WML Tech Updates

1. Recent Technology Trends – This is a list of trends, new technologies, and innovations that are affecting libraries internationally and on the minds of many librarians and technologists. Things are changing fast, and these are the hottest topics being discussed. This is merely an FYI.
   • Storage Blogs (It’s short for weblog, and is a public website where users post informal journals of their thoughts, comments, and philosophies. It’s updated frequently and normally reflects the views of the blog’s creator.)
   • RSS (This is short for Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication. It’s XML-based and is a commonly used protocol for the syndication and sharing of content, originally developed to facilitate the syndication of news articles, now widely used to share the contents of blogs.)
   • Citizen Journalists (Blogs and RSS Feeds are creating these “citizen journalists,” and this is a concern for authenticity for many people.)
   • Wikis (These are webpages that are editable by visitors to the website, as opposed to conventional websites which can only be changed by the webmaster. They are usually used for community or technical sites to allow for joint authoring and ownership.)
   • E-Books
   • OPACs
   • FRBR (That’s short for Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records. It uses an entity-relationship model of metadata for information objects, instead of the single flat record concept underlying current cataloging standards. People typically pronounce it “ferber.”)
   • Interface Design
   • WiFi
   • Broadband and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol, which is basically telephone over the Internet)
   • Google Print, Google Scholar, and MetaSearching (like MetaLib)
   • Folksonomies
   • Digital Rights Management
2. Proxy Migration – All of the proxy migrations are done! Owen students and alumni will no longer have to authenticate with their VUnet ID/password, but only with their Owen ID/password. Jason Reusch, Jason Battles, and Rachel collaborated to make this work.
3. Electronic Resource Usage Statement splash page – The next step to improving the electronic resources in Rachel’s eyes is to work with the Information Services team to create a standard electronic resource usage statement that would be a page that users have to click through before entering a database about ethical usage of that database, and who has access privileges to that database. Rachel hasn’t talked to LITS about this possibility yet, nor has she really discussed it in detail with the IS team yet. But she believes that there is interest among librarians to have something like this!
4. Databases Update – Thomson ONE Banker is up and running. If you experience any problems with a popup window asking you about cookies, please disregard it at the moment. Dale Poulter is fixing it. Also, Multexnet will soon be Reuter’s Research on Demand. Dale ran across several problems and is still working with Reuter’s IT people to configure it correctly. It should be up by early next week at the latest.
5. New Computers – As you are probably aware, the new computers are in, and one is in Rachel’s office being configured. Danny will be taking the image Rachel helped set up and putting that image on all the public workstations. Danny and Rachel will hopefully be setting them up next week when he returns to work. Laura, Sylvia, Marie, and the scanning station at circulation all have new computers. These computers are awesome because they are easy to open to get to the guts of the computer, they each have a CD/DVD burner, USB plugs are on the front of the computer making it easy for people with portable flash drives to plug in, and microphone and headphone plugs are also on the front of the computer. They are also lightening speed! To give you an idea of how fast these things are changing:

   Computer Speed Memory
   Old desktops 1.29 GHz 256 MB of RAM
   Current laptops 1.6 GHz 512 MB of RAM
   New desktops 3.4 GHz 1.0 GB of RAM

6. Pay-for-Print – At this time, it is undetermined if Owen students will be paying for their printing or not. No matter what decision is made, public workstations will still have pay-for-print software on them to charge non-Owen patrons who enter the library. Deb or Rachel will let you know as soon as they hear something from Dean Bradford.
7. CDROM server databases and public workstation databases – This is referring to public workstation #9 (which has FARS, Proquest ABI Inform/Periodicals Ondisc, and Simmons Choices 3 accessible on it) and to the three databases all installed on the public workstations that aren’t accessible remotely (SDC Platinum 3.2, Datastream Advance 4.0, and the Lexis-Nexis Research Software 7.2). So, what about them? Well, recently, Deb, Rachel, and Jason Reusch met to discuss the possibility of putting these on an Owen server so as to make them more accessible. After some examination of the high cost involved in doing so, it was decided that it would be better to wait and see which of the databases are going to be coming out in Web form, and to investigate how other business libraries are dealing with these more complicated databases.
   In summary, Public Workstation #9 will remain, and the three databases will be on the new public workstations when they are deployed.
8. Java Client – LITS is STILL doing some beta testing on a new Java Client for our current and upcoming Sirsi products. It is coming soon, though!
9. Webcasts – On June 15, Rachel attended the webcast: Google’s Library Digitization Project: Reports from Michigan and Oxford. On July 21, Sylvia and Rachel attended the webcast: Narrowcasting 101: Using Blogs, Podcasts, and Videoblogs in Higher Education.
10. GIS Task Force – On Wednesday, June 22, Rachel and Rahn and the rest of the GIS Task Force presented Paul Gherman and other LMC members with a final report. It summarized the current use of GIS on VU’s campus, included an overview of what is being done with GIS at comparable institutions, and gave recommendations for the future of GIS at VU and within the library system. It was decided that the task force will continue on (possibly with additional new members) and further investigate what the Heard Library can do with the various GIS resources in existence, and proceed on to the next level.
11. Presentation – On July 14, 2005, Rachel was one of the presenters at the following Brown Bag Session. Her focus was on the importance and impact of RSS in libraries.

Wikis, Blogs, RSS, Etc.: New Tools for the New Library?
With the recent implementation of the Heard Library’s new strategic plan, we are all investigating ways to be more innovative. Fortunately, there are many new open source technologies that will help us improve communication, expand cross-library collaboration, and enable us to reach many of our goals. Come and learn more about these technologies, how they are currently being used in libraries, and how they could and are being implemented here at Vanderbilt. Join Rick Stringer-Hye, Suellen Stringer-Hye, Dale Poulter, and Rachel Vacek, who are leading this brown bag discussion based on what they discovered at the LITA National Forum earlier this year and other conferences that they have recently attended.

Have a good weekend, everyone! Thanks for your attention and time!