There has been a noticeable divide the past few years within the library world regarding electronic books. Many academic libraries have been purchasing or leasing web-based academic ebooks for years. Most public libraries on the other hand (thanks in large part to services such as OverDrive) have directed their attention toward downloadable…

Academic, government, and corporate librarians organize and leverage internal resources and content through institutional repositories and library catalogs. Getting more value and usage from the content they license is a key goal. However, the ever-growing amount of content and shifting user demands for new materials or features has made the…

Technology makes it possible to redefine libraries and make them relevant to the public once again. But how good are the digital services offered by public libraries today? The digital services department team of the Pode project at Norway's Oslo Public Library has spent the last 2 years investigating the possibilities available in order to…

New technology appears at a fast pace these days. As individuals people must choose how much technology to allow into their personal worlds. Within organizations, people must collectively decide how to build, sustain, and perhaps jettison new technologies as they consider their long-term value and life span. This requires a collaborative spirit…

What do Google Maps and a library's Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) have in common? Google Maps provides users with all the information they need for a trip in one place; users can get directions and find out what attractions, hotels, and restaurants are close by. Librarians must find the ultimate OPAC that will provide, in one place, all the…

Since SC LENDS started operating in June 2009, more public libraries have come on board. All of this on the back end connects to a Mozilla-based staff client that has distributions for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, using SSL encryption to keep communications secure and private between remote libraries and the servers hosted at a high-end…

Resource discovery tops the charts as the foremost issue within the realm of library automation. As a new year commences, the author sees a more pressing need to accelerate the pace with which libraries deliver content and services in ways that users will find compelling, relevant, and convenient. The evolution of the web advances relentlessly,…

In this article, the author talks about linked data and focuses on the main point of linked data: building a better web. Even though how people build the web has changed steadily over the years (and keeps changing, as programmers switch toolkits and frameworks every few years, disposing of older languages and tools when newer, better ones come…

One of the toughest challenges in an academic library systems office is how to manage and present the extensive selection of electronic resources from a variety of vendors. At York College of Pennsylvania, the authors participated in an admissions-driven web revision cycle and used a campus-provided CMS for 8 years. During this time, they tried…

As a concept, the next-generation catalog (NGC) is not new to librarians, who have been wishing for better OPAC interfaces for their integrated library systems (ILSs). The NGC has been the focus of discussion for more than 5 years now, from the 2006 report of the implementation of Endeca at North Carolina State University, to Marshall Breeding's…

The rumored death of librarianship caused by the advent of technology has not, and will not, come to pass. In this article, the author describes how technology has exponentially increased the librarian's ability to provide library service at the Calcasieu Parish Public Library, where she serves as head of Collection & Computing Services. The…

In 2009, the author spearheaded the Thunder Bay Public Library's (TBPL) service audit on kiosks. A task force comprising staff from the children's, reference, and adult services departments was formed to work on the audit. Task force members worked together and studied how patrons and staff use kiosks, conducted a literature review, surveyed other…

In today's world of instant everything, everyone has been exposed to some form of Web 2.0 technology, and higher education is not exempt from its long reach. Libraries of all types are incorporating Web 2.0 features to attract users as well as to showcase library services. The Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) has become more user-friendly with…

Since the turn of the century, one of the hottest topics in the IT world has been the coming mobile revolution. While there's been some arguing over the details, the fundamental tenet of the mobile revolution is that lots and lots of people will start accessing web content from handheld portable devices instead of using a traditional laptop or…

Far more people are familiar with their local public or college library facility than their library's website and online resources. In fact, according to a recent survey, 96% of Americans said they had visited a library in person, but less than one-third have visited their online library. Since everyone agrees that online library resources are…