Talis Source Blog

I was reminiscing today, back to a time before Talis Source – before what I will conveniently dub the “Newton moment” (eventually a link tenuous enough to justify this photo). Now where was I …..oh yes, I was just telling you about when Talis were first discussing the idea of free resource discovery.

Wow, what a radical idea that was. After all we appeared to have a lot to lose; we were hosting the UK’s largest union catalogue and generating a rather agreeable revenue. With the traditional “we must protect our customer base with our lives” hat on, we did have a lot to lose.

Although, if you study the analytics page on Talis Source you’ll see that the service had pretty much plateaued. That wasn’t anyone’s fault, it simple indicated that the traditional model was restrictive – not every library could participate.

Then came the “Newton moment”, if every library’s holdings could be aggregated and used as one, the value would be unimaginable. Then if that data was totally open, allowing anybody to utilise it in anyway they require, creating a mashup as it were, the potential would be truly breath taking. For instance, it could enable a child to find the resources of any library, anywhere, from the comfort a 3D online digital world or enable an interlibrary loan librarian to easily locate and satisfy the request for a book.

So it became apparent - we needed to provide a solution that would enable such an environment. It would require a very low entry level. Meaning that you would not be charged to contribute data, you would not have to pay a subscription to a service to view everyone else’s data and the database would of course have to be open.

Our solution: the Talis Platform. Free to contribute, free resource discovery and APIs enabling contributed data to be consumed in anyway you wish. Talis Source represents the interlibrary loan element of the Talis Platform and is only one of many methods to view the holdings. Soon there will be many more…..

(Photo taken by strawberryblues displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Talis Source, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I’ve been looking at Worldcat.org and guess what…...

Like my colleague Paul Miller I kind of like it. It’s a step in the right direction. Holdings, although still closely guarded at least we are allowed a peek at them. Almost like a naughty school child allowed into a sweet shop, allowed to look but certainly not allowed to touch or eat any. Saying that though, there are some key features I like such as:

• The simple searching
• Faceted browsing
• Link to Amazon if I wanted to buy it (I like choice)

There’s one thing I would comment on though. When I search for any book, even for the fairly common titles often the 2/3rd record is well over commuting distance and the 7, 8 or 9th location is abroad (I would love to see the face of my girlfriend if I were to suggest going to Istanbul Bilgi University in Turkey to borrow the Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban DVD as the closest other 5 libraries don’t have it in stock). It appears that a few other people are experiencing the same thing).

Perhaps, if it was free to contribute to WorldCat.org for every library I wonder if there would be more locations.

(Photo taken by SideLong displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Worldcat, Talis, Talis Source, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 08:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Things are great. What a way to start a blog, and better still – it’s true.

What’s great I hear you eagerly question. Well I’m pleased to announce that it’s nearly Christmas; according to the shops in Birmingham who are already stocking Christmas merchandise. But as if it couldn’t get any better than that, it does. As a result of the Fancy a Refresher blog last week Talis have helped several more libraries totally refresh their holdings.

Roll on Christmas! (and new holdings)

(Photo taken by scottfeldstein displayed in Flickr)

Posted by Grant White at 07:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Talkingtech a technical partner of Talis came in today to discuss our joint venture, Talis Message.

I’ve heard my colleagues raving about Talis Message. They get all excited about how the system sends a “friendly reminder that a book is overdue” or “allowing library users to reserve a book/renew a book over the phone” which is great because it saves time for librarians to do fun stuff…... which is of course is good.

But I’m a little different, what I like about Talis Message is that it gives library users, choice. I love choice. For instance:

• Do I buy a Porsche or an Aston Martin?
• Do I visit my bank in person, use telephone banking or internet banking to check if I have enough money to buy a new car?

Unfortunately, no matter what my decision is in the latter choice I always get the same response “Mr White, you couldn’t even buy a model Aston Martin let alone a real one – please stop phoning us”.

Obviously my dreams were heartlessly broken over the phone on this occasion. But it was my choice; I choose to use the phone. It was what suited me the best at the time.

I also want several choices of discovering where a book is. There are already lots of choices available:

• Download it from Google Book Search (read about it here)
• Use Talis Source
• Buy it from Amazon.co.uk
• Go to my local bookshop
• Use Google’s Find in a Library feature.
• Ask the knowledgeable librarian
• Online via the library’s OPAC?
• Use Worldcat.org
• Use Talis Whisper
• Use one of the many Library mashups

It’s my choice and my choice will vary depending where, when and what I am doing. I am passionate about libraries and whole heartedly believe that libraries do matter – especially with an ever increasingly skilled workforce.
So the need to discover and use the rich content in libraries will increase and library users will want to on their terms, in a way that they suits them.

Contributing your holdings to the Talis Platform simply provides the citizens, students and potential library users another means of discovering that you do have a particular book. Surely that’s a good thing for everyone? And the fact that contributing to the Talis Platform is free must only make the whole proposition more attractive.

