It sounds like you’re doing pretty well running your library on instinct and by trial & error. You can refer to: “Council on Library/Media Technicians”, which maintains a list of library technician programs (some of which have a distance education option) but I don’t think it’s necessary in your case.

Running a library is mostly common sense. You look at what your library users need, and you find the best way to give it to them. That doesn’t mean “Running a library is mostly common sense. You look at what your library users need, and you find the best way to give it to them.” that an MLS is unnecessary – academic and public libraries hire librarians for very good reasons. But a company library such as yours is not bound by government and community expectations or accreditation criteria. You can choose to do whatever works best. Donald Sager’s Small Libraries: Organization and Operation can provide you with an outline of the various issues you may want to consider.

Fundamental to administering any library is knowing what you have, and knowing where to find it. Libraries have developed various systems for keeping track of the inventory, but it’s not necessary for your library to join OCLC to build a library catalog or for you to invest hundreds – if not thousands – of dollars in an MLS or Library Technicians’ Associate degree to develop a system that will work for your library.

Bookstores employ a very simple model of organization for their “collections” – placing books on the shelves by category or subject, and arranging them alphabetically by author within those subject areas. Libraries do something similar, except that they go one step beyond bookstores and provide both descriptive (call number, author, title, publisher, notes, etc.) and subject cataloging. That is, we put a label on the book with a unique call number on it so that (in theory) it always goes back on the shelf in the same place, and we also assign additional subject headings, usually based on a pre-determined but flexible vocabulary, to the book to aid in retrieval. So while a book can only physically live in one subject area, intellectually it can belong to several.

Bookstores and libraries also keep an inventory (libraries call it a catalog or shelf list) of what they have. The only difference between them is that over time libraries have developed a highly codified system of cataloging. If you’re interested in learning more about this, I’d suggest that you pick up a copy of Lois Mai Chan’s Cataloging and Classification: an Introduction, one of the textbooks of choice in introductory cataloging classes.

You don’t need to agonize over whether cm (centimeter), mm (millimeter), and km (kilometer) should be followed by a period or not. The basic information is the most important – title, author, publisher, date, subject, and call number will let you and your users find what you need. This information is usually provided by the CIP (cataloging-in-publication) data on the reverse of the title page (a standard in small and large press books since the 1970s). If you have the time, include the table of contents and a brief abstract (summary), even a scan of the cover, as this sort of rich cataloging is not only hugely appreciated but it aids in retrieving the item.

Any database software will enable you to create an automated catalog. Your company may already have software available, or you may have to purchase it. If you have to purchase it, I’d recommend looking at bibliographic software such as ProCite or EndNote, which both have pre-defined templates for various types of publications and allow you to maintain lists of terms you use more than once (such as authors’ names or subjects).

A more sophisticated, home-grown system using database management software such as Access or Filemaker can help you keep track of materials when they leave the library. Depending on the size of your collection and the level of circulation, however, a paper system might work just as well.

Whether you decide to invest in more education or continue to figure things out on your own, as long as you keep your library users foremost in your mind, you’ll do just fine.

The Contra Costa County Library is recognized nationally as a leader in utilizing technology to improve service and reduce costs. This is the second BALIS Innovation Grant received by the library. The previous BALIS grant provided partial funding for the book dispensers the library has installed at the Pittsburg/San Pablo and El Cerrito BART stations as well as the Sandy Cove Shopping Center in Byron/Discovery Bay.

The project will utilize QR (Quick Response) codes, a two-dimensional barcode technology popular in Japan and with point-of-sale companies in the United States, and increasingly found on product labels, billboards, and posters, to encode information and automatically launch web-accessible functions.

The library will develop a Mobile Patron Support System that will link customers with cell phones to library services and information through QR codes attached to library materials including books, DVDs, flyers, posters, library cards, and the catalog. By taking a picture of the barcode, the phone will launch the library’s mobile website and provide access to three functional areas: detailed, dynamically generated information on titles scanned including reviews, first chapters, and read-alike information; links to library mobile web pages including hours and location information; and links to patron account functions.

“We are thrilled that BALIS has recognized the potential of our “Snap & Go” project to expand library service to mobile customers,” said County Librarian Anne Cain. “This development will allow our library to serve as a model for others, to bridge the physical, digital, and mobile worlds and provide service beyond library walls and personal computers.”

