EDITOR'S NOTES
Decisions, Decisions
by
Dick Kaser
Today’s libraries have many technologies available to them. And today’s librarians have many technical options to choose among as they reinvent their institutions.
This issue of Computers in Libraries magazine takes on one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind: How can we make using the library more like searching the web with Google?
Based on her efforts to evaluate today’s highly touted web-scale discovery systems, Athena Hoeppner shares tips for evaluating the various services that are out there, based on her work in selecting a web-scale solution for the University of Central Florida.
In “Implementing a Discovery Layer: A Rookie’s Season,” authors Noah Brubaker, Susan Leach-Murray, and Sherri Parker share the real-life story of their multiyear effort to select and then roll out Ex Libris Primo to the libraries in their consortium.
In your deliberations about what you should do in your own situation, open source solutions, of course, are always an option these days. In her column this month, Helene Blowers helps you consider whether open source might be right for you.
And if all of this just seems like a pipe dream given your limited means, Marshall Breeding discusses how even small libraries can become automated with today’s techno tools and cloud-based resources.
As we welcome spring, maybe it’s time to not only dust the shelves but dust off your thoughts about what’s doable for your library and its patrons. As the authors of this issue so eloquently prove, the first step in moving forward is to quit procrastinating and take the big leap. Today’s libraries have many technologies available to them. And today’s librarians have many technical options to choose among as they reinvent their institutions.
This issue of Computers in Libraries magazine takes on one of the biggest questions on everyone’s mind: How can we make using the library more like searching the web with Google?
Based on her efforts to evaluate today’s highly touted web-scale discovery systems, Athena Hoeppner shares tips for evaluating the various services that are out there, based on her work in selecting a web-scale solution for the University of Central Florida.
In “Implementing a Discovery Layer: A Rookie’s Season,” authors Noah Brubaker, Susan Leach-Murray, and Sherri Parker share the real-life story of their multiyear effort to select and then roll out Ex Libris Primo to the libraries in their consortium.
In your deliberations about what you should do in your own situation, open source solutions, of course, are always an option these days. In her column this month, Helene Blowers helps you consider whether open source might be right for you.
And if all of this just seems like a pipe dream given your limited means, Marshall Breeding discusses how even small libraries can become automated with today’s techno tools and cloud-based resources.
As we welcome spring, maybe it’s time to not only dust the shelves but dust off your thoughts about what’s doable for your library and its patrons. As the authors of this issue so eloquently prove, the first step in moving forward is to quit procrastinating and take the big leap.
Dick Kaser, Executive Editor
kaser@infotoday.com
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