(Photo taken by Simon Davison displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Talis Source, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 07:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I suspect that although Australian football fans are thrilled about the benefits of Talis Source (access to free resource discovery and free to contribute your entire catalogue) I have a sneaky suspicion these merry bunch are celebrating Australia progressing to the final 16 of the World Cup for the first time. Well done.

Although if they were celebrating Talis Source they would be in good company, there are nearly 200 libraries actively participating in the service. Together they have increased the total holdings available to Talis Source by a whopping 25%, to over 50 million. Well done indeed!

For other statistics and analysis to see how Talis Source is growing click here.

(Photo taken by Andreas Laubscher displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Union catalogue, refresher, Talis Source, Stats, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 07:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I went to buy a sandwich at lunch today and saw some refreshers; it got me thinking… (and not about my stomach)…..

Here at Talis we are busy processing holdings everyday including the weekends; in fact you’ll be able to tell the Live Services team, they’re the tired looking ones. However, they also look strangely pleased with themselves, really pleased.

So naturally when I got back to the office I asked them why.

They were only to happy to explain why…..they’ve been keeping records of all the data processed and it turns out that on average every institution, that’s right EVERY institution, in Talis Source has refreshed their holdings at least once since May 2006.

Who said that Talis Source was growing old?

Fancy a refresher? We’ll help you refresh your holdings.

(Photo taken by davescunningplan's displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Union catalogue, refresher, Talis Source, Stats, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 05:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Wow, what a day. I’ve been flat out today - working like a busy bee at a laptop……

I know it’s not the best, but it made me chuckle.

Why have I been so busy? Well two more, that’s right two more, libraries have agreed to work with Talis, offering advice and assistance to extract holdings data. As if it couldn’t get any better, both of them are DS Galaxy customers.

It really is great news. I’m so pleased. It means that once we’ve had a more detailed conversation we will be able to provide DS Galaxy customers a much better solution than “speak to the helpdesk at DS, they’ll provide you with the unity.extract script then every month run the unity.update script”. It just felt like as if there must be a better, easier way to contribute and after our talks tomorrow we will know how easy we can make the contribution process.

I’m sure DS will be relieved that they won’t have to constantly write export scripts for all their customers, their customers will be able to easily contribute and rest of the library community will be pleased as they will have a broader range of locations to search. So, basically everyone will be happy.

Isn’t that nice, and to think this blog started with a photo of a bee.

(Photo taken iwona_kellie displayed in Flickr)

Posted by Grant White at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I wanted to find a picture to add a certain je ne sais quoi to this blog, a speeding train perhaps, but after a quick look at Flickr couldn’t find anything.

But anyway, back to the blog. I have the pleasure to inform you that the team here at Talis spoke to one of the 18 Dynix Classic customers that have agreed to contribute to the Talis Platform. Steven Heywood, a System Manager that has been contributing holdings to Talis for the last 13 years proved to be a great help.

It just goes to show that the concept of liberating data from the murky depth of library management systems to be freely used by all types of applications is really catching on. Further more, people are realising that it isn’t a pipe dream; it’s a reality and can be achieved today.

Using the expertise of Librarians, System Managers and the likes of Steven and Dave combined with the technical team here at Talis is proving a real winning formula. It’s great to see and such collaboration for the good of the whole library community can only be a step in the right direction.

As usual, if you would like to join in and help libraries liberate their data (the invite includes any library vendor themselves) or want to contribute your holdings to the Talis Platform let us know.

Thank you again Steven for your insight, it really is appreciated.

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Posted by Grant White at 07:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Well not quite, but I didn’t think there would be such a quick response to my last blog. Only one working day and another SirsiDynix customer, this time using Dynix Classic, has agreed to work with Talis to ensure contributing to the Talis Platform is as easy as possible (and of course free!).

As with my last blog I’ll keep you up to speed with progress.

If you have a SirsiDynix Unicorn system, a DS Galaxy system or in fact any library management system and want to help liberate data from your system let us know and you too can join our “wild fire”!

(Photo taken by Kyle Simourd displayed in Flickr)

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Union catalogue, Dynix, DS, Talis Source, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 06:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Yesterday afternoon, Talis’ technical team responsible for the automated harvest script from Talis Alto and I spoke to Dave Pattern, a Library Systems Manager of a Dynix Horizon system and promoter of Library 2.0.

What a great conversation; freely sharing ideas and experiences. For me it embodied the spirit of collaboration happening in the library world today. In fact if I were a lager marketeer I would refer to it as “probably the best conversation in the world”.

I’ll keep you posted with progress; the final results will be freely available on the Talis Developer Network as well.

If you want to join our efforts of liberating holdings out of every library system email us at: source@talis.com

Technorati Tags: Resource Discovery, Talis, Union catalogue, Dynix, Talis Source, Talis Platform, library,

Posted by Grant White at 04:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)