My big hope is for the OpenLibrary project, but, while I don't follow
Open Library as closely as I was once, I get the feeling that it's not
winning—it's not succeeding in breaking the library data out, getting
enough non-library or user data to mount a challenge that way, or
involving enough people in the library community. I'm doing a lot of
publishing talks now, and I haven't met anyone who's even heard of it.
Open sourcing book data seems like a complete no-brainer, and yet...
Similarly, although LibraryThing has basically let go of a million
covers and series data as good as anyone else's, and it's going
nowhere. What works for us—and it's working like hell—are the things
we sell as ready-made services (tags, recommendations, soon reviews).
I would bet you anything that, if we had *sold* the covers, they'd be
used more. Seriously. Maybe we could sell them and then—psych—not send
a bill.
I think these are complexly layered problems—technology, culture,
habit, markets. In all these respects, libraries are dissimilar from
tech companies. It's not merely that librarians don't have the tech
skills we might want. Even if they had them, the whole culture is
geared toward dealing with known evils, not risky goods.
I also wonder about the idea that librarians need to do more of the
library IT work. Is this how other industries work? Does the banking
industry leverage technology successfully because there is a class of
banker-coders? No, whether they do it in-house or out, they basically
outsource the task to people who aren't in their industry. This is
harder for libraries because library technology—standards, apps—are so
(over) specific to the library field. It forces libraries to
concentrate more and more on something that is not, in the end, their
core strength.
$.02
Tim
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 1:27 PM, Jesse Ephraim
<JEphraim_at_ci.southlake.tx.us> wrote:
>>I personally believe that opening up our data
>>would be the beginning of a solution to multitudes
>>of problems.
>
> I agree. That is one of the major things that holds libraries back.
>
>>This is the key point: if librarians don't try to solve these issues,
> somebody else will.
>
> Exactly. LibraryThing has achieved more in the past two years than the
> majority of libraries out there.
>
> Jesse Ephraim
>
> Youth Services Librarian
> Southlake Public Library
> 1400 Main St., Ste. 130
> Southlake, TX 76092
>
> Email: jephraim_at_ci.southlake.tx.us
> Phone: (817) 748-8248
> FAX: (817) 748-8250
> www.southlakelibrary.org
> uncommonly friendly service
>
--
Check out my library at http://www.librarything.com/profile/timspalding
Received on Tue Sep 23 2008 - 12:11:36 EDT