Moving appropriate data to a network level data with basic enquiry and update Web services is a first step in re-engineering library systems. In fact it is not only the ILS that needs re-engineering, but also the newer solutions that, like the ILS, have created silos of data, often locked inside proprietary systems and databases. It is important for libraries to own and control their data resources; to be free to share them, provide access to them and to expose the data. It is less important that the libraries own or run the software that manipulates and manages the data.
"The Networked Library Service Layer: Sharing Data for More Effective Management and Co-operation"
ReplyDeleteby Janifer Gatenby
http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue56/gatenby/
Collection Acquisition and Management at the Network Level
ReplyDeleteAs library collections are increasingly shared, there may be significant advantages (in terms of both cost and efficiency) in moving more acquisitions and licensing data and processes to the network level where they can be shared among the ILS, ERM and repositories and with other libraries. Moreover, libraries are finding their ILS acquisitions modules inadequate for managing the acquisition of the newer parts of whole collections. There is already a clear need for the acquisitions of the three parts of the collection to be managed as a whole; moving data to the network, thereby enabling shared network services, is one solution.
Storage and budgetary demands are pressing libraries to collect, digitise, store and preserve collectively. Network level data facilitate co-operative selection and collection building. Moreover, at the network level, it is easier to enhance the data pool with more evaluative content and to provide seamless links with user discovery and requesting services, and with user reference services. Moreover, the data available to the user are also enriched as the collection strengths of libraries in relation to other libraries become more explicit.