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Library Technology Guides

Key resources in the field of Library Automation
LTG home Computers in Libraries [February 2009]

current news Opening up library automation software

Breeding, Marshall.
news release Copyright (c) 2009 Information Today
archive
One of the major themes that I’ve observed in the recent
libwebcats
era of the library involves the demand for more openness in
all aspects of the technology infrastructure. Libraries often
bibliography
articulate frustration at automation systems that fail to
library companies offer adequate access to the data and functionality of their
automation systems. Libraries increasingly resist rigidly
systems librarian closed automation products that do not provide flexible
access to the data and provide ways to connect to other
library tech reports products. Today’s library automation environment favors
systems that can deliver, in one way or another, products
automation system that break away from closed, proprietary systems to allow
marketplace libraries more liberal access to their data. Open source
software has caught on in a big way within the library
trends: ARL's automation arena, but we’ll see that this is not the only
approach possible as libraries seek options to gain more
next-gen catalogs access and control over their data and other aspects of their
technology environment.
ILS trends: Public

US Urban Libraries One of the major themes that I've observed in the recent era of the library
involves the demand for more openness in all aspects of the technology
library 2.0 gang infrastructure. Libraries often articulate frustration at automation systems that
fail to offer adequate access to the data and functionality of their automation
site statistics systems. Libraries increasingly resist rigidly closed automation products that do
not provide flexible access to the data and provide ways to connect to other
products. Today's library automation environment favors systems that can deliver,
automation history
in one way or another, products that break away from closed, proprietary systems
to allow libraries more liberal access to their data. Open source software has
caught on in a big way within the library automation arena, but we'll see that this
is not the only approach possible as libraries seek options to gain more access and
control over their data and other aspects of their technology environment.

Register as an The need to protect a library's investment in its data provides one of the key
Library Technology drivers for increased openness. The data that describes the collections and
Guides member. reflects the operations of the library represents one of a library's most important
assets. The value of the cumulative investment of library personnel to create a
Already registered? database that accurately reflects its collection probably outweighs the value of
login. the software used to produce and maintain that data. Likewise, data endures
longer than any given software product. In the course of a library's automation
history, it will likely migrate through multiple automation systems, yet the data
created should pass intact from one to the next.

An interest in interoperability with other software products and information

systems also fuels demand for openness. Libraries increasingly expect to do more

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with their data than simply use it within a single automation product. A typical
library technology environment includes multiple interrelated systems, many of
which need to access data and functionality from others. In order for multiple
systems to communicate with each other and work together efficiently, library
automation products need to embody a high level of interoperability.

What's Wrong With Closed Systems?

A software product, such as an ILS, comes delivered with interfaces needed for
the full operation of the system. Through these supplied interfaces, the library
can carry out its daily activities, constantly updating a variety of databases in a
well -controll ed manner. Most products will also provide utilities that allow the
library to produce reports on most aspects of the underlying data.

A closed system comes supplied with interfaces that allow library personnel to
operate all aspects of the system, often including reports and utilities for viewing,
printing, and exporting data. Yet, having to operate within the interfaces,
reports, and utilities provided with the system may not provide the level of
flexibility needed by many libraries. A closed, proprietary system limits the ways
the library can access the underlying data. The library remains dependent on the
creators of the software to extend the functionality of the system and to access
or manipulate its data in ways not supported in the delivered interfaces.

What Constitutes Openness?

A fully open system allows the library to access any aspect of its data and extend
its functionality without the intervention of the company or organization that
created the system. Products that embrace openness allow the library to work
with the system in ways not originally anticipated by its creator. Open systems
reduce barriers. An open system gives the library more control over its own data
and makes it less dependent on any given company.

Openness is all about giving libraries access to their software and their data. Open
systems aim to help the library gain access to its data above and beyond the
means provided by the original developer. It involves libraries having greater
ownership of their data and less vulnerability to any given company or software
developer. Increased openness results in products that are less isolated and
self-contained and that can easily connect with other systems.

Support for Standards Results in Openness

Within the library automation arena, the requirement for the support of national
and international standards results in at least a minimal level of openness.
Libraries have a long history of developing standards and protocols that provide
access to major categories of library data and functionality. Provided that
libraries insist that any library automation software comply with any relevant
standards, they gain some of the benefits of an open system. Standards such as
MARC 21, Z39.59, NCIP, and OAI-PMH provide some examples of how standards
have engendered more open library automation systems.

The evolving family of MARC (M Achine -Readable Cataloging) standards has been
established for many years to ensure that bibliographic, authority, and holdings
records can be transported out of one system and into another. The Z39.50
protocol provides a standard approach for search and retrieval for information
systems and has been very effective as the basis for library applications such as
federated search among information resources, virtual union catalogs for library
consortia, search and selection of MARC records from bibliographic services or

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peer libraries, and other scenarios.

NCIP (NISO Circulation Interchange Protocol), and its predecessor SIP, provides a
standard framework that addresses data and functionality involved in circulation
transactions, including patron and item records.

The Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH) specifies
an approach for the mass extraction of records from an information resource. This
protocol has become especially relevant for the new genre of discovery interfaces
that usually involve transferring all of the records from the ILS to a new search
platform.

It's important to remember the great benefits that have been achieved through
the development of library standards and in the efforts developers have invested
in implementing them. These standards provide both interoperability and data
protection. An ILS that can import and export MARC records, for example, should
ensure that a library can migrate to a new system with at least its bibliographic
database, even if the incumbent vendor is unable or unwilling to assist in the
process.

