On Monday, June 10^th from 12:00pm-1:30pm, EOS will host a Luncheon Seminar at the San Diego Convention Center.  Richard Hulser, Chief Librarian, from LA Natural History Museum will present on the topic:  “How to Re-energize Your Library”. He will discuss things you can do today to liven up your library, including what he has done to re-energize his library at the LA Natural History Museum.

Sign up Here

That same evening, EOS will host a Client Appreciation Event on a yacht from Hornblower Cruise & Events.  Enjoy the sunset, ocean & dinner as we cruise around the San Diego harbor with fellow clients, staff from EOS International, and special guests. The event will take place on Monday, June 10, 2013 from 5:00pm-9:00pm.

EOS Clients who are planning on attending SLA 2013 in San Diego are welcome to join EOS for dinner, music, sightseeing, and networking on the Hornblower Cruise.

SLA is sure to be a great conference. We’ll see you in San Diego in June!

Sign up Here

There is a great deal of information a library director needs to consider when selecting a new ILS vendor.  Here are some of my initial thoughts on the subject.

1. If you are an American library, you should consider partnering with an American vendor.  This could exclude vendors that are headquartered in other countries, but may have a reseller or subsidiary in the U.S.

2. The vendor should have a full-time staff of employees, not just independent contractors to provide software, sales, marketing, support and custom development services.

3. The vendor must be continually growing and profitable.

4. The vendor should provide local “Live” 24/7/365 Help Desk support in your country.

5. The vendor should give you the option of a cloud-hosted or on-premise solution, with a no cost option to switch delivery at any time.

6. The ILS product should be web-based, build on industry standards, MARC and RDF compatible, and have at least 500 or more clients that have been using the solution for several years.

7. If you are a federal, state or regional library, you should choose a vendor with a valid GSA Agreement, high government security standards and many government library references.

8. If you are a multi-national library, you should partner with a vendor that has clients in all countries that you have a library, in their local language.

9. The vendor pricing model should allow you to get all the features you need at the very lowest price.

10. Your selected vendor should be able to manage both print and digital collections easily.

We often come across people looking into an open source solution during their evaluation process. Recently, we talked with Northland International University’s Library Director, Van Carpenter to ask why they chose EOS.Web as their new academic library software solution instead of their existing Koha installation. We put together a Case Study as the result of our discussion. We hope you find value in reading it.

Here’s a couple excerpts:

“Although Koha is ‘free’ and customizable, the university did not have the staff to program in Koha’s native language, Perl. Nor did they have extra budget  money to pay the Koha vendor to develop custom solutions. This led to unmet expectations, frustration and disappointment.”

“The set of features in EOS.Web is priced well under other vendors delivering the same features. Van remarks: “EOS.Web was reasonably priced and incredibly valued with all the same features you need at a lower cost, where you may need to pay several thousands of dollars elsewhere.”

Read More of the Northland International Case Study

As more and more documents are becoming digitized, offering electronic content to your end users is important. You should take a look at the pros and cons of each option available to you.  A few options available online are e-books, e-journal, e-newsletters, spreadsheets, and databases. The answer to ‘where should it be?’ is different for every library.

Digital content can be stored and accessed from various places – servers in your organization and vendors, publishers, and other content provider servers. There are also different ways to access the content.

A question we hear often is “Where should I put all of my content?”  With all the choices available for storing digital content, we find it useful to organize the options by who provides what. In other words, where is it now? The answer to where is it tells us several things – what the electronic material is, where the material is (of course), and the pros and cons of hosting the material at that location.

There are 3 most likely locations:

• Your organization’s server
• The cloud (like EOS.Web’s hosted environment)
• Publisher/Vendor/3^rd Party server

Below are the pros and cons of some options available to you:

Hosting content at your organization:

Pros:

• No Limit on storage space
• Control over access to your electronic material

Cons:

• Can you move your electronic material to a Web Server or server that can generate URLs?
• Network Internal Paths are not a good option for links
• IT Support (Would you expect delays in making changes to electronic materials, if you don’t have access to the files?)
• Worrying about dead links

Your organization might give you access to unlimited storage space in which you can host all your electronic materials and link them to your catalog. Since it is your organization’s servers, you don’t have to pay a storage fee and might have more control over your material too.

The files should be on a server that can create URL links to the files. URL links are easier to work with than internal network paths. Internal network paths start with a drive name (i.e. C:\, D:\, N:\). These links may work fine in your office, but try to use the same link from outside your office or from another computer in a different department. The links may not work. There are many reasons for this. One reason is the second computer may not have access to the network drive that the first computer has access too.

