The New User Environment: The End of Technical Services?, by Bradford Lee Eden

"Technical Services: an obsolete term used to describe the largest component of most library staffs in the twentieth century. That component of the staff was entirely devoted to arcane and mysterious processes involved in selecting, acquiring, cataloging, processing, and otherwise making available to library users physical material containing information content pieces (incops). The processes were complicated, expensive, and time-consuming, and generally served to severely limit direct service to users both by producing records that were difficult to understand and interpret, even by other library staff, and by consuming from 75–80 percent of the library’s financial and personnel resources. In the twenty-first century, the advent of new forms of publication and new techniques for providing universal records and universal access to information content made the organizational structure obsolete. That change in organizational structure, more than any other single factor, is generally credited as being responsible for the dramatic improvement in the quality of library service that has occurred in the first decade of the twenty-first century."

Ignored segregation: inaccessible websites

I wrote my article, "Tending a wild garden..." as a paper while working on my Masters of Library Science. I was taking a class on "Resources and Services for People With Disabilities" and was amazed to learn how much of the Web is inaccessible to persons with visual and other impairments. I also was struggling to grasp the recommendations of the Web Accessibility Initiative and how it would affect my future work designing and maintaining library websites. My paper was a step in that direction.

It is sad that in a country that prides itself on equal rights for all that such an inequity lacks an adequate remedy in law. The current regulations and guidelines have no enforcement "teeth," and the only way to redress this is for persons with disabilities (PWD for short) to sue the worst offenders (e.g. Target).

According to a recent posting on the Accessibility Watch blog,
On 26 January 2010, the Federal IT Council (FITC) in Switzerland (Informatikrat des Bundes – IRB) accepted the changes to P028 Version 2.0 with unanimous consent. As a result of these changes, existing federal websites must meet WCAG 2.0 Level AA by 31 December 2010. New federal websites must meet this conformance level immediately.

Someday the U.S.A. will do better.

March 2010 issue now online

The index and linked articles for the March issue are at http://www.lita.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/ital/292010/2901mar/toc.cfm. It can be accessed by all LITA members.

A Partnership for Creating Successful Partnerships, by Carl Grant

When Marc asked me to write this column I eagerly accepted because I feel strongly about libraries leveraging their role to their greater advantage in the rapidly changing information landscape. I see sponsorships and partnerships as an important tool for doing that. However, as noted in Marc’s column in this issue, we’d been having a discussion about the continuing involvement of Ex Libris in the LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award. Like many of you, we at Ex Libris are trying to keep our costs low in this challenging economic environment so that we can in turn keep your costs low. Thus we are closely evaluating all expenditures to ensure their cost is justified by the value they return to our organization. I won’t repeat the discussion already outlined by Marc above, but will just note with great pleasure his willingness to not only listen to my concerns, but to try and address them. His invitation to write this column was part of that response, a chance for me to share my thoughts and concerns with you about sponsorships and partnerships and where they need to go in the future.

To do that, I’d like to expand on some of the concepts Marc and I were discussing and talk about how to make sponsorships and partnerships successful. I want to look at what successful ones consist of as well as what types are needed in our profession tomorrow.

Editorial Board Thoughts: Issue Introduction to Student Essays, by Sandra Shores

The papers in this special issue, although covering diverse topics, have in common their authorship by people currently or recently engaged in graduate library studies. It has been many years since I was a library science student—twenty-five in fact. I remember remarking to a future colleague at the time that I found the interview for my first professional job easy, not because the interviewers failed to ask challenging questions, but because I had just graduated. I was passionate about my chosen profession, and my mind was filled from my time at library school with big ideas and the latest theories, techniques, and knowledge of our discipline.

Monitoring Network and Service Availability with Open-Source Software, by T. Michael Silver

Silver describes the implementation of a monitoring system using an open-source software package to improve the availability of services and reduce the response time when troubles occur. He provides a brief overview of the literature available on monitoring library systems, and then describes the implementation of Nagios, an open-source network monitoring system, to monitor a regional library system’s servers and wide area network. Particular attention is paid to using the plug-in architecture to monitor library services effectively. The author includes example displays and configuration files.

