Top Tech Trends: Digitization, Social Networking, and the OPAC

-- Library Journal, 2/9/2007

The perils and promise of mass digitization, libraries' forays into social networking, and the future of the OPAC all generated lively discussion during the Top Technology Trends discussion at the American Library Association Midwinter Meeting in Seattle. Actually, some of the discussion began earlier, thanks to the postings by certain participants who couldn't attend on the blog of the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) and has continued since then, thanks to podcasting of the session. "I believe that OCLC is angling to produce a fully-functional ILS," declared Sarah Houghton-Jan (Librarian in Black), citing the potential of "baby steps–a web interface here, an integrated ILL system there" and hoping "that the result is cheap, easily installed, and intuitive." Karen Schneider (Free Range Librarian) mused that the library world might evolve to where OCLC produces an ILS for libraries that can't afford to or don't need to maintain software, while others use an open-source system.

Evergreen, the new open-source system adopted last fall by 250 libraries in Georgia, got mixed reviews. "I believe that Sept. 5, 2006 will long be remembered as the day when the ILS world irrevocably changed," declared Roy Tennant of the California Digital Library (and LJ columnist). But Schneider cautioned that "open source software is more like 'free kittens' than 'free beer.' It still needs to be maintained and updated." Clifford Lynch of the Coalition for Networked Information expressed skepticism that "the seemingly sorry state of the ILS system is a result of failure to innovate or failures of the marketplace." Rather, he said, "the underlying conception of the ILS is very deeply conflicted and flawed" when it comes to digital content, and suggested that open source might not be "massively cheaper or massively better."

Tennant observed that the mass digitization projects by Google and the Open Content Alliance present "massive opportunities and massive challenges," suggesting that "we need to be thinking about this issue long and hard." Lynch seconded that, calling it "uncharted territory" for which a research effort is needed to determine the appropriate interfact. Citing the use of YouTube, blogs, and more, Houghton-Jan predicted "a mass awakening… to the need for online outreach." Lynch wondered whether libraries' presence on sites like MySpace and Facebook was "an attempt to jump on the next trendy thing." He suggested that a move to Second Life "is more complex, because people are doing more programmatic things." Marshall Breeding of the Vanderbilt University library cited the striking "amount of experimentation" going on in Second Life.