[Web4lib] Re: Future of libraries

[B.G. Sloan]

Dan Lester's mention of the early days of library automation brought back some memories.

I started out in late 1976 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The project started on an IBM System/360, I believe. I started out as a proofreader for the library's data conversion project, and wound up supervising the data conversion project in 1978.

The software was the LCS software developed in the late 1960s by IBM for Ohio State. LCS started operating at OSU on 11/17/70. It started operating at UIUC on 12/11/78. The software was in use in Illinois until August 1998!   

Looking back on that it's rather hard to believe...we were running software in 1998 that for all practical purposes was 30 years old! And we used it for 20 years before switching to commercial ILS software!!

Hard to imagine that happening now. :-)

Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates

--- On Tue, 7/15/08, Dan Lester <dan at riverofdata.com> wrote:

From: Dan Lester <dan at riverofdata.com>
Subject: Re[2]: [Web4lib] Re: Future of libraries
To: "web4lib at webjunction.org" <web4lib at webjunction.org>
Date: Tuesday, July 15, 2008, 4:13 PM

Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 11:11:09 AM, you wrote:

> I guess I'd phrase things a little differently.  Most of the new
> technologies that have come about didn't originate uniquely for
> libraries.  We are just too small a market.  For instance we didn't
> invent the barcode idea; it was adapted from the larger marketplace.

BINGO!!  That's exactly the case of all of the tools that we use.
Sure, aggregators like Ebsco or Gale have built tools to sell or lease
to libraries, but they're using tools that were invented elsewhere.

I first learned this valuable lesson in 1968 when I was invited to an
IBM Management Conference on Library Automation in Poughkeepsie, NY,
at one of their fancy conference facilities.  We were wined and dined
pretty lavishly (the former unofficially, of course) and learned about
the latest developments in punched card and computer technology for
libraries.  The VP of the Museums and Libraries Division spoke to us
for a couple of hours one day.  (Note the sequence of names in his
title, too).  Although we'd been hosted by his division, and his staff
had told us about the wonderful things we could do with a System
360/65 (which was very large, and had less power than my laptop), he
let us know that this would probably be the last such event.  He told
us that the division was likely to be merged into other units, but
that they still had people who would love to work with libraries in
developing products and services.   Indeed, the division was abolished
not long after.

WHY was it being abolished?  The answer was simple: "Museums and
Libraries are too small of a market for IBM to be interested in."

At about that time several small companies started developing library
software (who was first, and which, if any, are still alive, is left
as an exercise for the student).  But IBM bailed because we were, and
are, too small.

Univac and others bailed in the same way not too long afterwards.

dan

-- 
The road goes on forever and the party never ends. REK, Jr. 
Dan Lester, Boise, ID  




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