DLF Executive Director, Peter Brantley has published a document laying out ILS Basic Discovery API principles. 

In the summer of 2007, the Digital Library Federation (DLF) convened a working group, the ILS Discovery Interface Task Force, to analyze the issues involved in achieving effective interoperation between traditional integrated library systems (ILS’s) and internet discovery applications, and to work towards a technical proposal as a solution.

Below is a document (aka the "Berkeley Accord") that the ILS Discovery Task Force adopted in concert with the undersigned vendors as a statement in support of achieving functional integration of discovery and data.

ILS Basic Discovery Interfaces: A proposal for the ILS community.

On March 6, representatives of the Digital Library Federation (DLF), academic libraries, and major library application vendors met in Berkeley, California to discuss a draft recommendation from the DLF for standard interfaces for integrating the data and services of the Integrated Library System (ILS) with new applications supporting user discovery. Such standard interfaces will allow libraries to deploy new discovery services to meet ever-growing user expectations in the Web 2.0 era, take full advantage of advanced ILS data management and services, and encourage a strong, innovative community and marketplace in next-generation library management and discovery applications.

At the meeting, participants agreed to support a set of essential functions through open protocols and technologies by deploying specific recommended standards.

These functions are:

1. Harvesting. Functions to harvest data records for library collections, both in full, and incrementally based on recent changes. Harvesting options could include either the core bibliographic records, or those records combined with supplementary information (such as holdings or summary circulation data). Both full and differential harvesting options are expected to be supported through an OAI-PMH interface.

2. Availability. Real-time querying of the availability of a bibliographic (or circulating) item. This functionality will be implemented through a simple REST interface to be specified by the ILS-DI task group.

3. Linking. Linking in a stable manner to any item in an OPAC in a way that allows services to be invoked on it; for example, by a stable link to a page displaying the item’s catalog record and providing links for requests for that item. This functionality will be implemented through a URL template defined for the OPAC as specified by the ILS-DI task group.

Next steps:

The DLF ILS-Discovery Interface (ILS-DI) committee will prepare a recommendation with a new interoperability profile, "ILS Basic Discovery Interfaces" or "ILS-BDI", that includes the functions above, along with specifications of the proposed technologies (or "bindings", in the language of the recommendation).

ILS and application developers and vendors will support the ILS-BDI using the recommended bindings in future products.

The DLF will publicize these recommendations, and encourage further enhancements and cooperation between libraries, vendors, and applications developers in building more advanced, interoperable architectures for bibliographic discovery and use.

We are all committed to providing the best library services for research and learning. The agreement we are making now is an important step in advancing these services for the library users of today and tomorrow.

- Digital Library Federation, March 2008

Undersigned by:

1. Talis
2. Ex Libris
3. LibLime
4. BiblioCommons
5. SirsiDynix
6. Polaris Library Systems
7. VTLS
8. California Digital Library
9. OCLC
10. AquaBrowser

Abstention:

           Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

An agreement to support standardised API definition from this wide group is a significant step forward in an area where libraries have been pushing for movement for a long time. 

The DLF must be congratulated for driving this initiative forward thus far.  Let’s hope this atmosphere of open agreement continues through the ILS-BDI into actual developments and availability of APIs that libraries can use on their systems.

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Do a search for Talis on Google Australia and intermixed with results about a certain Semantic Web, Library Platform, and Library System company, you get several for TALIS - the Tasmanian Library and Information System.

Based in Hobart and developed and run by the Tasmanian State Library, TALIS runs the library system for the State, the local, and the school libraries.  The most obvious aspect of their system being their OPAC. This, separate from the [Geac - soon to be SirsiDynix] underlying ILS/LMS (or ILMS as they call them in Australia) is based on the Verity text search engine.  Featuring faceted browsing, it predates the things like VuFind, and Aquabrowser that made this kind of thing fashionable.