Contra Costa County is above the national average for owning wireless devices, cellular phones and smart cellular phones according to the 2008 SRDS Lifestyle Market Analyst. Contra Costa County Library serves residents countywide with 25 locations, 3 Library-a-Go-Go book dispensers, and online library services available 24/7 at ccclib.org. Last year almost 4 million people visited the Contra Costa County community libraries and checked out over 6 million items.

The BALIS Innovation program provides funding toward the implementation of ideas or programs that offer a new service model or bring a fresh interpretation to existing library service models.

Launched in 2008 and housed at the University of Michigan, the HathiTrust currently includes the member libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation(CIC) the University of California system, and the University of Virginia.

Hathi serves a dual role. First, as a trusted repository it guarantees the long-term preservation of digital books created through mass digitization projects, providing the expert curation and consistent access long associated with research libraries. Second, Hathi offers public access to the public domain materials it holds.

“Columbia looks forward to membership in Hathi as a means not only to assure preservation of its own digital copies, but a way to contribute those volumes to an increasingly comprehensive digital archive of library materials converted from print that is co-owned and managed by academic institutions,” said James G. Neal, Columbia’s Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian. “Columbia’s students, faculty, and staff will benefit from the ability to search across the entire archive, with the assurance that all the books will continue to be available long into the future.”

“HathiTrust is pleased to have Columbia join us in this important enterprise,” said John Wilkin, Executive Director of HathiTrust and Associate University Librarian, Library Information Technology, University of Michigan. “The HathiTrust partners are eager to expand membership to a broad base of research libraries, and integrate HathiTrust more fully into the decisions libraries make surrounding the curation and management of the cultural record. As one of the most important North American research libraries, Columbia strengthens HathiTrust both in terms of vision and in terms of collections.”

HathiTrust was named for the Hindi word for elephant, hathi, symbolic of the qualities of memory, wisdom, and strength evoked by elephants, as well as the huge undertaking of congregating the collections of the nation’s top research libraries. In the past 12 months, HathiTrust has more than doubled the number of volumes in its repository from 2 million to nearly 4 ½ million. 16 percent of the library’s digital holdings are in the public domain.

Hathi is committed to preserving the intellectual content and in many cases the exact appearance and layout of the digitized materials, and will undertake bit-level preservation and format migration of the digital versions as technology, standards, and best practices change. Bibliographic searching by title, author, subject, ISBN, publisher, and year of publication, as well as faceted browsing are already available. Full text searching is a near-term objective, along with access mechanisms for persons with disabilities, and the ability for individuals to gather together subsets of its massive database into “collections” that can be searched and browsed.

HathiTrust was founded by the 11 University of California libraries and the 12-university consortium known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), and is funded and managed by its partners via an Executive Committee and a Strategic Advisory Board that works on a variety of issues ranging from finances to development priorities. Current partners include the member libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the University of California system, and the University of Virginia. Columbia is one of the first new institutions to join since membership was opened to other research libraries in 2009.

Columbia University Libraries/Information Services is one of the top five academic research library systems in North America. The collections include over 10 million volumes, over 100,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, graphic and audio-visual materials. The services and collections are organized into 22 libraries and various academic technology centers. The Libraries employs more than 550 professional and support staff. The website of the Libraries at www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb is the gateway to its services and resources.

“The State of Funding for Library Technology in Today’s Economy” includes a number of chapters written by expert contributors who offer broadly applicable guidelines for technology planning, budgeting, and saving money. They detail how — through planning, budgeting, and some clever tricks to expand hardware life — libraries’ administration and staff members can stretch the budget further than ever imagined.

Launched in 2008 and housed at the University of Michigan, the HathiTrust currently includes the member libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation(CIC) the University of California system, and the University of Virginia.

Hathi serves a dual role. First, as a trusted repository it guarantees the long-term preservation of digital books created through mass digitization projects, providing the expert curation and consistent access long associated with research libraries. Second, Hathi offers public access to the public domain materials it holds.

“Columbia looks forward to membership in Hathi as a means not only to assure preservation of its own digital copies, but a way to contribute those volumes to an increasingly comprehensive digital archive of library materials converted from print that is co-owned and managed by academic institutions,” said James G. Neal, Columbia’s Vice President for Information Services and University Librarian. “Columbia’s students, faculty, and staff will benefit from the ability to search across the entire archive, with the assurance that all the books will continue to be available long into the future.”

