I’m running a little bit behind here, but the 14th annual NWIUG came to an end on Friday and a couple of interesting tidbits came out of it. Probably the most welcome tidbit to come out of the conference came during Betsy Graham’s Keynote early the first morning when detailing the changes that will be coming to Encore 3.0. Encore, for the uninitiated, is Innovative Interfaces web 2.0 solution. As of this point, Encore 3.0 is scheduled to include an API to allow users to query directly against the Encore platform. This is one of those things that I’ve been asking III for for the last 7 years (pre and post Encore) and am glad to see that they are making this move. It’s certainly welcome. Of course, API access to their system will only come as a part of Encore — so if you are a III system this announcement is only helpful if you decide to utilize their Encore software.
Couple of other notes. I gave a keynote as well and discussed moving the ILS to the network space and what that might look like within the Pacific Northwest (since we have some established partnerships that might make this easier). The more I’ve worked with our ILS, the more I’m convienced that there really isn’t a compelling need any longer for local ILS system, but am more interested in seeing libraries consolidate systems while we wait for someone to develop a networked alternative. In that vein, I’m curious to know what III is doing to position itself to survive within this space. Their development model is still very client focused — so I would be curious to see how they view their own future within this space.
–TR
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One response to “Tidbits from the NorthWest Innovative User group meeting”
III’s announcement of Encore xQuery on Oct 9 was certainly welcome news. I hope that long term plans do not limit the API to read only access of the discovery layer.
Libraries are supposed to be all about collaboration and resource sharing, but our systems do not work well together. This means it transactions involving multiple libraries require more staff resources and money than they should.
Even ignoring the efficiencies that can be gained by getting rid of redundant processes and costs associated with forcing every institution to manage boxes that do the same thing, moving to a network model can also mitigate many of the problems caused lack of standards based interfaces among ILS that must work together.