Being in Australia I couldn’t pass up a chance to visit them in Hobart. I received a warm welcome from some 50 folks from the State and University libraries, who I treated to the latest Semantic Web in libraries presentation.  Sometimes you wonder if you are being a bit far out, delivering such a message to a group of [just getting to grips with Web 2.0] librarians - no danger of that in the Tasmanian State Library.

Both from questions in the presentation and in meetings afterwards, it was obvious that they are not resting on their laurels - keep any eye on the folks from Tasmania.

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I have just completed the first of a series of presentations in Cities in Australia. This first one was at the State Library of Western Australia, in Perth, where I spoke about what comes after Web 2.0 - the Semantic Web - and what this will mean for the way libraries operate and share and utilise information in the future. A copy of my presentation is available here [pdf 52Mb].

After an enjoyable trip down to Australia with a great stop over day in Dubai (see personal blog post), I was welcomed in to Perth by that well known library blogger Kathryn Greenhill and her family. If you are ever in Perth and want a tour of the area, I can recommend looking Kathryn up - her family were so welcoming.

Yesterday I met with some interesting people at Curtin University of Technology, and my all to short stay in Perth culminated in the presentation at the State Library followed by a meal in an excellent local India restaurant.

An early morning flight tomorrow takes me on to Melbourne, for a further couple of seminars, organised in association with Caval, who also were responsible for organising the one in Perth. Then Hobart, Tasmania, is my destination to meet with people from the other TALIS.

The end of my trip will be in Canberra for the National Library of Australia’s Innovative Ideas Forum, but more of that in future posts.

Technorati Tags: Perth, Web 2.0, Australia, Library, Talis

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In our latest podcast I talk with Larry Johnson, Alan Levine and Rachel Smith of the New Media Consortium. We discuss the 2008 edition of their Horizon Report, exploring both their methods and the wide-ranging implications for Higher Education of their findings.

 

 Standard Podcast [61:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During the conversation, we refer to the following resources;

• Delphi method
• Doodle
• Gartner
• Horizon.museum
• The Horizon Report, 2008
• Horizon Project wiki
• New Media Consortium
• NMC Symposium on Mashups, April 1-3 2008.
• Ning
• Pachyderm
• xobni

This conversation was conducted using Skype on Wednesday 26 March, recorded with Ecamm Network’s Call Recorder for Skype, and edited on a Mac with Garageband.

Technorati Tags: New Media Consortium, Horizon Report 2008, Semantic Web, Talis, Talking with Talis

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The guest for this Talking with Talis Podcast is Fiona Bradley, Australian Librarian working for IFLA in the Netherlands.

Fiona Launched the blog Semantic Library, to help her find out more about the Semantic Web. We discuss what she has discovered from the blog and the relevance of the Semantic Web to libraries.

 

 Standard Podcast [31:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During the conversation we mention:

• The Talis Semantic Web blog - Nodalities
• Paul Miller’s blog The Semantic Web
• John Blyberg’s presentation - Beyond the OPAC: The Semantic Web [pdf]
• Read Write Web
• Web Worker Daily
• Mashable

This conversation was conducted as a Skype call on Wednesday 12th March 2008, recorded with Ecamm Network’s Call Recorder for Skype, and edited on a Mac with Garageband.

Technorati Tags: Fiona Bradley, Semantic Web, Semantic, Library, Talis, IFLA, Podcast, Talking with Talis

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The National Library of Australia Library Labs has recently launched a Wiki to keep folks up to date with, and engaged with their developments.

Ever since I came across, what I call their kitchen sink demonstration OPAC (they have put practically everything except the kitchen sink, in to related information around the results) I have been impressed with what they are up to.

The Wiki, has an Our Prototypes page upon which can be found links to, and descriptions of, three prototype interfaces: The NBD Prototype - the official name for demonstrator I mentioned; The Beta Catalogue - a VuFind fronted re-engineering of the National Library’s catalogue; The Single Business Prototype - a proof of concept for providing a single discovery interface to all the library’s current and future discovery services.  The page also gives a heads up that a Newspaper Search and Delivery Service is on its way.

