Welcome to Talis Library Platform News

Is it already time for another Library Platform News - I'm sure these months are getting shorter. Things seem to go in phases,and it seems, to my purely personal perspective, that the pendulum of interest is swinging in the direction of academic libraries, and their place in the wider University and College organisation at the moment. Maybe it is because of the Libraries of the Future initiative from JISC which we cover in this issue.

Also this month, you are treated to a report from my recent speaking tour in Australia. For those who want to get a feel for such a trip, between the presentations and meetings, you can check out my personal travel blog and Flickr photos.

This month's Meet the Team features a conversation with one of Talis' longest serving members of staff. Terry Willan joined, what was then BLCMP, in 1985 to work on the database, to coordinate cataloguing across institutions. As he goes on to say, that database is still at the heart of what Talis offers libraries today in the form of the Talis Base service.

It is interesting to reflect that the principles and motivations of libraries that joined the BLCMP cooperative, Sharing, Cooperation, Innovations, all are clear attributes underpinning the development of a Library Platform, and the building of applications on top of the services it provides. Services that open up opportunities for innovation such as those demonstrated by Rob Styles in our recommended Worth Watching video.

Enjoy this month's issue - see you next month.

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

Australia

Richard Wallis

Are libraries different in Australia; will my 'The Semantic Web is the next wave of technology that Web 2.0 will evolve into' message be well received; will what I have to say be relevant in an Australian context; have I remembered to pack my suntan lotion? - All questions running through my head on the flight to Perth to start a two week tour of Australian cities culminating in the Innovative Ideas Forum at the National Library of Australia. Except for the suntan lotion, I had no need to be concerned.

On the non-technical side of things, the word that comes to mind looking back on the trip is welcoming. Without exception, wherever I went I was welcomed, listened to, and invariably engaged in stimulating discussion and debate about the issues I raised. As with most places I have travelled to recently, Library 2.0 is high on the list of topics of conversation in Australia. However the realisation that we need to make our data work harder, as well as making it more available, is starting to gain some ground.

I really enjoyed my trip downunder, and look forward to doing it again before too long.

Podcast of the Month

Paul Miller talks with New Media Consortium about Horizon Report 2008.

Many quote the annual Horizon Reports as to the trends that are, and will, be influencing Higher Education in the coming years. Paul Miller's conversation with Larry Johnson, Alan Levine and Rachel Smith of the New Media Consortium, gets behind the report and how it is compiled, who it is compiled by. They also discuss the 2008 findings.

The Library 2.0 Gang - Google Book Search

 

The April Library 2.0 Gang welcomed Google's Frances Haugen as guest for the show. Frances is a Product Manager from the Google Book Search team, with special interest in the API which they recently released and we featured in last month's Library Platform News.

For this show the Gang also welcomed a few new regulars - Tim Spalding, founder of LibraryThing, Warwick Cathro Assistant Director-General, Innovation at the National Library of Australia, and Oren Beit-Arie, Chief Strategy Officer for Ex Libris.

This 59 minute show concentrates on Google Book Search and the use of the API. Frances gives great insight into how Google are approaching this and a view of what is going on under the hood when they receive a request. Because Google knows the location of the browser making the request, they can tune the response to meet local copyright, licensing, and distribution agreement terms for the country in which the user is located. For example, as Tim Spalding inquired, the API calls from the LibraryThing page for a book on Tiananmen Square would not return any results to a user accessing LibraryThing from China, whereas it would for users in most other countries.

Another area that was discussed was the availability of book jacket images, particularly relevant at a time when Amazon are tightening the usage conditions around their images. The basic API call to Google Book Search returns an image if it has one available for the user. There is no technical, or apparently no terms of use reason, for the user to then be redirected back to Google's pages. In principle this means that Google could become a source of free book jackets.

As usual the Gang's conversation ranges freely around the topics under discussion - well worth a listen. Why not pop over to the Library 2.0 Gang site and subscribe to the RSS feed in time for the May show.