“HathiTrust is pleased to have Columbia join us in this important enterprise,” said John Wilkin, Executive Director of HathiTrust and Associate University Librarian, Library Information Technology, University of Michigan. “The HathiTrust partners are eager to expand membership to a broad base of research libraries, and integrate HathiTrust more fully into the decisions libraries make surrounding the curation and management of the cultural record. As one of the most important North American research libraries, Columbia strengthens HathiTrust both in terms of vision and in terms of collections.”

HathiTrust was named for the Hindi word for elephant, hathi, symbolic of the qualities of memory, wisdom, and strength evoked by elephants, as well as the huge undertaking of congregating the collections of the nation’s top research libraries. In the past 12 months, HathiTrust has more than doubled the number of volumes in its repository from 2 million to nearly 4 ½ million. 16 percent of the library’s digital holdings are in the public domain.

Hathi is committed to preserving the intellectual content and in many cases the exact appearance and layout of the digitized materials, and will undertake bit-level preservation and format migration of the digital versions as technology, standards, and best practices change. Bibliographic searching by title, author, subject, ISBN, publisher, and year of publication, as well as faceted browsing are already available. Full text searching is a near-term objective, along with access mechanisms for persons with disabilities, and the ability for individuals to gather together subsets of its massive database into “collections” that can be searched and browsed.

HathiTrust was founded by the 11 University of California libraries and the 12-university consortium known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), and is funded and managed by its partners via an Executive Committee and a Strategic Advisory Board that works on a variety of issues ranging from finances to development priorities. Current partners include the member libraries of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the University of California system, and the University of Virginia. Columbia is one of the first new institutions to join since membership was opened to other research libraries in 2009.

Columbia University Libraries/Information Services is one of the top five academic research library systems in North America. The collections include over 10 million volumes, over 100,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources, manuscripts, rare books, microforms, maps, graphic and audio-visual materials. The services and collections are organized into 22 libraries and various academic technology centers. The Libraries employs more than 550 professional and support staff. The website of the Libraries at www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb is the gateway to its services and resources.

Over the last few years, Web services and the service-oriented architecture (SOA) have become dominant themes in IT across many industries. Web-based computing, serviceorientation, and cloud computing increasingly displace the client/server approach favored by libraries in the past.

In library automation, one major trend involves evolving or rebuilding automation systems to adopt this new approach to software. Purveyors of both open source and proprietary library automation products increasingly emphasize the ways in which they embrace openness, support application programming interfaces (APIs), or implement Web services.

Libraries increasingly need to extract data, connect with external systems, and implement functionality not included with the delivered systems. Rather than relying on the product developers for enhancements to meet these needs, libraries increasingly demand the ability to exploit their systems using APIs, Web services, or other technologies.

The demand for openness abounds, particularly in libraries that exist in complex environments where many different systems need to interact. As libraries develop their IT infrastructure, it’s imperative to understand the extent to which their automation products are able to interoperate and thrive in this growing realm of Web services. This report aims to assess the current slate of major library automation systems in regard to their ability to provide openness through APIs, Web services, and the adoption of SOA.

Barcode Software

Barcode Software

GNU Barcode

Digital/Electronic Library Softwares:

CdsWare

Dienst

Eprints

Greenstone

Roads

SiteSearch

Library Management Systems:

Athenaeum Light

Avanthi Circulation System

Glibms

Java Book Cataloguing System

Koha Open Source Library System

Library Automation System

LibraryCom Web Based Library Service

Library Software

Library Software with Auto-Catalog

Library Manager

Mylibrarian

Mylibrary

NexLib – LIbrary Management System

Download Demo Version

OpenBiblio

OpenBook Open Source Library System

Research Guide

Seansoft Library Loan Management System

After the recent problems for the Taos system in the USA news of a European installation is welcome. Taos is uniquely based on an object oriented DBMS (Object Store) and DRA has had difficulty in delivering functionality on schedule.