Tending a Wild Garden: Library Web Design for Persons with Disabilities, by R. Todd Vandenbark

Nearly one-fifth of Americans have some form of disability, and accessibility guidelines and standards that apply to libraries are complicated, unclear, and difficult to achieve. Understanding how persons with disabilities access Web-based content is critical to accessible design. Recent research supports the use of a database-driven model for library Web development. Existing technologies offer a variety of tools to meet disabled patrons’ needs, and resources exist to assist library professionals in obtaining and evaluating product accessibility information from vendors. Librarians in charge of technology can best serve these patrons by proactively updating and adapting services as assistive technologies improve.

The Path toward Global Interoperability in Cataloging, by Ilana Tolkoff

Libraries began in complete isolation with no uniformity of standards and have grown over time to be ever more interoperable. This paper examines the current steps toward the goal of universal interoperability. These projects aim to reconcile linguistic and organizational obstacles, with a particular focus on subject headings, name authorities, and titles.

Tagging: An Organization Scheme for the Internet, by Marijke A. Visser

How should the information on the Internet be organized? This question and the possible solutions spark debates among people concerned with how we identify, classify, and retrieve Internet content. This paper discusses the benefits and the controversies of using a tagging system to organize Internet resources. Tagging refers to a classification system where individual Internet users apply labels, or tags, to digital resources. Tagging increased in popularity with the advent of Web 2.0 applications that encourage interaction among users. As more information is available digitally, the challenge to find an organizational system scalable to the Internet will continue to require forward thinking. Trained to ensure access to a range of informational resources, librarians need to be concerned with access to Internet content. Librarians can play a pivotal role by advocating for a system that supports the user at the moment of need. Tagging may just be the necessary system.

Dublin Core, DSpace, and a Brief Analysis of Three University Repositories, by Mary Kurtz

This paper provides an overview of Dublin Core (DC) and DSpace together with an examination of the institutional repositories of three public research universities. The universities all use DC and DSpace to create and manage their repositories. I drew a sampling of records from each repository and examined them for metadata quality using the criteria of completeness, accuracy, and consistency. I also examined the quality of records with reference to the methods of educating repository users. One repository used librarians to oversee the archiving process, while the other two employed two different strategies as part of the self-archiving process. The librarian-overseen archive had the most complete and accurate records for DSpace entries.

Geographic Information Systems: Tools for Displaying In-Library Use Data, by Lauren H. Mandel

In-library use data is crucial for modern libraries to understand the full spectrum of patron use, including patron self-service activities, circulation, and reference statistics. Rather than using tables and charts to display use data, a geographic information system (GIS) facilitates a more visually appealing graphical display of the data in the form of a map. GISs have been used by library and information science (LIS) researchers and practitioners to create maps that display analyses of service area populations and demographics, facilities space management issues, spatial distribution of in-library use of materials, planned branch consolidations, and so on. The “seating sweeps” method allows researchers and librarians to collect in-library use data regarding where patrons are locating themselves within the library and what they are doing at those locations, such as sitting and reading, studying in a group, or socializing. This paper proposes a GIS as a tool to visually display in-library use data collected via “seating sweeps” of a library. By using a GIS to store, manage, and display the data, researchers and librarians can create visually appealing maps that show areas of heavy use and evidence of the use and value of the library for a community. Example maps are included to facilitate the reader’s understanding of the possibilities afforded by using GISs in LIS research.

December 2009 issue now online

The index and linked articles for the December issue are at http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/ital/282009/2804dec/toc.cfm.

Issue Introduction: What Do You Mean by “Discovery”?, by Judith Carter

Mwuah  ha  ha  ha  haaa!  Finally  it’s  my  turn.  I hold  the  power  of  the  editorial.  (Can  you  tell
I’m  writing  this  around  Halloween?)  Seriously now, I’ve been intimately and extensively involved with Information  Technology  and  Libraries  for  eleven  years,  yet this is the first time I’ve escaped from behind the editing scenes  to  address  the  readership  directly.  As  managing editor for seven of the eleven volumes (18–22 and 27–28) and  an  editorial  board  member  reviewing  manuscripts (vols. 23–26), I am honored Marc agreed to let me be guest editor for this theme issue.

