technology solutions to library challenges

TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS TO LIBRARY CHALLENGES:
WEB-BASED SERVICE, INTEGRATION, EFFICIENCY.
VOLUME 18, NUMBER 5
JUNE 2006
WebPAC Pro Implementations Employ
Latest Web Technologies
Today’s libraries want to provide the rich,
yet simple experience provided by popular
ecommerce websites and search engines.
At the same time, they want to make
library services available outside the library
catalog to boost visibility of the unique
value libraries can bring to the Web. To
make these goals a reality, Innovative’s
library partners have implemented features
and products offered by WebPAC Pro, a
new platform for the online catalog. These
include RightResult™ search technology,
Courseware Integration for Blackboard®,
and Community Reviews in the online
catalog.
With the first stage of development complete, all three of these breakthroughs will
be available to all Millennium libraries
with the 2006 Release mid-year.
RightResult Search Technology
2006 Library
Directors’
Symposium..............2
Michigan State University (MSU)
Libraries have integrated RightResult
search technology into the online catalog as part of their WebPAC Pro implementation. RightResult searches return
a grouped result set based on an
advanced relevance-ranking algorithm
developed by Innovative. The outcome
is that patrons are most likely to find
what they need more quickly and at the
top of the results display.
An Interview with
Doug Randall, Vice
President of Product
Technology.............4
The Libraries launched RightResult in
March of 2006. “The way RightResult
works is something that patrons are
more familiar with,” Says Nancy Fleck,
Assistant Director for Technical Services
at MSU Libraries. “The results are
grouped together in sets of similar rel-
Millennium Self
Check at Arapahoe
Public.........................5
Plus...
RightResult
™
Relevance-Ranking
Circulation Notices to Your
Cell Phone........................................….6
Record-Breaking Attendance
at IUG 2006…........................................6
Digital Repository Work at Cal
Poly Pomona................…....................7
SEARCH OHIO LAUNCHES.......................7
What’s Up at Innovative.…..............8
In the example above, a search for the book Good to Great retrieves the item in
question and groups the most relevant titles, in this case three, together at the
top of the search results. The results list displays the most current print version of
the book, a sound recording version, and a previous print edition.
VISIT INNOVATIVE AT THE
AALL ANNUAL MEETING
JULY 8 - 12, 2006, ST. LOUIS, MO.
BOOTH# 601.
INN-Touch is published quarterly by
Innovative Interfaces, Inc. ©2006
evance. It’s easier for them to choose
between the ‘most relevant’ and ‘relevant’
groups than hunt further down for what
they need. RightResult helps position us as
providing a similar service to those found
on the Web such as search engines.
Innovative has done an excellent job and
it moves us to a new model for the online
catalog.”
Courseware Integration for
Blackboard
Blackboard. Blackboard’s default setting
includes direct links to subscription databases, bypassing the library that selected
and purchased this resources. Introducing
a complement of library functions into
Blackboard is critical to making the UNL
library resources an integrated and visible
part of the software.”
Now the library catalog can be searched
from within Blackboard, with results sets
returned directly inside the courseware
client. A logged-in user can also search
additional resources with Millennium’s
federated-search tools. Students will also
find a link from the course record in
Blackboard to the corresponding Millennium
Course Reserves entry in the online catalog.
To make access easy, this new product
allows users to move from Blackboard to
My Millennium and the Millennium online
catalog without re-authenticating.
Millennium can now be part of student
workflow on Blackboard courseware.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries
have now integrated library services with
the Blackboard courseware platform.
“Many students use Blackboard as a de
facto portal to all the services offered at
our University,” says Dee Ann Allison,
Professor and Director of Computer
Operations and Research Services. “The
UNL library should be visible through
Library Directors
Making
Connections
The 2006 Academic Library
Directors’ Symposium
Despite the plethora of library committees,
organizations, and interest groups, there
are few opportunities for library directors
to meet their peers at a national or
international level. For this reason,
Innovative hosts a Library Directors’
Symposium at the Claremont Resort and
Spa in Berkeley, California. In March, this
directors-only event drew a record-breaking
90 participants from the U.S., Europe, and
Asia who participated in presentations
and panels on library technology and
implementing Innovative tools. The
Symposium also afforded in-depth
interaction with Innovative staff and
learning about the company’s latest
technological advances.
