Whats Hot

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Whats Hot Whats NotLibrary Technologies
Trends from Applets to Z39.50

• Roy Tennant

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Warnings

• My personal opinion of the situation today (only
  fools and geniuses predict the future)
• I cant cover the entire landscape (I mean, you
  want to go home, right?)
• I will cover way more Hot technologies than NOT
  Hot sorry!
• TMBA Too Many Bloody Acronyms

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Outline

• Hot (and Not) Technologies, from Applets to
  Z39.50
• What Makes a Technology Hot? Or Not?
• Joe Janes Six Questions
• Making Good Technology Decisions
• I Know This Much Is True
• 3 Things You Must Remember

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Applets

• Java applets were once thought to be the way to
  deploy rich interactive services to web clients
• Experience demonstrated that Applets
• Often crashed browsers
• Took way too long to load
• Were less cross-platform compatible than
  advertised
• Hot? NOT! Use servlets instead

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Digital Reference

• Solves the essential problem of not being where
  the user needs us (online)
• Is much better than it was, but is still in its
  infancy
• Should be viewed as simply another tool to
  provide more effective user services
• Hot? Yes, but be realistic and realize it is a
  NEW service that requires investment

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Dublin Core

• A common meeting ground for more complex metadata
  standards
• Co-developed by an international community of
  librarians and computer scientists (broad-based
  support)
• Example of success it is the one required
  metadata format for OAI-PMH
• Hot? Yes, but should be used only for cooperative
  metadata sharing or very simple metadata needs

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eBooks

• Major kinds
• Device-dependent
• Web-based
• Download-based
• Uptake varies dramatically based on format, cost,
  type of content, etc.
• Hot? Variesfrom dead-cold device-dependent
  ebooks to lukewarm and slowly heating up for
  other types

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FRBR

• Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
  (from IFLA)
• A method by which we can bring together for the
  user multiple records that describe one
  intellectual object
• Example system Redlightgreen.com from RLG
• Hot? YES! May be an effective way out of the
  morass of multiple records

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HTML

• A hodge-podge of sloppy implementations and
  browser-specific hacks
• Meanwhile, a better solution existsXHTML CSS
• Hot? Cold, dead cold, for anyone interested in
  standards and long-term viability use XHTML and
  CSS instead

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Institutional Repositories

• Digital collections capturing and preserving the
  intellectual output of a single or
  multi-university community. (SPARC)
• A way libraries can help change scholarly
  communication from a profit center to a social
  good
• Hot? Yes!

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repositories.cdlib.org
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dspace.mit.edu
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Java Servlets

• Servlets Server-side applications
• Java is a common language for web-based
  application programming
• Hot? Yes.

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Metasearching

• Only librarians like to search, everyone else
  likes to find
• Searching in a Google World
• A powerful tool, but
• Challenges remain
• Deduplication
• Ranking
• Target Response
• Hot? Yes, but still at an early stage

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METS

• Metadata Encoding and Transmission Schema
• An XML wrapper for various metadata packages,
  as well as component files or the internal
  structure of a file
• Increasingly used as an all-purpose metadata
  package for digital objects
• Hot? Red hot, and getting hotter!

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MODS

• Acronym
• A bibliographic standard similar to MARC
  expressed in XML
• Probably the closest thing to a replacement for
  MARC
• Currently used as an alternative to MARC XML
• Hot? Lukewarm, and getting warmer

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OAI-PMH

• A protocol for harvesting (as opposed to
  searching) metadata from content repositories
• A digital library interoperability home run
• Simple, easy to implement and understand other
  uses are being layered on top (e.g., dynamic
  searching)
• Hot? Red hot and getting hotter

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Open Source Software

• Software for which anyone can obtain the source
  code (the human-readable code that is normally
  compiled into code that isnt)
• Essential services are running on OSS e.g.,
  Apache web server, MySQL
• OSS is particularly important for libraries, as
  it is now much easier and cheaper to prototype
  and build new online services
• Hot? Red hot, and likely to continue to be

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OpenURL

• A standard way to encode URLs for information
  objects that are computer parseable, and
  therefore actionable in ways that standard URLs
  are not
• Key benefits
• Links are not 1-to-1 (multiple targets can be
  presented)
• Links can be presented that are unique to a user
  community (based on local licenses)
• Hot? You bet! A simple way to solve the
  appropriate copy problem as well as offer new
  capabilities

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RDF

• Resource Description Framework
• Do you understand, and can you explain to someone
  else, what a labeled directed graph is? No? Then
  forget about understanding RDF
• Can you implement what you dont understand?
• Where is the killer app?
• Hot? NOT!

