How will the “Open Source Movement” (Ebenezer,
2002, p.34) and access to information through technology influence changes in
library systems? Library systems are
integral in every profession today. The
nature of how the business is conducted that has changed, not the nature of the
business itself. In chapter 1 of The
Evolution of LIS and Enabling Technologies, the Digital Library
Movement has become an outgrowth of Web-based resources first available in the
1990’s, so that a patron may conduct “One-stop shopping” via his or her
computer or mobile device (Kochtanek & Matthews, 2002, p.5).
The Digital Library Movement is
focused on the end user having improved access to knowledge in analog (print)
and digitized information with the World Wide Web as the connecting tool, and
has been made possible by the advent of this technology (Kochtanek, et al.,
2002, p.7). Somehow, the item was
chosen, copyright information was accessed, the format was chosen, and user
access was determined, most likely by people in the field of library and
information science. The “top-down”
decision must be made regarding how quickly new technologies and formats are
tested, adapted, and adopted. Leaders
must consider the benefits and drawbacks of patterns, such as whether to be on
the “bleeding edge”, experimenting with technologies and software, which could
prove costly; the “leading edge”,
willing to embrace new technologies; “in
the wedge”, playing it safe with proven technologies; or the “trailing edge”, using outdated
technologies (Kochtanek, et al., 2002, p.7).
As Catherine Ebenezer wrote, in “Trends
in Integrated Library Systems”, “It is typical for library staff, rather than
suppliers, to be at the forefront of library systems technology” (Ebenezer,
2002, p.22). Just as the internet access
available and brought about the OPAC system to replace the card catalog, Web
3.0 changes may bring about something like Z39.50 in a Web environment to
replace the OPAC system (Ebenezer, et al., 2002, p.24). Both authors foreshadowed that library
systems would embrace new technologies available in the future, thereby
improving user access and increasing success of the end results of retrieving
information (Ebenezer, et al., 2002, p.12 and Kochtanek, et al., 2002, p.35).
In “Integrating Human-Computer
Interaction Development into the Systems Development Life Cycle: A Methodology”, the authors’ purpose was to
convince the reader that the element of human interaction should be paramount
in the systems development life cycle for the outcome to be successful (Zhang,
Carey, Te’eni, & Tremaine, 2005, p.512).
Zhang defined HCI as “ways humans interact with information,
technologies, and tasks within various contexts” (Zhang, et al., 2005, p. 519). Incorporating HCI along each step of
development in any technology or software means to consider the user in each
step of the process, not just at the end, and how the user sitting at a desk,
punching at a keyboard will access the technology. A human’s physical and cognitive
capabilities, range of emotions and situations, and the nature of the changing
computing environment must all be a part of the process so that people will
stay with it, not stray from that technology or system until the next best
(expensive) thing comes along (Zhang, et al., 2005, p. 519).
Sources:
Ebenezer, C. (2002). Trends in integrated library systems. In Vine, volume 32, number 4, issue
129. Doi: 10.1108103055720210471139.
Kochtanek, T.R. & Matthews,
J.R. (2002). The evolution of lis and enabling
technologies. In Library Information
Systems (chapter 1). Westport,
Connecticut: Libraries Unlimited.
Zhang, P., Carey, J., Te’eni, D.,
& Tremaine, M. (2005). Integrating human-computer interaction
development into the systems development life cycle: a methodology. In Communications
of the Association for Information
Services, volume 15, 512-543.
Copyright 2013
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