Using the conference theme, “Making
Connections,” as a touchstone, Associate
Executive Director of the Coalition for
Networked Information (CNI) Joan
Lippincott, described today’s “Net Gen”
students and how libraries can best make
connections with them. These students,
said Lippincott, are proving to be
collaborative, creative learners that
Page Las Vegas-Clark County Library
District Testing “Community
Reviews”
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District is
bringing the voice of the patron into the
public catalog. The new Community
Reviews product will allow staff-moderated
commentary by patrons on items in the
collection. With the Web becoming as
much of a participatory conversation as a
collection of destinations, libraries want to
involve their patrons by permitting an
exchange of ideas within the digital
library environment.
This is yet another community first from
Innovative, which was also the first librarysystem vendor to introduce Patron Ratings
last year. That optional feature allows
patrons to rate books on a scale from one
to five and presents an aggregate rating
of all reviews in the online catalog.
WebPAC Pro is an option for all
Millennium libraries. In order to make
the transition worthwhile and simple for
customers, Innovative is making a service
commitment to upgrade sites free of
charge, and will also include RightResult™
and new record-display options as
elements of the basic package.
Community Reviews: Dialog in the Catalog
respond to learning situations that mirror
this style. Although not all students fit
this mold, Lippincott cited studies by the
Pew Internet & American Life Project,
higher education literature, and direct
experience with college students to back
up this claim.
To reach Net Gen learners, Lippincott
encouraged libraries to follow the examples
of those that are creating physical spaces
that allow collaboration and multi-tasking.
Said Lippincott: “The library needs to
provide more space for groups. Students
in groups are not always working on the
same project; if there are five students in a
group, three may be working on a project
together, the other two may be socializing,
and others are connecting with this group
through cell phone and emails. Net Gen
students are responsive to library spaces
that are more visual and experiential,
more interactive and collaborative.”
In his remarks, Innovative’s Chairman
and CEO Jerry Kline acknowledged the
importance of libraries’ electronic
presence and also pointed out how books
and the physical space of libraries can
bring them critical and much-needed
recognition. “Libraries need to think
about what the return on the investment
of their electronic content might be,”
said Kline. “In the minds of students and
faculty, does the library get credit for this,
[INN-Touch]
or is it the physical presence of the library
and its books? The library gets credit for its
books and as a place for interaction,” Kline
said. “The library is a truly loved place.”
Sandy Westall, Senior Vice President for Library
Service with Thomas Leonhardt, Library Director
at St. Edward’s University.
Noting that a recent OCLC, Inc. study
found that the library brand is books,
Kline reminded library directors that
resource sharing and other initiatives that
get libraries noticed are important to their
continuing success. Kline reminded the
audience that over a decade into the Internet,
the demand for the services academic
libraries provide is rising, in terms of traffic
through the door and visits to the website.
Get involved! The Symposium is open to
all library directors. In the spring of 2007
Innovative will hold two Symposia, one
for academic library directors and the
other for public library directors. For more
information, write [email protected].
2006 Library Directors’ Symposium
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON UPCOMING SYMPOSIA FOR
ACADEMIC AND PUBLIC LIBRARY DIRECTORS
WRITE [email protected].
The 2006 Academic Library Directors’ Symposium drew
Jerry Kline, Innovative Chair and CEO, kicked off the
over 90 participants from around the world.
event with a corporate and technology update.
Jerry Kline with Joan Lippincott, the Symposium
Reception at Innovative headquarters
keynote speaker.
(l to r): Fred Heath, Library Director at University of
Texas at Austin; Neil Block, Innovative Vice President
of Worldwide Sales; Paul E. Dumont, Director,
Educational Resources Support Services at Dallas
Photos by Jason Quesada
County Community College District; and Betsy
Graham, Innovative Vice President of Product
Management.
[INN-Touch]
Page An Open-Minded Approach to Technology
An Interview with Doug Randall, Vice President of Product Technology
each, and how they might play out in
a solution.
What’s new with technology at
Innovative?
At any given moment we’re exploring
and applying dozens of new technologies
as foundations behind all the new
products we’re talking about today.
