code4lib: Karen Schneider keynote
28 Feb 07
state of emergency in the profession (graphic shows homeland security level red!)
– have given away our collections (digitization by 3rd parties, journal content)
– don’t build or own the tools
– complex, poorly marketed systems
– function like a monopoly service when competition is thriving
quote from Andrew Abbott, The System of Professions
– digital library work, library software, is “the heartland of work”
– gets back to memory work: get beyond gaming, etc. to cultural memory
– rather than “don’t be evil”, libraries strive to do good
5-3-1 rule
– pick five ideas
– work on three
– make one happen
five things
– digital preservation
– standards adoption
– sucky library software
– 3rd party content hegemony
– scholarly awareness of key library issues
fold into three: digital preservation, sucky software, scholarly awareness
one: sucky software
four nifty things in softare: Evergreen, Umlaut, Scriblio, SOLR
beginning to restore the balance of power
reinstate the direction – this is our work
emphasis on library as memory organization
sends the message that we maean business
creative decoupling of components
interesting of re-use of other tools
resocialization of librarian artisans
#1 today is Evergreen
– timing is perfect: market consolidation at the same time as the centrality of the ILS is weakening
useful over-generalizations
– nobody cares about open source
– nobody cares about standards
– nobody cares about usability
– nobody cares about Evergreen
they care about books, videos, etc. NOT SOFTWARE
we don’t even want them thinking about Evergreen
more over-generalizations
– ARL still counts books on shelf as number one indicator
– IT directors have no resources to take on unfunded mandates
– most libraries can’t provide developer time (exceptions tend to be in higher ed.)
how directors see the world
– how much does it cost?
– what are we getting for the money?
– what are other directors doing?
– what problems will it create?
– why spend on this rather than something else?
– is this thing “fully baked”?
directors do not generally have a good opinion of OSS
– one car accident away from orphan software
– no support model
– cheesy make-do quality
– arcane, developer oriented (tip: do not design for yourself)
– nobody else is doing it
free beer vs. free kittens
last-gen librarians love complex systems they need to teach
– our users need it, etc.
every library needs a developer
every developer needs a library
Posted by pzed on February 28, 2007 at 12.01pm