“Discovery” Focus as Impetus for Organizational Learning, by Jennifer L. Fabbi

The  University  of  Nevada  Las  Vegas  Libraries’  focus on  the  concept  of  discovery  and  the  tools  and  processes that enable our users to find information began with an organizational review of the Libraries’ Technical Services Division.  This  article  outlines  the  phases  of  this  review  and  subsequent  planning  and  organizational  commitment to discovery. Using the theoretical lens of organizational learning, it highlights how the emerging focus on discovery has provided an impetus for genuine learning and change.

Information Discovery Insights Gained from MultiPAC, a Prototype Library Discovery System, by Alex A. Dolski

At the University of Nevada Las Vegas Libraries, as in most libraries, resources are dispersed into a number of closed  “silos”  with  an organization-centric,  rather  than patron-centric,  layout.  Patrons  frequently  have  trouble navigating  and  discovering  the  dozens  of  disparate interfaces,  and  any  attempt  at  a  global  overview  of  our information  offerings  is  at  the  same  time  incomplete and highly complex. While consolidation of interfaces is widely considered to be desirable, certain challenges have made it elusive in practice.

Usability as a Method for Assessing Discovery, by Tom Ipri, Michael Yunkin, and Jeanne M. Brown

The  University  of  Nevada  Las  Vegas  Libraries  engaged in three projects that helped identify areas of its website that  had  inhibited  discovery  of  services  and  resources. These  projects  also  helped  generate  staff  interest  in  the Usability  Working  Group,  which  led  these  endeavors. The first project studied student responses to the site. The second focused on a usability test with the Libraries’ peer research  coaches  and  resulted  in  a  presentation  of  those findings to the Libraries staff. The final project involved a specialized test, the results of which also were presented to staff. All three of these projects led to improvements to the website and will inform a larger redesign.

UNLV Special Collections in the Twenty-First Century, by Thomas Sommer

University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) Special Collections is consistently striving to provide several avenues of discovery to its diverse range of patrons. Specifically, UNLV Special  Collections  has  planned  and  implemented  several online tools to facilitate unearthing treasures in the collections.  These  online  tools  incorporate  Web  2.0  features as well as searchable interfaces to collections.

Smartphones: A Potential Discovery Tool, by Wendy Starkweather and Eva Stowers

The anticipated wide adoption of smartphones by researchers  is  viewed  by  the  authors  as  a  basis  for  developing mobile-based services. In response to the UNLV Libraries’ strategic plan’s focus on experimentation and outreach, the authors investigate the current and potential role of smartphones as a valuable discovery tool for library users.

Building Pathfinders with Free Screen Capture Tools, by Patrick Griffis

This article outlines freely available screen capturing tools, covering  their  benefits  and  drawbacks  as  well  as  their potential applications. In discussing these tools, the author illustrates how they can be used to build pathfinding tutorials for users and how these tutorials can be shared with users. The author notes that the availability of these screen capturing tools at no cost, coupled with their ease of use, provides  ample  opportunity  for  low-stakes  experimentation from library staff in building dynamic pathfinders to promote the discovery of library resources.

Enhancing OPAC Records for Discovery, by Patrick Griffis and Cyrus Ford

This article proposes adding keywords and descriptors to the catalog records of electronic databases and media items to enhance their discovery. The authors contend that subject liaisons can add value to OPAC records and enhance discovery  of  electronic  databases  and  media  items  by providing searchable keywords and resource descriptions. The authors provide an examination of OPAC records at their  own  library,  which  illustrates  the  disparity  of  useful  keywords  and  descriptions  within  the  notes  field  for media item records versus electronic database records. The authors  outline  methods  for  identifying  useful  keywords for  indexing  OPAC  records  of  electronic  databases.  Also included is an analysis of the advantages of using Encore’s Community Tag and Community Review features to allow subject liaisons to work directly in the catalog instead of collaborating with cataloging staff.