Well, I think Stephen is perfectly right to ask for more specific and
reproducible advice on 'what can be done now'. I'm afraid I just don't
have any to offer! It's tricky.
And "implement Koha now" is one piece of advice (but didn't Stephen say
they already HAD, even?), but do keep in mind, that as much as I respect
and appreciate both Joshua Ferraro and Koha (really, I do; Josh and what
he does for the library community are _awesome_), Josh is a vendor of
Koha services, so engaging in an argument with him about whether you
should or shouldn't implement Koha is probably not exactly productive.
But anyway, more advice is needed than that, I just don't personally
have any to offer! We are starting the Code4Lib Journal, see
journal.code4lib.org. First issue expected out in December. Part of our
explicit goal is to offer a regular publication where people like
Stephen can read it and get ideas for "what can I do now, and how can I
do it". So hopefully this will help fill some of that niche. Even with
that though, we're finding it a challenge to make sure we have articles
about projects reproducible by smaller and less resource-ful libraries,
not just by the giant academics. But we'll see what happens, I
(self-servingly, I must admit, especially after I called Josh out!)
encourage you to keep an eye on the journal. (And consider submitting
articles to it if you have any cool projects you want to share!)
Jonathan
Rob Styles wrote:
> On 14 Sep 2007, at 14:17, Stephens, Owen wrote:
>
>> Joshua wrote:
>>> You're implying here that open source doesn't have immediate rewards
>>> and isn't practical? :-)
>>
>> Well, maybe a bit - but probably not a discussion to have on this list
>> ;)
>
> if not on this list, I dare you to try putting that argument on the
> code4lib list ;-)
>
>>
>> If someone had posted in reply to my question "invest in commercial
>> software, the only way we are going to see an NGC is if we
>> encourage the
>> market to produce software worth implementing" then I'd come back with
>> the same point.
>
> and rightly so - past performance is not necessarily a good indicator
> of how things will progress. But the market does need some
> encouragement.
>
>>
>>> I'd posit that the open-source OPACs out
>>> there are the closest thing on the market resembling a NGC.
>>
>> When you say open-source OPACs do you mean ILS or stand alone OPAC
>> packages? I suppose the underlying question here is, to step
>> towards an
>> NGC would I be better to start with replacing the ILS I use, or just
>> layering a nice NGC-type layer on top. To take a specific example (and
>> this is only as an example) would I be better off putting effort into
>> changing cataloguing practice to more FRBR like representations, or
>> investing in systems that are reasonably good at presenting a FRBRised
>> view of non-FRBR data?
>
> To take your specific example, given the volume of book stock you
> have surely you're going to need to focus on analysing non-FRBR data
> rather than changing cataloguing practices - though both changes may
> ultimately be needed.
>
> And FRBR is just one way of slicing the data, maybe you'll need to
> slice it and re-group it in several different ways to achieve what
> you want.
>
> rob
>
> Rob Styles
> Programme Manager, Data Services, Talis
> tel: +44 (0)870 400 5000
> fax: +44 (0)870 400 5001
> direct: +44 (0)870 400 5004
> mobile: +44 (0)7971 475 257
> msn: mmmmmrob_at_yahoo.com
> blog: http://www.dynamicorange.com/blog/
> irc: irc.freenode.net/mmmmmrob,isnick
>
> Book your free place now at Talis Insight 2007 www.talis.com/insight
> Find out more about Talis at www.talis.com
> Shared InnovationTM
>
>
> Any views or personal opinions expressed within this email may not be
> those of Talis Information Ltd. The content of this email message and
> any files that may be attached are confidential, and for the usage of
> the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient,
> then please return this message to the sender and delete it. Any use
> of this e-mail by an unauthorised recipient is prohibited.
>
>
> Talis Information Ltd is a member of the Talis Group of companies and
> is registered in England No 3638278 with its registered office at
> Knights Court, Solihull Parkway, Birmingham Business Park, B37 7YB.
>
--
Jonathan Rochkind
Digital Services Software Engineer
The Sheridan Libraries
Johns Hopkins University
410.516.8886
rochkind (at) jhu.edu
Received on Fri Sep 14 2007 - 07:59:14 EDT