Worth Watching

Rob Styles at Code4lib 2008

Rob Styles presented at the Code4lib 2008 Conference on the subject of Finding Relationships in MARC Data. The conference organisers have posted Google Video recordings of the sessions on the conference site - these can be found by following the individual presentation links from the conference schedule page.

Rob's fascinating and engaging presentation with very helpful slide animations, explains how the application of techniques found in RDF and Semantic Web technologies to MARC data records can draw out the relationships stored within them. This 20 minute video is well worth a watch for those wanting an overview of how these techniques can move us further down the road that people such as Charles Cutter set out to travel over a century ago. Rob's style of presentation means that you do not have to have a deep understanding of technologies to benefit from his presentation.

JISC and The Future of Libraries

JISC held their annual conference, in Birmingham, earlier this month. They chose the event to promote their Libraries of the Future initiative. To quote their site "‘Libraries of the Future’ is all about debate and involvement, and JISC invites you to take part". With events, printed resources, interactive Web 2.0 services, podcast interviews, and so on, they want to facilitate about academic libraries and how they meet the challenges of the online world and answer the question "what of the academic library’s traditional place at the heart of campus life?".

There are already a couple of physical manifestations of the initiative in the shape of the JISC/SCONUL Library Management Systems Report [pdf], and the Libraries Unleashed supplement produced in association with the Guardian. The first of these provides a clear perspective of the situation today from Library Management System providers and consumers. With recommendations such as "The study recommends libraries invest in systems with caution but not complacency, emphasizing that, whilst the library function has continuing and potentially growing value, the role of ‘conventional’ library may appear increasingly unclear." it presents much to ponder over for those in a market where everybody has already got a library system.

The Guardian supplement Libraries Unleashed brings together several excellent articles on libraries in academia, covering the future of librarians, Library 2.0, the new Users - the Google Generation, and not least the buildings and spaces from which libraries dispense their physical services.

It will be interesting to follow the JISC debate and to see how it translates into action.

Meet the Team

Terry Willan - Business Development Manager

This month, I have the pleasure of introducing one of our longest serving employees at Talis. Terry Willan has seen many job titles, but currently goes by Business Development Manager, and is this month’s, “meet the team”.

“With a degree in English and European Thought and Literature from the institution now known as Anglia Ruskin University, I joined Talis on the 7th of May, 1985; of course, Talis was actually BLCMP (Birmingham Libraries Cooperative Mechanisation Project) back then. The database we call Talis Base today, was at the heart of the company and I had joined as editor of that database, coordinating cataloguing across institutions, helping libraries to follow the same cataloguing standards to maximise the benefits of sharing.

My job soon also included managing data conversions for new customers, working with a wide variety of customers, developers and data. In the early 1990s we developed the Talis Library Management System and I contributed to the development of the cataloguing, acquisitions and OPAC modules.

April, 1999, Talis the company was born!, named after our library management system. I was involved in the business development team at the time, working on the “universes” for Business Objects and developed the business side of it.

I then spent several years as the Product Manager for Talis Base, Talis Gateway and our web based interlending service now known as Talis Source. This was diverse, challenging and fun, working with a wide range of customers and suppliers, dealing with contracts and being involved with standards development in several areas.

There then followed a move into the applications development team, to work on what is now known as Talis Prism 3. We have developed a brand new catalogue product, utilising the Talis Platform. For me it has meant updating my knowledge of technology, working with some very talented people and learning new ways of doing product development and collaborating with customers.

This brings us up to date, in my current role as Business Development Manager, where one of my many objectives is to bring Talis Prism 3 to market.

As you can see, I have experienced many things during my time here, learnt many things and continue to do so. Change is always happening at Talis, ensuring a dull moment never arises and keeps my role a challenge. There has been the ideal balance of change and continuity, which has made my time enjoyable. Really, I have had many different jobs - they all just happen to be at the same company.”

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