[WEB4LIB] Re: Do We Still Need Online Catalog Vendors?

[Sebastian Hammer]

At 22:56 04-03-00 -0800, Dan Lester wrote:

[snip]

>developing the systems in question.  Even the vendors that develop
>"small systems" (Follett, Winnebago, etc.) have tens of programmers
>continually at work on development and upgrades.  And the basic system
>any of them first came out with wasn't written by one person in his or
>her spare time on the job.

A fully functional library information system will never be one man's 
hobby-project if you already have a day job. The one type of library which 
*can* realistically develop their own libary system is the largish 
university library that maintains good relationships with a local Computer 
Science or Engineering lab. The challenges of building a good library 
information system are easily complex enough to make a juicy project for a 
group of graduate students. I've come across a few systems that started out 
this way - including some that are now major players on the commercial 
market, and some which are still local, but maintained and extended in a 
wonderful synergy between the training and information management branches 
of their institution.

Also - while the tasks of building efficient search paradigms and 
circulation management systems are daunting, you don't have to start from 
scratch. The increasing pick-up of international standards like Z39.50 and 
ILL in various places mean that there exists both excellent starting points 
for your design (through the standard specifications) and free software 
components which can be glued together to form a system. General-purpose 
tools like relational databases (also available in open source variants) 
make the task of building stuff like circulation and acquisition modules 
less daunting, technically.

But again - a good system of this kind is generally a team effort and 
requires a lot of skill and background knowledge *as well as* a good 
understanding of library operations. But hey - ten years ago, most people 
would have shrugged their shoulders at the idea of a commercially viable 
operating system like Linux growing out of hobby- and volunteer efforts.

--Sebastian
--
Sebastian Hammer        <quinn at indexdata.dk>            Index Data ApS
Ph.: +45 3536 3672    <http://www.indexdata.dk>    Fax: +45 3536 0449