The home page of the Wiki proclaims:

We are particularly interested in forming a community of Australian business analysts and developers who are working on similar problems and who are interested in  interoperable, standards-based solutions that can foster the development of a national information infrastructure. We are also interested in working with colleagues at an international level to provide prototypes and testbeds for new and emerging standards.

An also:

At the National Library of Australia we have started to redevelop our digital library services using a service-oriented architecture and open source software solutions where these are functional and robust.

Putting these two together it is good to see the promotion of open standards and open software both within and outside of Australia.

This picks up on the themes from last month’s Code4lib 2008 conference, as described by Rob.  It is time we all started to cooperate around the innovative work going on globally.

Technorati Tags: NLA, Library Labs, Talis, Library, Open Source

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In co-operation with Library Journal The Library 2.0 Gang is returning to a podcast player near you.

As hinted at earlier this month, the Gang is to be convened on a monthly basis to discuss the topics of the day.

For each show I will be joined by several contributors drawn from a pool of regulars from the world of libraries and the technologies that influence them.

The first show in the new series is a great example of the type of interesting and informative discussion you can expect from The Library 2.0 Gang.   It takes its inspiration from the themes that emerged from the Code4lib 2008 conference in Portland, last month.  The subjects covered being the Open Library, ILS APIs, and new Cataloguing Influences.   The gang of regulars John Blyberg, Nicole C. Engard, Carl Grant, Char Booth, and Rob Stlyes were joined by our guest for the month Aaron Swartz of The Open Library.

Get your self across to The Library 2.0 Gang site, or to LibraryJournal.com, through where it is being syndicated, and have a listen.

As I say in the show, I am interested in your input for topics, questions, guests, and even regular contributors for the gang.  Droop me an email to librarygang@talis.com - I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Technorati Tags: Library 2.0 Gang, L2G, Talis, Library, Open Library, LibraryJournal, Podcast

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I wrote a while back about the WoGroFuBiCo report from LC, and then again a few days later about Karen Calhoun’s Response to WoGroFuBiCo.

Thanks to Karen Schneider twittering about Mann’s Opus, I picked up Thomas Mann’s response to the report.

Thomas’ response is entitled "On the Record" but Off the Track: A Review of the Report of The Library of Congress Working Group on The Future of Bibliographic Control, With a Further Examination of Library of Congress Cataloguing Tendencies

Mann starts his response with a section of major points, starting with the statement that:

The Working Group’s Report is off the track in many of its major assumptions, assertions, and recommendations

That’s a pretty strong statement, and what follows in 38 pages would do even Annoyed Librarian proud.

Over on Cataloguing Futures, Christine Schwartz describes the report as a must-read, Karen Schneider comments

How could I *not* love this report?

arkham sums up my feelings better, commenting

First, I ended up skipping a large amount of it, when it became abundantly clear that the majority of the paper is a long rant (and lecture) on how important LCSH and LCSH left-anchored browse are and how they work - and don’t work in an Amazoogle environment.

And this ranting style is what I struggle with most about the points, I agree with much of the sentiment, and having spoken to several folks at LC I think the WoGroFuBiCo do too.

The WoGroFuBiCo report treats much of what Mann deems important with a light touch not because it is unimportant, but because the library world has been doing stuff well for many, many years. The things it focuses on, moving onto the web more wholly and in a more embracing way.

WoGroFuBiCo is about stepping out into the world once more, not abandoning everything we hold dear.

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Google announces an API that makes it easy to link Google Book Search in to your interface…

… we’ve released a new API that lets you link easily to any of our books. Web developers can use the Books Viewability API to quickly find out a book’s viewability on Google Book Search and, in an automated fashion, embed a link to that book in Google Book Search on their own sites.

Like several others, we at Talis got an early heads up on the release of the API and within a few hours the Browse on Google Book Search link appeared on Cenote the Open User interface to UK bibliographic holdings stored in the Talis Platform, and a demonstration prototype of the upcoming new Talis OPAC interface - Prism 3.

