Harvard adding impetus

Richard Wallis

As reported in the Harvard University Gazette Online, from a vote on February 12th, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) at Harvard University is to make each faculty member’s scholarly articles publicly available. As Stuart M. Shieber, a professor at FAS, said “There is no question that scholarly journals have historically allowed scholars to distribute their research to audiences around the world. But, the scholarly publishing system has become far more restrictive than it need be.”

“The goal of university research is the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. At Harvard, where so much of our research is of global significance, we have an essential responsibility to distribute the fruits of our scholarship as widely as possible,” said Provost Steven E. Hyman. Where Harvard leads will many others follow? If they do, this could add impetus to general rumblings about providing open access to scholarly journals and archives, and lead to the beginning of a seismic shift in scholarly publishing.

This goes to the heart of how scholarly materials are produced, peer reviewed, published and then consumed both for students and researchers. Is a patchwork of repository, archive, learning management system, library catalogue, resolver knowledgebase, and commercial journal subscription silos the right way to produce store and manage access to the core assets of a university via often expensive and restrictive licensing? Probably not, and whatever develops to make that world cohesive will most certainly need to address the Open Access issues highlighted by Harvard’s move.

Meet the Team

Julian Higman – Technical Lead

This month we meet Julian Higman, Technical Lead. Julian joined Talis in summer 2007 from AOL. With an Engineering degree from Bath University and a ScrumMaster title, Julian brings a range of diverse experiences to Talis, including several years as Technical Director of Connextra Ltd, well-known in the world of Agile development.

Currently, Julian is working on a wide range of projects including advanced OPACs, reading list systems and enterprise integration. A combination of Scrum and XP (Extreme Programming) is being used across the teams.

"Although this is a different industry sector to what I have worked in before, I am very familiar with the Agile approach to building technology that is adopted throughout Talis. This was a key attraction to me as many companies try to adopt Agile processes, but fail to transform the company culture to enable this way of working."

Agile is an iterative development process which is highly collaborative. Products are built in increments and evolve to meet the needs of users. From a technical perspective, agile involves high levels of automated testing and an emphasis on simplicity of design, which helps maintain code quality and the ability to implement rapid changes to the system.

At Talis, all the individual projects I am working on, come together as part of a broader initiative towards connecting data using open APIs and semantically-rich data. A real step beyond anything I have done before, it's development for the next generation of the web, which I find exciting and innovative."

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