Looking forward (to Glasgow)

Hello again

Reading all those posts prompted a bunch of questions that we ought (I think) be addressing at the Glasgow programme event (and online so everyone can join in), whether in the background of other discussions or as topics in their own right.

1.

Reliability and sustainability – What’s biting you? Vendor code, scripts you’ve written, OS stuff you’re trying to use, integration, automation, back up, unidentified gremlins, other things? We’re looking for ‘industrial strength’ services not just pilots so we may need to be realistic about the prospects

2. Sources of knowledge – What works for your implementation? This programme is seeking to adopt an open source / community model but where does the key knowledge lie? Perhaps you are the UK expert, or someone in your tech team, a vendor, another jiscLMS project, an online community or forum?

3. Search – Do we need to worry? Many of you are deploying discovery services based on the catalogue and / or a wider world. You are therefore offering two services (or more). In the ‘old days’ we would have lost sleep over issues such as consistency of results (e.g. LMS v. Blacklight), differences in search strategy (What does simple search actually do?) and performance (initial results, record display). Are the differences significant? Do we care – and more important – do our users care?

4. Search – What about Google? For all our good work, improvement on the core LMS OPAC and user focus, are we any nearer making our search services more attractive than Google?

5. Extra Opportunities – To grasp or not to grasp? Most of you will have identified opportunities arising from the execution of your original plan (e.g implementation of a search service or a widget). Those opportunities may be changes to processes (we could / should now do ‘x’ differently in the library) or additional applications (we could integrate with reference management, Facebook, etc). Have got a list / what are you doing with it?

6. LMS ‘Families’ – on speaking terms? The LMS might not be the centre of our thinking anymore, but it is still an elephant in the room. Should we be speaking to the other projects using the same LMS? There may be tips to share or issues to escalate. I've started to draw a diagram to map the linages between projects in terms of LMS, search products, etc - hopefully I can improve on the photo above by Tuesday :)

Finally, here’s something to consider on the train or plane or pedaling the Brompton to Glasgow … and if you can’t join us why not blog this during the week …

Make a list of three things only (and ideally agree it with your team)

1. The best thing that has happened in your project
2. · The worst thing
3. · The most significant surprise out of ‘left field’ – good or bad

Have a good weekend - David