On the software side, our Single Sign-on
work introduces new software technologies
that address the diversity of systems in
use by the libraries we partner with. Our
Campus Computing work builds on the
flexibility of Web Services and associated
frameworks to interact effectively with
other systems on campus. Our Ecommerce
work is pushing us farther into the financial
computing realm and the technologies in
play there. We’re also working with
handhelds, RFID, WiFi, and all sorts of
hardware. This sort of integration is
where the rubber meets the road, so
to speak.
At present, all the hard work we have
done to bring the latest Web technologies
into Millennium allow us to make a
next-generation library-discovery
platform like Encore a reality.
The beat goes on. Managing technological
change is core to what we do. We have
never been constrained by our own thinking
nor a given technological moment. If you
ask me the same question in two months
or two years, the list of technologies
will change but the excitement and the
commitment will not.
What’s different about
Innovative’s technology
approach?
I think I’d have to say our open-minded
approach to considering and implementing new technologies. We don’t limit our
view of technology to one catalog or
programming manual. We embrace and
rely on specific technologies because they
help us meet specific customer challenges.
When confronting a problem, we consider
a whole range of possible solutions, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of
Page Also, integration is the last link in the
chain. It’s critical. You can have all the
technologies in the world, but if you
don’t look at how they work together,
you won’t be satisfied and you will
wind up fighting with technology
rather than benefiting from it. This
smooth integration of new technology
into Millennium means that when
libraries choose Innovative they have a
working solution. Because we’re
always changing, always adapting,
always adjusting course, we don’t
make big technological bets that can
potentially put libraries on the wrong
side of the fence.
Again and again, we’ve been able to
accommodate change and make sure
our products are easy to use, stable,
and reliable. It’s something we take
pride in and a real departure from the
more common rip-and-replace, disruptive
process that is the norm in the software industry.
What are your thoughts
about library and technology
standards?
Throughout our history we’ve been
involved in the processes that bring
new standards into existence, such as
the recent work of (Senior Product
Manager) Ted Fons on SUSHI, which
standardizes the Web-Services
transmission of usage statistics from
content providers to our Electronic
Resource Management. In most cases,
we look at ways in which standards
can solve library technology problems.
A good example is RSS, which meets
the library’s challenge to keep patrons
informed in a timely manner.
What can you say about
Innovative the company?
At many stages in the company’s
history, we’ve always been able to
apply the most amazing technology
and hardware, but we’ve also paid
attention to the small details and
focused on library problems that make
a difference to libraries. It’s Innovative
that’s bringing it all together.
We start with an idea of a specific
challenge a library is trying to meet.
Then we refine, deepen, and expand
that understanding by working with
that library and tapping our own pool
of expertise. We consider the best
possible solutions from all available
technologies. We don’t get dazzled or
distracted by the technology. Even
though we’re passionate about new
technologies, the technology is a means
to an end. The final solutions have to
prove themselves in the library.
We’re a library company first and a
technology company second. Imagine a
diverse technical organization well
connected to all sorts of emerging
technologies, not just steeped in one
approach, and then imagine that
organization’s focus is helping libraries.
That’s Innovative.
[INN-Touch]
“Imagine a diverse
technical organization well connected
to all sorts of
emerging technologies, not just steeped
in one approach, and
then imagine that
organization’s focus
is helping libraries.
That’s Innovative.”
Success with
Millennium Self
Check at Arapahoe
By using Millennium Self Check, Arapahoe
Library District in Colorado has realized a
six-fold increase in patron-initiated
check-outs at a fraction of the cost of their
previous third-party solution. This self-service
circulation tool runs on low-cost PC
workstations while leveraging integration
with Millennium’s powerful circulation
package.
Arapahoe’s Implementation of
Millennium Self Check
Arapahoe patrons can
easily log in to a session
with a barcode reader,
keypad, or touch screen.
Millennium Self Check
allows for branding by
the library. Note the
Library’s color scheme
and logo at right
Scanned items are
displayed as the patron
enters them. Arapahoe
has chosen to display
checkouts, requests,
Millennium Self Check is the low-cost alternative
to expensive self-service machines.
(Pictured: Arapahoe’s Smoky Hill branch.)