Data Research Associates, Inc.. (DRA), a client/server library automation systems integrator, has announced an agreement with netLibrary, a provider of e-books and Internetbased content-management services, to integrate netLibrary into DRA’s Classic and Taos library automation systems. The resulting integrated system will provide easy access to e-books for both librarians and library patrons.

DRA and netLibrary are working together to integrate netLibrary e-books into the acquisitions and online public access catalog (OPAC) modules of the two DRA systems through the use of communication protocols for the transfer of machine-readable catalog (MARC) records. The integrated systems will enable librarians using DRA’s Classic and Taos systems, at their discretion, to quickly search, select, and acquire e-books for their collections. Also through the integrated DRA systems, librarians will be able to purchase e-books from netLibrary with the simplicity of transmitting an electronic purchase order, according to the announcement.

In addition, library patrons will be able to search for e-books purchased by their library directly from the library’s DRA-furnished OPAC. Library patrons will be able to search MARC records for e-books in a library’s OPAC by author, title, subject, and ISBN. E-books found by patrons in the OPAC can be previewed or borrowed at the click of a mouse.

“We are pleased to be working with netLibrary, a company focused on serving the needs of librarians and empowering libraries in the digital age. By combining DRA’s advanced library automation technology with netLibrary’s e-book infrastructure, we will be able to introduce e-books to our library customers in the platform they have become accustomed to using,” said DRA CEO Mike Mellinger. “The benefits extend to library patrons, as well, as they will be able to borrow e-books directly from their OPAC, anytime … from any computer connected to the Internet.” netLibrary president and CEO Rob Kaufman said: “DRA’s Classic and Taos library automation systems are windows to the people who matter most to netLibrary: librarians and library patrons. We are excited to be working with DRA to serve our mutual customers and make our e-book infrastructure available to members of the library community.” netLibrary is a leading provider of ebooks and Internet-based content-management services. According to the announcement, hundreds of publishers of academic, professional, reference, and scholarly books have adopted netLibrary’s digital rights management infrastructure. netLibrary develops, archives, hosts, and securely distributes e-books through a variety of channels, including academic, corporate, public, and school libraries. netLibrary e-books are full-text searchable and available for use on personal computers in online and offline formats.

Best-Seller is a specialist in the public library niche in Canada with its Portfolio product. They are the dominant supplier in Quebec with the major public library market share and a significant corporate customer base. In 1998 they moved into Europe with the acquisition of Speedware France – a successful move which has seen five of the largest public libraries in the France, including Lyon and Montpelier, install Portfolio – thus becoming the dominant player . Most business in France has been won against fellow Canadian company, Geac who are currently suffering broader financial difficulties.

ALSi have had an interesting history from their beginnings in the early 1970s when they were the public library system of choice in the UK, through the 1980s when their robust, high throughput systems became popular in the Netherlands and Germany, until they lost their way somewhat in the 1990s. Their UK market share now consists of 16 authorities – but include major sites like Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire in the populous London commuter belt. Financing has been the recent problem which the deal with Best-Seller / BiblioMondo will solve as the new Canadian venture brings an investment backing of $23 million Canadian (£10.25 million , $US 15 million). The acquisition also buys out the PICA shareholding in ALSi. Pica is a Dutch co-operative cataloguing organisation – now mostly owned by OCLC – which took a stake in ALSi about 3 years ago.

BiblioMondo’s marketing strategy is to focus exclusively on public and corporate libraries and to become a serious world player. This strategy will probably see a US company added to the group next year. The technology strategy is firmly based on a “Web centric” vision. Both Portfolio and Concerto – ALSi’s latest product – are Web centric products – defined by BiblioMondo as as being totally written and designed for the Web. This is different from Web “enabled” which implies a product that merely has a web capability – according to Todd Joron – president and CEO of BiblioMondo.

Technically, Portfolio is a UNIX / AIX product and Concerto is NT. This is seen as a strategic partnership enabling both of the major platforms to be offered in the future. The Web centric architecture of the products, coupled with the explosion in broadband access to the Internet for public libraries will fuel the future growth of the company believes Joron. Investing companies include TechnoCap which includes many broadband technology companies.

As a demonstration of the trend towards globalisation, this announcement is very important. Showing, not only the trend towards larger globally operating companies, but also the fact that the only way to survive in today’s marketplace and match the pace of technical change is to be well funded. To attract significant finance there has to be a global business vision as well as a technical product.