One of the goals of the Library Technologies and Metadata department is to describe our work in more detail. This week, I'll look at technology in use with our conversion project, including perl scripting, APIs, and Microsoft's tools: Access and Excel. Taking a cue from our Metadata Librarian, Kim Sanderson's recent thought, "I’ll have to try that when I come across something particularly onerous…", one of the joys of working in library systems is automating parts of a project that are … [Read more...]
What’s in a name?
February 9, 2016 By
The Library's department Discovery Systems is changing names to Library Technologies and Metadata. It seems the idea of a library is well ingrained in our social fabric. With that as part of the name, people know we are talking about information, research, description, access, and sharing. Without library in our name, people wonder what Discovery and Systems might be about. Well, certainly discovery of desired information is one of the goals of the library’s services. So is discovery of the … [Read more...]
Assessing My Summer
August 27, 2015 By
So the summer is over, the students are back, and I’ve survived the arrival of a new group of freshman advisees on campus. It is time to start up the Little Reflections blog for the year and for me to assess how the summer went professionally. In looking back, I realize that this was a summer of assessment, or more correctly library assessment dominated my summer. Three specific events or projects come to mind. First, I had the great opportunity to present along with some colleagues from … [Read more...]
“Explicit” Searching
March 17, 2015 By
Every once in awhile I like to get down in the weeds of library geekdom, this is one of those days. I recently was pondering how index-searching functionality in many commercial information databases is flawed, and how this impacts user experience. There are often broad disparities in how vendors implement Boolean logic in advanced searching, which can make it quite difficult for users to effectively use their products. Wouldn’t it be great if all vendors used the same basic search … [Read more...]
Systems Librarian Faces the Innovation Challenge
December 10, 2014 By
The library has begun a discussion about excellence in relation to innovation. Forty years ago, simply automating manual processes was innovative! Handling textual data was cutting edge. As libraries began to adopt this new technology, a new breed of librarian emerged - the "systems librarian." Keeping the "library catalog" (a euphemism for the integrated system that supports circulation, acquisition, and discovery of library resources) and the equipment to access the catalog up and running … [Read more...]