Says David Britt, Systems Administrator at
Arapahoe: “The new PC workstations can
be operated with a touch screen and card
reader. It’s so easy to use that patrons have
jumped right in! Since we started using
Millennium Self Check, self-service
transactions have jumped from about 15%
to about 90%. The cost effectiveness of the
Innovative solution allowed more stations
at our larger branches and more effective
placement of stations in small libraries
with limited space.”
holds, and fine
information at the
bottom of the screen.
Arapahoe patrons can
take a closer look at all
their checked-out items,
even if they are not part
of the current self-service
session. Note that
authors and due dates
are displayed.
A detailed view of held
items displays which
Millennium Self Check is easy to use for
children and adults alike.
(Pictured: Arapahoe’s Smoky Hill branch.)
To make Millennium Self Check even more
convenient, Innovative will add a credit
card fine-payment option and the ability
to access My Millennium personalization
features to Millennium Self Check
beginning with the mid-year Millennium
Release 2006.
items are available or
ready for pick up by
Arapahoe patrons.
Clicking the “finished”
button ends the session.
[INN-Touch]
Page Library Briefs
IUG Meeting Sets Record (Again!)
Innovative Chairman and CEO Jerry Kline
with IUG Chair Cheryl Gowing (University
of Miami) and IUG Vice Chair Corey Seeman
(University of Michigan).
The 2006 Innovative Users Group’s (IUG)
annual meeting drew over 1,600 participants, a new record. This included almost
100 members from outside the U.S. representing Australia, Canada, China, Egypt,
Estonia, Finland, France, Hong Kong,
Ireland , Japan, Mexico, New Zealand,
Qatar, South Africa, Sweden, the United
Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.
Convening in Denver’s Hyatt Convention
Center, participants gave hundreds of
presentations, exchanged tips, and learned
the latest news about Innovative from the
company’s senior management team and
product managers.
As usual the event was not all work, as
Innovative hosted the all-conference
reception and special receptions for
international users, beta testers, and new
Innovative libraries, just to name a few! If
you attended and missed anything, or if
you have never attended and would like
to see what goes on, you can consult
CSDirect or the IUG website.
Online Resources: http://innovativeusers.
org/ (IUG members presentations)
Circulation Notices to Your Cell
Phone
American adults have cell phones and 34
million send Short Message Service (SMS)
messages to other cell phone users. In
Europe, SMS is even more popular. For
this reason it’s fitting that Edge Hill
University’s library is the first to integrate
SMS messaging into Millennium.
A survey conducted by the library found
that 97% of students use cell phones and
73% wanted to receive notices from the
library through their devices. The current
SMS pilot fulfills this demand by sending
circulation notices—up to 160 characters—to
cell phones. Now patrons can tell immediately
when their book has arrived or be warned
of an approaching due date. All they need
to do is look at their cell-phone screen
when it beeps.
The current pilot program includes 100
faculty members and students and will roll
out to general use at Edge Hill mid-year,
2006. “The feedback from users has been
fantastic,” says Information Resources
Manager, Mandy Phillips. “Because many
students are working in job placement
outside the campus, they are saying that
SMS messaging makes their lives more
convenient.”
Taiga Forum Convenes
author of The Social Life of Information
and Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President and
Chief Strategist, OCLC, also conducted
plenary presentations.
Meeting follow-up and discussions for
future Taiga Forum programs are now
underway. For more information go to
www.taigaforum.org.
Information Commons at the
University of Newcastle
In order to reach students in a changing
academic and technological climate, the
Information Commons has been a key
ingredient in creating a conducive
atmosphere for today’s student. These
work spaces often provide a number of
multimedia and computing options,
flexible work and sitting tools, and
inviting decor.
One place the Information Commons model
is working is at The University of Newcastle,
an Innovative-customer library in Australia
(pictured). For more on the Information
Commons concept, consult the collaborative
directory of the subject hosted at
Brookdale Community College.
Taiga Forum Steering Committee consists of (l to r):
Karen Calhoun, Cornell University; Robert
Murdoch, Brigham Young University; Mary Beth
Thomson, University of Kentucky; Stephen Bosch,
University of Arizona; Gail Herrera, University of
Mississippi; Robert Wolven, Columbia University;
Linda Miller, Library of Congress; and Carlen
Ruschoff, University of Maryland.