If your library or department doesn’t have a good relationship with IT, and even if your does, when links stop working, your department’s need may not receive reasonable responses in time from IT (a day, a week), and this could impede the time it takes to fix dead links, add new links, or edit links.

Hosting Content on EOS.Web

Pros:

• 1 GB of free storage space per client
• No dead link worries
• URLs can be created to link to files from outside EOS.
• Help Desk support 24/7/365

Cons:

• Limit of 1 GB of free store space.

Clients get 1 GB of storage space on EOS servers. Additional storage space is also available. You will never have to worry about dead links.  If ever there is a problem, our Help Desk is available 27/4/365.

Hosting Content with Publisher/Vendor/Third party provider:

Pros:

• Vendors often have multiple links options to choose from. Contact your vendor for their options.

Cons:

• Limited help support
• Possible storage fees
• Dead Link worries

If you are subscribing to databases or individual journals from a database vendor, ask them in what ways you may link to content on their site. Often, vendors will have several linking options. Options could include linking to the current journal issue, linking to the current year’s issue of the journal, and linking to a complete list of the journal back file of all years.

Look into the hours of their help support. If there is a problem with access to a database, is there a number you can contact? Some vendors provide support between 9am-5pm. Some provide support into the evening such as 9am-8pm, but they don’t provide support on the weekend on holidays. If there is a problem accessing a database or document on the weekend, you or your end user might have to wait until the next business day before you can contact them to get the issue resolved.

The presentation will begin at 10am PT (1pm ET) on January 16, 2013. The entire presentation will last about 40 minutes. He will cover several points within two primary topics: Technology strategy planning to ensure optimum results and Pros and Cons of off-site ‘Cloud’ implementation.

After Richard’s presentation we will show you how EOS.Web can help you maximize technology in your library as well.

We are excited to be offering this new type of resource to the librarian community. We hope you enjoy it! Sign up here.

After the webinar we will make the recording available via download.

The word ‘Marketing’ or ‘Selling’ can strike terror into the heart of many people—and librarians are no different. This skill set may come naturally to some, but it is difficult for countless others.

With that in mind we went fishing for some resources for librarians to use to help market their library either internally or externally. Here’s some of the things we found:

The Library Marketing Toolkit – both book & website
http://www.librarymarketingtoolkit.com/p/book.html
“As libraries continue to fight for their survival amid growing expectations, competition from online sources and wavering public perceptions, effective marketing is increasingly becoming a critical tool to ensure the continued support of users, stakeholders and society as a whole. This unique practical guide offers expert coverage of every element of library marketing and branding for all sectors including archives and academic, public and special libraries, providing innovative and easy-to-implement techniques and ideas.”—(from the website).

It covers many principles and practical guidelines for getting your library noticed. Also included are case studies and even a chapter dedicated specifically to Special Libraries.

The website supporting the book is filled with extras that are available outside of the book, like Case Studies and a “Essential Tools and Resources” section.

You may also find interesting an Interview with Ned Potter, Author of The Library Marketing Toolkit
http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/features/11132012/marketing-your-library

Marketing: Realistic Tips
http://www.sla.org/content/Shop/Information/infoonline/2002/nov02/markreal.cfm
Although a few years old, this article features some valid suggestions and tips for marketing a special library today.

Good Resources from ACRL for marketing academic & research libraries
http://www.ala.org/acrl/issues/marketing

What have you found useful in marketing your library either internally or externally? Put your thoughts in the comments below!

When someone says they want to get rid of MARC, I want to shout, “No, please, you just don’t know MARC!” Whether you are concerned with description/access, display/suppression, data sharing, harvesting, and/or retrieval, MARC continues to be a powerhouse for encoding metadata.

Many of today’s standards, RDA, MARC, Dublin Core, MODS, OAI-PMH, etc., serve as the guidelines for describing and accessing information packages, provide the template or form onto which the data is entered, and/or suggest the criteria for encoding the data. For now, let’s say any guideline can be used to describe an information package and any format can be used to create the surrogate record for today’s resources. At that point, MARC is ready to do what it does best, standardize data elements for global exchange.

Titles can be entered according to the needs of your organization (e.g., brief or full versions of the title including or excluding statement of responsibility, dates,  parallel titles, medium, form or nature of content, etc.) and the information can be entered into a field labeled specifically (e.g., title statement, main title, resource name, titre, <titleInfo>, <dc title>, etc.) but no matter how the title is entered or how the field is labeled, it makes sense to encode the data element using a short, predefined, numeric identifier such as the MARC 245 tag.

