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It is almost trite to be quoted as saying, "The Internet has fundamentally changed the ways libraries do business", but these changes are still manifesting themselves in ways we still do not fully understand. Thus, consider taking advantage of the "wise crowds with long tails" in your strategic planning. Put another way, this posting is a dual book review and commentary on The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson.

It is time to rethink the role of the library catalog.

Introduction

The library catalog is not sacred. At its root it just an index -- a list of the things found in a library. Is is and was important to maintain an inventory list because the things -- mostly books -- found in libraries are valuable, and one wants to control one's valuable assets. The provision of such a list to the public makes it easier for larger numbers of people to see what is available from a library. Hence, the shelf-list made its way out of back room into the public area, but from the beginning the catalog was (and to a great degree still is) a librarian's tool.

Executive Summary

SRW/U is an acronym for Search/Retrieve via the Web or URL and you might want to think of it as Sonne of Z39.50 sans the federated searching.

What It Is

Z39.50 is (was) a protocol -- a communication method -- for information retrieval. Originally designed to allow for the searching of remote databases, and while rather arcane, it truly was ahead of its time. (Much like the MARC record data structure, arcane but ahead if its time.)

Being innovative in using technology with little money and staff is not a difficult thing. It requires:

1. an understanding that things change,
2. a commitment to spending time exploring new things, and
3. sharing what you have learned with your friends

Play is a good thing. It is not for children only. Innovation is play. Innovation is a process where you look at a number of seemingly disparate things and join them together to create something new. In our current environment it is as important to play as ever. People's expectations are changing. The economic environment decreasingly surrounds manufacturing. Information technology is no longer the realm of librarians and computer specialists.

I recently attended a symposium surrounding the topic of mass digitization, and this blog entry summarizes my person observations from the event.

On the topic of mass digitization I have a number of personal observations. First, like Tim O'Reilly, I have never considered a book to be sets of pages between covers. Books are containers, and libraries are not about books. Libraries are about what is inside the books. Books are merely manifestations of data, information, and knowledge. Yes, some books are special in and of themselves, but for the most part they are simply "content databases", not things to be treasured and hidden away in dark rooms. "Books are for use", and I write in my books all the time. A well-used book naturally opens up to the most important parts. Don't get me wrong. I appreciate the book, a codex, as a technology. I make and bind my own notebooks. They are portable, durable, self-sustained, and last a good long time. At the same time digitized books offer a greater degree of utility than traditional books, as long as the digitized books are not limited by some sort of digital rights management system. Mass digitization will only increases the opportunities for this utility, and with these increases will also come increases in user expectations.