Not pictured: Meg Bellinger, Yale University.
Online Resources: http://www.brookdale.
cc.nj.us/library/infocommons/icsites/sitesalpha.htm
China’s Jinan University is New
Millennium Customer
The Taiga Forum convened a first-of-itskind, two-day conference on March 27th
and 28th of 2006. The event was attended
by over 80 Associate University Librarians
and Assistant Deans from leading research
and academic libraries across the United
States.
Edge Hill University Library sends circulation
information via SMS text messages.
Mobile phones are becoming a staple of
daily communication around the world. A
recent U.S. study (Pew Internet and
American Life, 2005) found that 134 million
Page Subtitled, “Shifting Boundaries,” the
program began with keynoter, James
Neal, Vice President for Information
Services and University Librarian, Columbia
University. Neal presented a wide-ranging
survey of the issues confronting today’s
academic library and set the stage for discussions that followed. Paul Duguid,
Jinan University in Guangzhou, China has
selected the Millennium integrated library
technology platform. Says Library Director
Li Na Zhu: “We have an impressive technical
team at the Library. They are excited to
apply their skills to Millennium, which
allows significant customization, to
keep the Library on the leading edge of
technology.” Library staff also reports that
their million-volume University Library will
be moving to a brand-new, 37,000-squaremeter facility (pictured) this year.
Digital Repository Development
at Cal Poly Pomona
Search Ohio Launches
Five library organizations have banded
together to launch Search Ohio, a library
consortium that will make any of over
7 million items available to their
communities. Powered by INN-Reach,
Innovative’s direct consortial borrowing
system, Search Ohio will allow library
users to make Web requests for books
and media like CDs and DVDs and receive
them within two to three days.
Search Ohio’s founding members are
Westerville (OH) Public Library and the
Ohio county libraries of Cuyahoga,
Toledo-Lucas, Warren-Trumbull, and
Youngstown-Mahoning.
Cal Poly Pomona Library is spearheading the campus
institutional repository project with Symposia.
Cal Poly Pomona has joined Innovative as a
development partner for the new Symposia
digital repository tool. The California State
University Libraries’ strategic plan calls for a
focus on institutional repositories, so the
Library has selected Innovative as a partner
to seize the opportunity of growing library
services in this area.
Currently library staff are planning how
the tool can best serve undergraduates,
administrators, university staff, as well as
both new and experienced faculty members.
Since Symposia is a community tool,
Innovative and its development partners are
developing the product so it will have the
most easy-to-use public interface as possible.
The team is also working on making
Symposia a tool that librarians can use and
one that will help them manage the campus
institutional repository. “For example,
we’re exploring now what kind of digital
rights management features will work
best,” says Laura Smart, Digital Repository
Librarian at Cal Poly Pomona. “This will
help library staff meet the challenge to
make the institutional repository usable
while also addressing copyright issues.”
Depending on their current collection
size, each partner in the consortium
will gain access to anywhere from 4.3 to
6.2 million additional items faster and
at a fraction of the cost of traditional
interlibrary-loan services.
Search Ohio builds on the success of
Cuyahoga County Public Library (pictured)
and Westerville Public Library as the first
public libraries to join OhioLINK, an
INN-Reach-powered system of nearly 90
academic libraries and a pilot inclusion
of some public libraries.
“We’re very excited about Search Ohio
because our participation in OhioLINK
proved to be a win-win situation for both
public and academic libraries,” says Sari
Feldman, Executive Director of Cuyahoga
County Public Library. “By combining the
strengths of public libraries, Search Ohio
will serve library communities that not
only want a lot of library materials but
also want them quickly. It’s also more
cost effective to use INN-Reach than
interlibrary loan. Our increase in physical
delivery costs will be more than offset by
the gain in lower cost-per-transaction.”
As part of the OhioLINK system,
Westerville Public Library is able to
borrow books from other libraries in 24
to 48 hours, a reduction of 7 to 10 days
over traditional interlibrary loan. Says
Library Director Don Barlow: “While
OhioLINK dropped customer dependence
on interlibrary loan by 40%, we predict
that Search Ohio will reduce this
dependence another 40%. There’s a
proven track record with OhioLINK of
providing outstanding ease of use to
patrons and cost savings to libraries.