If you have an ISBN, LCCN, or OCLC and pass it to the API you will get back a flag to say if Google have the book, and the URL to link to if they have.  Anyone with access to the html of your page and a modicum of Javascript knowledge can soon get this working.

As highlighted in another Google post about the API, several libraries have already implemented the link in their interfaces, including:

• Ann Arbor District Library
• Plymouth State University
• University of California
• University of Huddersfield
• Waterford Institute of Technology

And other online catalogue sites such as:

• LibraryThing
• Open Library
• Scriblio

I expect a blizzard of posts and Press Releases as the feature appears like a rash across the worlds OPACs - Ex Libris already being near the front of the queue.

A holder of rich metadata opens up an API that makes it easy to create mashups with that data in user interfaces - isn’t that what the web world was raving about a couple of years back - you remember that Web 2.0 thingy. 

So why so much excitement about this announcement now?  It is because it is about book data - everyone relates to books and the library world has been so bad at opening up its data to do this - it is down to Google to do it for us. Also system vendors in our world are notorious for making it difficult to do this kind of thing.

Ex Libris, Talis, and others are demonstrating that the sleeping giant of the library systems world is at least flickering an eyelid in recognition that the world around them has changed.  How long before it fully awakens to the fact that the future systems will be mashups of components and services from commercial, open source, and many currently non-library vendor organisations.  Moves like the DLF ILS API initiative will only add momentum to this process - if only everyone will get out of the way, cooperate and let the inevitable happen.

Technorati Tags: Google Book Search, API, Ex Libris, DLF, ILS, Library, Talis, Cenote

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So we all agree, it would be better for everyone if all ILSs had an API - well most of us anyway.

The road to this enlightened agreement has been a long one.  Back in 2005 John Blyberg, then at AADL put forward his ILS Customer Bill-of-Rights containing demands such as “Open, read-only, direct access to the database” and “A full-blown, W3C standards-based API to all read-write functions“.  John soon followed this up by producing PatREST an API on top of Ann Arbour’s Innovative Millennium system.

Winding the clock, and lots of blog posts, forward a couple of years and there is enough momentum for the DLF to set up it’s ILS Discovery API Task Force.  This group following a survey, have come up with a Draft Recommendation for the functionally of an ILS API.

Wind on again to March 6th 2008 - the recommendations are discussed in a meeting in San Francisco attended by many of the library system vendors, open source projects and other interested parties (Serials Solutions, Proquest, Ex Libris, CDL, Endeca, III, NLM, LoC, University of Maryland, UCLA, OCLC, Vanderbilt University, Oregon State University, XC, Bibliocommons, VuFind).

The word from the meeting is that the vendors appeared to be luke-warm to say the least about the proposals - pushing for any circulation functionality, holds etc., to be removed from the spec.  I understand that one vendor claimed that it would not be possible to harvest MARC records from their system.

Wind back a tiny bit to a breakout session at Code4lib 2008, hosted by Emily Lynema (previous Talking with Talis guest).  This was a very positive meeting with discussion about the way we could all come together to turn the recommendations in to a reality.  There was consensus that the Open Source community could have a significant part to play in this.  A common theme in this session was that there could be little help for this expected from the established ILS vendors - as appears to have been confirmed in San Francisco.

A suggestion was made that an open community could share ways to access both Open Source and commercial ILSs.  This would then help others build ILS specific connectors for implementations of the DLF standard API.  Then came the jaw-dropping question - “could such contributions to the community be made anonymously, so that the person making it would not bring retribution down on them, and their employer, from their vendor?“.

Have we really come to such a sorry state in parts of our industry that efforts to open up access, to data in University and Public Libraries for the benefit of all library users, can only be done by subverting normal openness and cooperation.  It’s their data after all!

Those that staff the vendors, which some of the library technologists at Code4lib are afeard of, have obviously never read the Cluetrain Manifesto - or at least if they did, they didn’t get it.

Markets are conversations!

Picture shared by biverson on Flickr.

Technorati Tags: ILS, API, DLF, III, SirsiDynix, Ex Libris, Talis, Library, Open Source, Code4lib,