The 3-digit tag structure of MARC – 999 tags (001-999) and 36 single-character subfields (a-z, 0-9) – has been called a limitation by anti-marcists but the structure is exactly the quality that makes it unrestrictive. It wasn’t too long ago only a few digits were needed for telephone numbers. As the need for new numbers grew, the number of dialing digits were expanded to accommodate use. If 999 tags and 36 possible subfields aren’t enough (yikes!), why not consider changing the encoding system to 4-digits with 2 digit subfields? According to the math-types and gamers here at EOS, this would result in 9999 tags, each with a possible 1,296 subfields. That should be enough for even the most detailed cataloger! Yet, if the need arises for even more designations, we can move to 5-digit tag, 3-digit subfield system.

And for those who think less is more, if 999 tags are too many, pick 8 of them, pick a dozen, or pick 50, whatever is applicable to the data used to represent your library’s resources.

Changes in entry guidelines, redundancy, and the need for new fields, those changes really aren’t a problem for MARC. The MARC tag is simply a code identifying the associated data. Entry guidelines can and should evolve – new entries added, format of information changed, redundant entries combined/removed. Templates can and should be updated in kind – fields added, updated, removed as needed by your organization. MARC standards and the mapping between any field and a particular tag can also be updated accordingly.

As for the argument against an industry-specific code and in favor of natural language, language quickly becomes a slippery slope — what is natural to me in my organization may not be natural to you in your organization, what we call a title here in the US may be more naturally referred to as a Титла in Bulgaria, and a label created in 2012 may be seriously out-of-date when describing a resource in 2022.

I am all for natural language labels on templates but when it comes to encoding information, natural language would be a nightmare. For the 100 tag, which entry label do we use to identify the party responsible for the work – author, creator, dc creator, primary access point, name, main entry, or something else? For interoperability, we would all have to agree. I have this very un-unique idea that if natural language encoding takes place, we will need to come up with some kind of industry-wide 3-digit tag structure to standardize identification of data elements.

Whether describing information becomes more basic or more detailed, applies to physical objects or the virtual world, is created in ASCII, MARC, XML, or some super-futuristic cosmic record format, let’s keep MARC for encoding the data. We are the purveyors of information. MARC is ours and it is an effective and widely-used tool for standardizing how information is stored to allow for relevant retrieval by searchers, global exchange of information between information-based organizations, and meaningful harvesting by outside engines.

So, sure, let’s update entry guidelines to describe and access new information, let’s update templates for the new information and make them user-friendly, but for encoding, let’s keep it MARC.

“The importance of metadata that is linked to a digital object cannot be over-emphasized. After all, the digital object is simply a collection of bits (called a bitmap) that cannot be found or understood without some level of metadata.

The description of a digital object is an important activity that historically librarians fulfilled on behalf of all library customers. However, as the Internet has moved increasingly into the social milieu, people expect to be able to add their “two cents” worth by tagging digital objects, rating digital objects as well as physical 106 artifacts (for example, books reviews) and other community-building activities.

The sad reality is that digitization is still not considered a core function of most libraries. To have a larger impact in the life of users, the digital library must become more central to how the library delivers content and services. This presents a real challenge for any library. How can you ensure the automation tools are in place to make sure that the digital library plays a significant role in the life of people in their communities (geographic, academic or organizational)?

The answer to this challenge lies in four parts:

1. The library needs to spend less time creating “full” bibliographic descriptive records for books (moving from the detailed MARC record to the less structured Dublin Core or MODS record). Since the full text of books are now being indexed and searched, the need for a full bibliographic record is diminishing.

2. Index the complete content of a “born digital” document or the digitized content of existing analog library materials – books, journals, photos, audio, video and other materials.

3. Provide links to related content from other digital libraries and museums.

4. Work to provide a sense of context within the library’s online catalog or Web site. This may require the library to provide a sense of time (a timeline) or place (links to maps) for the digital content contained within their catalog.”

Want to read more? Go here to download, our 304-page book, The Digital Library Survival Guide by Joe Matthews today!

Librarytechnology.org’s Marshall Breeding stated here that “Library automation isn’t in the realm of shrinkwrap software. Rather, each installation is unique, and it’s advantageous to both the libraries and the companies to peg the price of the software to appropriate indicators.”

Every organization’s needs are unique and we view our job, as the the library software vendor, to provide a solution that molds to your needs. But what are some of those “indicators”? What are the things that make up library software costs?

