TechEssence.info

This article discusses how Netflix and similar services are shaping expectations about product delivery, which in turn are driving libraries to rethink how items are delivered to their customers. Library Delivery 2.0 refers to the idea of delivering library materials into the user’s hands in a way that is personalized, convenient and fast. Library Delivery 2.0 builds on the concept of Library 2.0, a concept of a very different library service that operates according to the expectations of today’s library users. In this vision, the library makes information available wherever and whenever the user requires it” (Chad and Miller). Similarly, Library Delivery 2.0 is a concept of a very different library delivery service that operates according to the expectations of today’s users. In this vision, the library delivers information wherever and whenever the user requires it and in whatever format the user needs it.

I was working on developing a Service Level Agreement (SLA) for a client recently and ended up finding some useful information on the topic in general. There is a lot of good information available about SLAs as it fits into the ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) model. ITIL is a British creation and much more popular on the other side of the ocean. Microsoft has a similar model called the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF). I found the ITIL model more flexible so I'm focusing on that model. However in both ITIL and MOF, the Service Level Agreement is an important component of IT service management and I believe librareis would benefit from developing SLAs between their IT (information technology) service provider and the various departments that rely on that service. Thus this entry....

Resource sharing is changing. Formalized resource sharing arrangements are growing. Library catalogs are being unionized making unmediated borrowing between libraries possible. Users are responding positively to the improved interfaces of catalogs that allow them to easily search, locate and request items, from almost anywhere, for themselves. Resource sharing and interlending is increasing dramatically. As a result, demands on delivery services are high and likely to grow.

Data mining or knowledge discovery refers to the process of finding interesting information in large repositories of data. The term data mining also refers to the step in the knowledge discovery process in which special algorithms are employed in hopes of identifying interesting patterns in the data. These interesting patterns are then analyzed yielding knowledge. The desired outcome of data mining activities is to discover knowledge that is not explicit in the data, and to put that knowledge to use.

Librarians involved in digital libraries are already benefiting from data mining techniques as they explore ways to automatically classify information and explore new approaches for subject clustering (MetaCombine Project). As the field grows, new applications for libraries are likely to evolve and it will be important for library administrators to have a basic understanding of the technology.

A wide variety of data mining techniques are also employed by industry and government. Many of these activities pose threats to personal privacy. As professionals ethically bound to ensure that individual privacy is safe-guarded, data mining activities should be monitored and kept on every librarian’s radar.