INN-Reach is a resource-sharing model
that works.”
Public libraries have much to gain by
sharing resources with INN-Reach.
“Most public libraries assume that their
collections overlap by about 80%, when
in most cases the opposite is true,” says
Barlow. “In our particular case only about
one-third of items are the same so it
opens a whole new world to our customers.
In fact, since overlapping titles are often
popular titles like the Harry Potter series,
library users won’t have to wait as long
for these kinds of items either.”
[INN-Touch]
Symposia
Innovative’s digital
repository system allows
for sophisticated
community formation…
Cal Poly Pomona is also taking advantage
of Innovative’s proven development and
support of its products with the Symposia
implementation. Says Smart: “We don’t
have a large systems staff; and as an
Innovative library we have a history of
great support from the company.”
Online resources: http://www.csupomona.
edu/~library/repository/
…while providing
the data-handling
efficiencies librarians demand.
Cuyahoga County Public Library is a founding member of Search Ohio, a new INN-Reach System.
Page New Innovative
Libraries
What’s up at Innovative?
March - May 2006
Innovative Leads the Field in 2005
California State University, San Bernardino / CA
Each year, Library Journal reports on
the state of the library automation
industry. This year Innovative came
through with flying colors once
again. Here are some highlights.
City of Palmdale Public Library / CA
-More contracts were signed for Millennium than any other system.
Becker College / MA
Bound Brook Library / NJ
-Millennium extended its lead as the most popular system among ARL libraries to thirty-eight.
Dokuz Eylül University / Turkey
East Lansing Public Library / MI
-Electronic Resource Management
continued to lead all competitors in installations and sales.
Floyd Memorial Library / NY
Hacetteppe University / Turkey
University of Texas at Austin Libraries’ selection
of Millennium extended Innovative’s dominant
share of ARL Libraries.
A special thank you to all of Innovative’s new
library partners and old friends for making 2005
such an oustanding success for Innovative!
LEAP Libraries / CT
Red De Bibliotecas Del Sistema
SanitarioPublico De Extremadura / Spain
Management Stability Extended with Promotions
Senior executive Neil Block (pictured) has been promoted
to the position of Vice President, Worldwide Sales
effective May 1, 2006. In addition to his responsibility
for new sales in North America and the UK, Mr. Block
will assume leadership of all Innovative sales activities
outside of North America. Existing members of the
executive team were also promoted in the first quarter
of 2006. Jim Hofbauer has been promoted to Executive
Vice President/CFO; Martha McEvoy to Senior Vice President, Product
Development; and Sandy Westall to Senior Vice President, Library Service.
Rogers Memorial Library / NY
Spring Arbor University / MI
Sunland Park Library / NM
The Quogue Library / NY
The University of the Southern Caribbean /
Trinidad
Two new Vice Presidents were also named from the ranks of Innovative’s
staff. Aaron Blazer is now Vice President for Asia-Pacific Sales while
Maryvonne Enjolras was named Vice President of Sales for Europe, Africa,
and the Middle East.
Unione Romana Biblioteche Scientifiche / Italy
University of Texas at Austin / TX
York County Library System / PA
SEE INNOVATIVE @
CoFHE / UC&R Conference
American Association of Law Libraries Michigan IUG (MIUG)
IFLA
European IUG
Norwich, UK
St. Louis, MO
East Lansing, MI
8/20-8/24
9/13-9/14
9/19-9/22
Chicago, IL
10/3-10/6
Columbia, MO
10/4-10/6
Perth, Australia
Illinois Library Association
Missouri Library Association
7/21
Wellington, New Zealand
10/8-10/11
World Headquarters
TELL YOUR STORY
5850 Shellmound Way
Emeryville, CA 94608
INN-Touch is for and about Innovative
customers. Please share your experiences
with Millennium, Electronic Resource
Management, Symposia, or INN-Reach
by writing [email protected].
tel 510.655.6200 / 800.878.6600
www.iii.com
Page University of Chester, UK
Australian Library Association
LIANZA
7/9-7/11
Seoul, Korea
7/3-7/6