It would be almost impossible for Ex Libris and our URM development partners to build a next-generation library management solution without asking a lot of challenging questions and continually repeating the mantra of “Think Differently!” It goes without saying that much has happened in the years since the current generation of library management products was developed –technology is advancing, suppliers are consolidating, and library goals are changing. As we design a system that can accommodate the current and future needs of libraries, it can be a challenge to balance the “traditional” workflows and processes that we’ve become accustomed to – and, in many cases, that we’ve optimized – with opportunities to do things in different ways.

As we’ve worked with our URM development partners, one area that has become the source of – shall we say lively? – discussion is the metadata editor and, in particular, the MARC cataloging interface.

On the one hand, we know that the demands of a production cataloging environment call for rapid data entry – and many libraries have optimized their workflows to ensure the greatest productivity in this regard. Further, many of our current cataloging tools and practices can be traced back to the days of terminal-based systems. While the library community has reaped countless benefits in moving away from those legacy systems, the environment often did make it easier to perform data-entry intensive tasks. Many catalogers still prefer a more text-based user interface, with options for keyboard-driven commands and navigation, for exactly this reason. As one of our partners noted, “The most repetitive part of a cataloger’s job is the encoding – and once you know the rules for creating and editing a MARC record, anything that slows down that process causes a lot of frustration.”

On the other, in a next-generation environment, we have opportunities to introduce new efficiencies by moving away from a text-based interface. With a new, more “element-based” editor, the URM could assist users in the entry of controlled values in appropriate record fields and subfields. For new or less-experienced staff, learning how to describe the library’s resources could be simplified through the use of text-labeled elements that link to contextualized online help resources. And beginning to work in a new editing environment will also likely pave the way for the implementation of new XML-based metadata formats, something that is of increasing interest to our partners and to the larger library community.

The possible opportunities in a next-generation environment prompted Ex Libris and our development partners to consider a trade-off: should we stick with what works for us now, or should we move toward a different interface that supports new efficiencies? And this question was only further complicated as we looked to the future – a future in which other types of record formats are likely to predominate and in which shared, community-centric metadata (supported by the URM’s Metadata Management System) will play a huge role.

This certainly hasn’t been the only tough question we’ve had to address in planning URM functionality, but because it touches an area in which productivity is so important, it’s been one of the hardest. After quite a bit of consideration and evaluation, our development team came up with a solution that will work best for the product and its users, one that elegantly combines the benefits of a text-based editor with many of the features enabled by an element-based editor. As an example, the URM MARC editor will support index look-ups, even in fields with multiple subfields. We feel that this solution supports the best of both worlds – providing new efficiencies without compromising on the productivity we’ve achieved in our current cataloging environments.

Kathryn

Primo, Voyager, and the Ex Libris e-product suite will be provided as managed solutions

Welcome to the twelfth issue of the Ex Librian newsletter, marking six years of activity as a communication channel between Ex Libris and the customer community.

One of the most exciting parts of being a product manager is getting to see your “baby” come to life – and last week ended with one of those moments for me. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s start at the beginning…

In building the URM, Ex Libris is applying a number of “agile development” techniques. For those of you unfamiliar with this methodology, it’s a newer approach to software development that emphasizes rapid, yet high-quality delivery; ongoing review and adaptation; and a business approach that aligns product development with customer needs and company goals. The goal is to create an agile process (hence the name) that allows us to review and test our work as we go, modifying the URM functionality as needed to meet our success criteria.

From a product management perspective, the URM team works closely with our colleagues in development to prioritize the functionality that is added to the product in a series of month-long development iterations or “sprints”. Ultimately, these sprints are packaged into a “drop” – a set of end-to-end workflows across functional areas that can be implemented and tested with real data by our partners. As part of this process, we’ll be creating an ongoing cycle of feedback and adjustments based on our partners’ experiences. Our first drop will be delivered to our URM partner libraries in June of this year, with successive drops approximately every 3-4 months thereafter until our last drop – the complete v. 1 release – in the second half of next year.

And, because we’re building upon the proven infrastructure of Rosetta, Ex Libris’s solution for preservation of digital assets, we have a huge “leg up” on many of the core pieces of functionality necessary in the URM – things like operator management and privileges, the inventory model, and more are already in place and ready to go with little or no modification required.