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RSS

• Pick your acronym definition Really Simple
  Syndication (my fave), Rich Site Summary (from
  Netscape), or RDF Site Summary (for those into
  the RDF version of RSS)
• Useful for current awareness
• Blog readers
• Automatic web site updates
• Hot? Yes! But for specific purposes

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Storage

• Storage is going for about 1/GB
• Buy this 1 terabyte disk for 1,000 -gt
• Put this 4 GB card in your camera -gt
• Carry this 1 GB USB drive in your pocket
• Hot? Like, duh!

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Web Services SOAP REST

• SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol
• A lightweight way to exchange encoded information
  between applications
• REST (Representational State Transfer) is a URL
  (HTTP Get) based way of sending a SOAP request
  and receiving an XML-encoded response
• Both Google and Amazon can be searched via Web
  Services
• Hot? Definitely!

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XHTML and CSS

• An XML-compliant version of HTML
• Benefits forces markup to be valid and properly
  structured forces display directives into a
  separate stylesheet (CSS) where they belong
• Ongoing maintenance of documents thereby
  simplified and standardized
• Hot? Definitely! Migrate NOW!

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http//csszengarden.com/
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XML

• A simple and yet powerful way to encode
  information in a structured format for processing
  and communication
• All kinds of hot new services use it, from
  OAI-PMH to RSS and SRU/SRW even library catalog
  systems
• Hot? Super Red Hot! If you want job security,
  learn XML now!

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Z39.50

• A standard for searching remote databases that
  has been around for years
• Still not widely implemented in a consistent and
  effective manner
• Meanwhile, OAI-PMH and other XML-based protocols
  (e.g., SRU/SRW) are rapidly replacing it
• Hot? NOT! But see SRU/SRW

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SRU/SRW

• SRW carried by a form (uses HTTP POST)
• SRU carried by a URL (uses HTTP GET)
• A Web Services implementation of Z39.50
• The best chance Z39.50 has of surviving
• Hot? Warm and getting warmer (it may be a useful
  method for database vendors to expose their
  databases to metasearching)

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What Makes a Technology Hot?

• Simplicity
• Power
• Flexibility
• Cost-effectiveness
• Kills a pain or fulfills a strong desire

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What Makes a Technology NOT Hot?

• Needless complexity (more complexity than is
  required to solve the problem at hand)
• Greater cost (in either money or time) than users
  are willing to pay
• Addresses a problem that no one feels that
  strongly about
• Competition that is more compelling

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Joe Janes Six Questions

• Is there a benefit to the user?
• Is it accessible, affordable, and worth the cost?
• Does it help uphold the values of the profession?
• Does it play to our strengths?
• Is it likely to endure?
• Does it feel right?

Reference
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Making Good Technology Decisions

• Keep an ear to the ground and an eye on the
  horizon
• Hold new technologies up to the light of your
  mission and priorities
• Watch out for 800 lb. Gorillas
• Dont ignore an upstart with a compelling product

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Making Good Technology Decisions

• Dont bet the farm on things you cant control
• All things being equal, open is better than
  proprietary
• Technology with market share often prevents or
  kills better technology
• Howevermarket share is everything
• Get good advice
• Know your source of support

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I Know This Much is True

• Neither an early adopter nor latecomer be
• Its the user, stupid!
• Dont expect users to know what they want until
  they see it
• Never underestimate the power of a prototype
• Back it up or kiss it goodbye
• Buy hardware at the last possible moment

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I Know This Much is True

• Dont buy software with a zero at the end of the
  release number
• Burn, baby, burn the only good CPU cycle is a
  used one
• Never let anyone bitch at you about disk usage
  disk space is cheaper than dirt!
• If you cant be with the operating system you
  love, love the one youre with

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3 Things You Must Remember

• XML
• Its not the technology, but the user!
• Never stop learning!