The “Indicators”—Determining Cost Factors for Library Software:

• Size of Staff and/or Library. Library software vendors differ on how they calculate the price of their software and services. Smaller library software suites charge a flat price for a more out-of-the-box solution. Some vendors calculate the library software cost based on the number of items in a library’s catalog. Some companies (like EOS) base their prices on the amount of simultaneous staff users logged-in to administrate the solution. We’ve found this option to be the most flexible to organizations as it lets them purchase enterprise-level software at entry-level prices.
• Hosting. There are two options for where to host your software: The first option is to host it in the Cloud. The second option is to host it Locally on computers you control, or a hybrid of the two. Hosting your data in the Cloud lets you leave the worry and hassle of backup and storage behind because vendors are paid to manage that for you.If you host your data locally, you control the updates, backups and must have a plan to accommodate your data storage. It is not uncommon to have a hybrid approach where the records for your collection is stored in the cloud, but the digital content is hosted locally. Library software vendors base their price on the amount of storage required for your collection (ex. 1GB of data hosting is included with most service agreements at EOS International. Additional hosting is available upon request.)
• Implementation. Depending on the complexity of your current software, your library may be looking at implementation costs. If the software previously used is older and does not export in MARC format this can incur an extra cost because the implementation team must do extra work to convert your data from the previous system to a new one. Also, some vendors charge based on the amount of data converted, i.e. the amount of records in your collection.
• Training. The cost of training for your library software will be dependent upon how you wish to receive the training. Options often include pre-recorded training videos on specific topics, an online conference call with screen-sharing with a live trainer, traveling to the vendor’s location to receive on-site training in a classroom, or having a trainer visit you at your location for training.
• Support. There are a few factors to consider when considering the support options of a software vendor. You will want to make sure that the support the vendor provides matches your needs and expectations. Unfortunately support is something that you don’t need until you really need it. Some questions to consider: Will you always be able to get a person on the phone? Or is support only available via email? When is their support available? Is it 24/7/365? Will you be able to understand them? Is their native language, your native language? (At EOS, we provide support 24/7/365. So you will always have a person to talk to at every hour of every day.)
• Additional Services. Additional Services may be needed to meet your library’s primary operational and service requirements.

No Magic Bullet

These are most, but not all, of the things that go into library software pricing. Unfortunately there is no magic bullet. Because each library is unique and presents its own degree of unique challenges for the software to overcome, differing amounts are paid by organizations—and it’s very difficult to come up with a flat cost.

If you are looking for a price on library software, EOS.Web is a very flexible, affordable solution. We would be happy to help you determine how an EOS.Web system can help your library. We have a few options for you to get familiar with it. The easiest is to Attend a Webinar or Request a Demo.

In a world of diminishing budgets and where Google is King, libraries are put in a position to need attention.

They need to be used. If libraries are used, their patrons will then fight for them to remain open when they are on the budget’s chopping block. With that in mind, below are 5 things Libraries can do to get noticed and provide top of mind awareness.

1) Jack-Up Your OPAC

When your car gets a flat, you have to jack-up the car to fix it. Similarly, when your OPAC is looking drab, dreary or otherwise flat, it’s time to jack-it-up. Add new logos, change the colors, and integrate with the latest technology from your OPAC software. If your OPAC looks ancient, your patrons will think it and its resources might be as well. But if it looks current and modern they will feel the resources are up-to-date and relevant.

2) Employ Technology

Allow your patrons integrate with you in new ways via technology. This could be through RSS feeds, Search Widgets on their Google Account page and/or integration on your SharePoint portal. Allowing multiple places for your patrons to begin their searching experience, will get your library noticed.

3) Play Nice with Others

If your library is in an environment that does not have proprietary materials, begin sharing your collection with other libraries. Lend them your items and borrow from them. If patrons from other libraries find necessary items in your library, you will increase your transactions. Ask other libraries for a link to your Catalog on theirs and vice versa; the more links that point to you, the more awareness you will have. If you have a library association or committee you are a part of, you can ask the same from them.

4) Chat It Up

Though chatting about your library is important, why not chat with your patrons? This can be done by using different easy-to-use Chat Software so you can answer LIVE reference questions. Again, the more ways the patrons have to get what they’re looking for, the better.

5) In the News

Starting a library newsletter could be a way to stay on the radar of your patrons. If you do not have the time or resources to do that, perhaps you could simply email your patrons with a brief blurb about any of the above enhancements you have made.

Be Creative

By being creative in the ways you stay on top of people’s mind, the more they will think to come to you for their needs. This will trigger transactions in your library. Transactions will prove your usefulness and help maintain the ever-so-needed institution that is: The Library.

What have you done to get your library noticed?