Which brings me to last week. My colleagues in development finished the first official URM sprint, which included a number of demonstrable features. While I had an opportunity to review a lot of work, including the infrastructure for user interfaces and menu systems, the thing that made me really happy is the implementation of currency management services. Now why get excited about, of all things, currency management? Well, I’ve always wanted an acquisitions module that would automatically query an external currency service and update the conversion rates. And in January, the URM development team made it happen! For the many libraries that order in multiple currencies, the URM will eliminate all of the manual work that’s currently necessary to ensure accurate, real-time commitments and expenditures in selection and acquisition. Hear, hear!

We also finalized our planning for February’s sprint last week, and I can’t wait to see – and provide feedback on – this month’s deliverables. Stay tuned for more information on the URM…and the new features that are evolving even as I write!

Kathryn

This eleventh Ex Libris office will provide the Danish and Swedish customer community with direct services

Ingram Digital and Ex Libris provide researchers seamless access to MyiLibrary e-content

Institutions around the world welcome the beta release of the Primo Central mega-aggregate of scholarly e-content

The system's rich core functionality and proven capabilities in handling very large collections were major factors in the selection of Aleph

Major new functionality and a preservation planning module further enhance the internationally acclaimed digital preservation system

A celebration of the portal’s ninth anniversary marks the launch of Ex Libris e-resource solutions in many of the CAPES institutions  

As 2009 draws to a close, we are taking a moment to look back, with amazement, at the extraordinary developments in the library discovery environment. It is less than a year ago that services such as Primo Central—offering scholars the wealth of global e-content integrated with local library collections—started to emerge. Of all the stakeholders that have embraced this new approach, it is the publishers who should be most applauded for their positive response to this way of enhancing the discoverability of their content. Last week we were pleased to announce the first Primo Central partner libraries. Here’s the list:

- Brigham Young University (United States)
- Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium)
- Cooperative Library Network Berlin-Brandenburg—KOBV Consortium institutions: Humboldt University, Free University of Berlin, Mannheim University, and the Technological University, Berlin (Germany)
- Michiana Academic Library Consortium institutions: University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary's College, Holy Cross College, and Bethel College (United States)
- Oxford University (United Kingdom)
- University of New South Wales (Australia)
- Vanderbilt University (United States)
- Yonsei University (South Korea)

This international group of library partners, representing scholarly excellence across the globe, will begin beta-testing Primo Central next month and check how this new service works with the institutional Primo system. A wonderful advantage of having such a heterogeneous group of partners is that they can help us learn how well we address language issues, regional content, a variety of organizational structures, and a range of disciplinary focuses. We’re looking forward to working with our partners and receiving their valuable feedback.

The Primo Central index continues to grow. More and more publishers are joining the many who already participate in the Primo Central Publisher program. Within just the last two weeks, we signed agreements to add scholarly content from Cambridge University Press, the University of Chicago Press, Emerald Group Publishing Ltd., JSTOR, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), RMIT Publishing, and the Royal Society of Chemistry. By the time Primo Central is released to the general public, we anticipate that this index will include approximately half a billion records.

We are pleased that so many distinguished publishers understand that Primo Central is another way for them to enhance the “findability” of their treasures without losing control of their intellectual rights and are thus working with us to get their data into Primo Central. Ex Libris, libraries, and information providers all share a common vision: bringing the world of knowledge to users. And the Primo Central service--an Ex Libris initiative that will benefit both libraries and information providers--fulfills this goal perfectly.

A shared vision and a decade of positive experience with Ex Libris drew the organization to select the Primo, Aleph, MetaLib, SFX, and DigiTool solutions  

Institutions from the international customer community partner with Ex Libris to shape the Primo Central mega-aggregate of scholarly e-content  

Along with Boston College, Princeton University Library, and the Catholic University of Leuven, Purdue will participate in the design of the Unified Resource Management (URM) framework  

The Primo customer community continues its rapid expansion as libraries across six continents select the Ex Libris discovery and delivery solution  

Openness, flexibility and scalability, complemented by the solution’s international reputation, drew the State Library to choose Rosetta as a platform for long term preservation