Environmental scans

A couple of reports from OCLC that may help us get some overview perspective are:

• College Students' Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources
  
  "...examines the information-seeking habits and preferences of international college students. This report is a companion piece to the December 2005 OCLC Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources report."
  


• Environmental Scan: Pattern Recognition (2003)
  "The scan provides a high-level view of the information landscape, intended both to inform and stimulate discussion about future strategic directions."
  

I've put a local copy of the first one on the Q drive.

Web 2.0

What is Web 2.0 by Tim O'Reilly
Overview of Web 2.0 and brief descriptions of AJAX and perpetual beta on p. 5.

Taming Technolust: Ten Steps for Planning in a 2.0 World by Michael Stephens
Article from Reference & User Services Quarterly, Summer 2008, Vol. 47 Issue 4, p314-317, 4p
Some points quoted from the article:

1. “I’m still taken aback when I hear of libraries spending money
for technologies without careful planning, an environmental
scan of the current landscape, and a complete road map for
training, roll out, buy in, and evaluation.

2. Technology planning is best done in open,
collaborative space where everyone has a voice and can
share their expertise.

3. Let beta be your friend. Let your users help you work out
the bugs of that new service. Admit openly that whatever
you are planning is new and there may be a few kinks.

4. Spot trends and make them opportunities. Scan the horizon
for how technology is changing our world. Being a successful
trendspotter is one of the most important traits of the
twenty-first-century librarian.

5. Evaluate your service. This is the next step in all the 2.0
talk."

"Unified Resource Management"

Ex Libris is working on a "Unified Resource Management" (URM) strategy as a next-generation replacement not only for the ILS, but also for many of the other library applications (i.e. ERMs) that are currently stand-alone products. A similar strategy, sans the ILS, is being followed by Serials Solutions with their "360" product. The URM concept is something that we should be include in our investigations.

See the attached comments for links to info on the URM concept.

RDA

Something to consider in reviewing the OPAC products is their plans for integrating RDA. RDA stands for “Resource Description and Access” and is the working title of the new standard that will be the successor to AACR2 (present cataloging rules). FRBR and FRAD (Functional Requirements for Authority Data) provide the conceptual foundation for RDA. RDA is scheduled to be released late 2009.

Background on RDA http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/jsc/rda.html

An Introduction to FRAD http://presentations.ala.org/images/c/c5/Frad_ala_200806_color.pdf