Unfortunately, similar standards do not exist for many of the other categories
managed within a library automation system. Even when employing a system that
implements all the relevant standards, libraries find that they still face many
limitations. Another step in the direction of openness involves the support for APIs
with more comprehensive scope regarding data and system services.

The API Approach to Openness

Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs, provide a powerful means of access
to the data and functionality of a library automation product, depending on the
comprehensiveness of data and functionality addressed. An API allows
programmers to access the functionality of a software product. It also allows an
organization to work beyond the user interfaces and utilities provided by the
products developer and write its own programs that interact with its data and
services.

Technically, an API is a layer of software that responds to other computers, using

pre-established protocols and commands, to perform specific tasks. APIs operate
within the realm of computer- to-computer interactions and are not something
that the end users of the system would see. An API allows a programmer to write
scripts to extend the functionality of the system or to extract data in ways not
specifically created by the original system developer.

The usefulness of an API depends on the level of comprehensiveness at which it

addresses the data and services of the system and the quality of its
documentation. The more that the original software creator opens up the system
by providing APIs to all aspects of the system, the more power the library gains to
use its system in any way that it might need.

An API as part of an ILS is a powerful tool and must be used with great care. Some
companies have been reluctant to provide an API, especially to the extent that it
allows data modification, since they don't want to be responsible for problems
caused by an errant script that creates a system problem or data corruption. In
today's environment, which highly values openness, the provision of APIs has
become an important competitive factor and is seeing much wider deployment.

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In today's environment, web services stand as the preferred technology for

implementing APIs. Web services have been widely adopted throughout the
information technology industry as the standard approach for computer-
to-computer communications. Web services employ XML data structures to convey
requests and responses within a computer application or with a remote system to
perform specific tasks.

Web services find increasing adoption within the library automation industry. A
growing number of library automation vendors have articulated strategies that
involve the use of APIs, implemented as web services, to extend the functionality
of their systems. Examples include Ex Libri s' "open-platform program" (see Smart
Libraries Newsletter, August 2008), the Encore API announced by Innovative
Interfaces in October 2008, the Jangle framework sponsored by Talis (see
http://code.google.eom/p/jangle), and in the web services implemented in
V-smart from Infor. SirsiDynix was one of the pioneers in this area, with its API
available for Unicorn since 1995 (see Library Systems Newsletter, 15:11,
November 1995). The Unicorn API predates web services and is available in a
proprietary language.

Each of these approaches to an API for library automation varies in the level of
comprehensiveness of functionality addressed and in the progress made toward its
implementation. Yet these demonstrate the efforts that developers of closed-
source ILS products have made in providing a more open approach to their
customers.

Open Source Software

One of the major trends in the library automation arena over the last few years
involves a tidal wave of interest in open source ILS products. Hundreds if not
thousands of libraries have adopted an open source ILS. This movement toward
open source ILS has been motivated largely by libraries wanting to be less
vulnerable to the actions or inaction of any given company as the industry
continues to consolidate. It also reflects the interest of libraries in playing a
stronger role in shaping and extending the software upon which they rely for their
daily operations and strategic initiatives.

Open source software, by its very definition, embraces the concepts of openness,
at least from the perspective of giving libraries full access to the technical
underpinnings of the ILS. Open source ILS software gives libraries access to the
source code, which in effect provides a complete blueprint of its data and
functionality. With an open source ILS, any library with a capable programmer can
inspect and modify the source code. This provides the ability to fully understand
how the system works internally, to fix any errors encountered, to access any of
the underlying data, and to extend the functionality of the system.

Whether an open source ILS delivers on openness in the form of robust support for
library standards and in the implementation of web services and other APIs varies
from one product to another. The ability for an ILS to interoperate with other
applications in the library's environment depends much more on the standards it
embraces, the library- specific protocols it offers, and the extent to which it
supports web services. Access to the source code offers many benefits but does
not in itself make a system more interoperable with other library or nonlibrary
applications.

Conclusion

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Throughout the history of library automation, I have seen a steady advancement

toward more open systems. The first generation of library automation products
was entirely proprietary. They ran on hardware platforms and operating systems
created by one company that were completely incompatible with those from
competing companies. Geac, for example, created the GLIS to run on its own line
of mainframe computers, but it used a programming language specific to these
computers as well as a proprietary database. The next phase of library
automation ran on operating systems such as UNIX using programming languages
and databases that that could be easily ported to multiple hardware platforms.
The 1990s saw increased implementation of ILS products on more standard
database environments such as Oracle - environments that allow libraries full
access to the underlying data and some interoperability with other business
applications in the organization that shared this database platform.

In the early days of library automation, when proprietary systems dominated, the
need for standards was paramount since other means of interoperability and data
exchange weren't possible. Today's focus on APIs, web services, and open source
systems makes possible a level of openness far beyond what was feasible in earlier
times. In today's world where libraries face incredible challenges to be ever more
interconnected within their broader organizations, in cooperative arrangements
with other libraries, and with their users, we need to constantly work toward
higher levels of openness.

Publication Year: 2009

Type of Material: Article
Published in: Computers in Libraries
Publication Info: Volume 29 Number 02
Issue: February 2009
Publisher: Information Today
Place of Publication: Medford, NJ
Notes: Systems Librarian Column
ISBN: 1041-7915
Permalink: http://www.librarytechnology.org
/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=13803
Record Number: 13803
Last Update: 2009-05-24 09:13:41
Date Created: 2009-02-08 14:09:58
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Maintained by Marshall Breeding

Jean and Alexander Heard Library, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
Copyright 2007

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