Ex Libris Strategic Update: Oren Beit-Arie, Chief Strategy Officer
1-2 Repetitions
2 Goals
3 Examples
1 Video (maybe)
Video:
http://youtu.be/jeVyOKq-KXU
A humorous illustration of the ubiquity of mobile computing
Key Goals:
Enable libraries to become more relevant:
-demonstrate clear value
-work more efficiently
-become/remain leaders within their institutions/cohorts
Emphasis on the strategic framework (here's the repetition; going on 4 years of future thinking/strategy within this framework):
Data Services - value-added data provided as a cloud service
URD2 - single end-user entry point for all discovery & delivery
URM - decoupled resource management of all materials
Open Platform strategy on top for community to build out extensions
Goals - how to get there:
Consolidate - the frameworks
Optimize - through collaboration
Extend - range of all services
Consolidation is at the core of URM and URD2
Optimization is addressed by cloud data services
Extend - business intelligence, management, preservation of scholarly content
Focus Areas:
Moving to the cloud - building technical and business infrastructure:
Provide software as a service AND data as a service - build it once (ex libris or community), used by all
Examples:
1) Primo Central Index (100Ms of scholarly records) - meeting needs of customers, also publishers - something that will serve you well in the discovery tool of your choice - discussions of value of open discovery are reminiscent of discussions of open linking (OpenURL) with publishers in 2000 - not easy conversations but created an open environment where linking is fully supported regardless of platform, vendor. Oren believes that full support of open discovery will also come about.
Thinks days of comparing size of index among discovery competitors will go away (remember when Google posted its number of indexed web pages?). Discovery tools must be smart and recognize the context of the search. Primo is built to address needs of non-textual data as well as textual data. Thinks days of focus on full text articles will evolve, expand to include other formats.
2) Alma Community Zone
Collaborative metadata management - a hybrid model to balance global sharing with local needs
3 layers to Alma:
-Inventory: inventories to reflect holdings and institutional structure
-Library Zone: private bib and authority records
-Community Zone: global, shared bib and authority records (this is new to Alma)
Strategy behind the community zone: going green (recycling)
Open metadata - building Alma Community Catalog Advisory Group - to advise on policies, standards, and procedural activcities to be used in governance and stewardship of metadata records in the Alma community catalog. e.g.: rights of Alma customers to contribute, access, and use records? Define expectations for quality control; how should Community Catalog governance be managed ongoing? Mechanisms and procedures for regular stewardship and maintenance of Community Catalog records (Carl Grant & Susan Sterns are co-chairing from the Ex Libris side a committee addressing this question - meeting at ALA)
In the cloud:
Based on feedback from customers (see notes from NA update on Library Director meetings): gaining economy of scale, sharing, community. Losing(?): brand, uniqueness, identity.
One of biggest goals is disassociating gains from losses - want to offer customers gains in uniqueness, brand, and identity
Into the future:
2013 or beyond:
1) Business intelligence from the cloud
A lot of stuff in the cloud; lots of clouds rain (Oren admits to pushing the metaphor hard) - "rain" is stuff library staff are doing with cloud services (data) - what if could collect the rain in a big bucket?
Turning data collected in the cloud into something intelligent that can help meet goals and add value to activities. Oren was invited to Googleplex several years ago - impressed by a screen behind registration desk streaming live queries to Google - what does Google do with all the data? - "Predicting the Present with Google Trends" article by Google employees (link opens to PDF); predicting economic and other trends using data gathered by Google. Getting business intelligence from the cloud is all about collecting, analyzing, delivering value from data - sample outputs are recommendations, collection development/deselection, scholarly evaluation/impact factors, student outcomes, social networks - the natural extension of what Ex Libris already does with bX.
Benefits cut across URM + URD2 - must be clever in associating what goes on in one with what put into the other; also sensitive issues of data ownership
Trends - user driven acquisitions (huge representation at 2010 Charleston Conference)
Data-driven decision making - delivering data analysis at the point of need; how to present?
Dashboard widgets to make analysis accessible at the point of need (Third partner release of Alma has these widgets on its home screens).
Animated maps - tracing bursts of scientific activity. None available yet, but this is the direction they are going.
Think have a good basis for implementing findings of MESUR project into products, services offered to users. Some publishers are inserting these typs of data now (Springer).
2) Preservation for/in academia
Each year more and increased commitment to collect, preserve, make accessible digital information; e.g.: NSF proposals mandate data management plans for data generated by funded projects. Researchers need plans for preserving and offering data. Oren points to increased need for systems that can do this work; help with these mandates.
Efforts in this area:
ORCID - Open Researcher and Contributor ID - www.orcid.org
DataCite - datacite.org - Creating persistent identifiers for scholarly output not necessarily in traditional article formats.
3) E-Books
E-Books are an emerged business model; maybe not all relevant to research environment (Amazon + Overdrive for library access to ebooks via Kindles) but evolution of e-journals can shed light on ongoing evolution of e-books; trade activities for e-books have implications for scholarly activities; e.g.: Open Annotations Project; Kobo reader with reader data. These are products/technologies that can benefit scholars and libraries. The popular creeps in to the scholarly world; Ex Libris's goals are in line with these developments. In a nutshell, these goals are (again, repetition) reduced TCO and increased ROI.
Comments