LIBER 39TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE - Statsbiblioteket

sEssIon 4.6
JEns hofman hansEn (statE and
unIvERsIty LIBRaRy, dEnmaRk):
thE oPEn LIBRaRy systEm - RE-
InvEntEd, ImPLEmEntEd and
WoRkIng
In the Google age library users want a single
interface with discovery tools to access
all collections whether they are physical
or digital, including subscription journal
articles, e-books, images, or collections
unique to each institution.
The software world is moving in the
direction of modular open systems, often
even based on open source. So is library
system software. Proprietary solutions still
prevail, but we see a growing number of
open interfaces to them, such as Ex Libris
X-server and the Ex Libris Unified Resource
Management.
At the State and University Library and
the University of Aarhus Libraries we have
moved far into open systems. In January
2010 we changed our library system from
SirsiDynix Horizon to Ex Libris Aleph. At
the same time the role of the traditional
library system part was reduced to the handling
of physical material, the acquisition,
the cataloging and the lending processes.
At the front of the system we are using the
Summa integrated search system build
purely on open source. By faceted search
Summa supports discovery browsing in
all material whether physical or electronic.
Summa which has been designed with
scale in mind can handle hundreds of
millions of items with response times in the
milliseconds.
To organize our rich collection of the National
Library resources, which include radio/TV,
film, newspapers, and the National
Music Collection, we have build the DOMS
(Digital Object Management System) based
on the open source of Fedora Commons.
The integration of the 3 main components,
Aleph, Summa and DOMS is carried
out in a service-oriented architecture. In
addition a number of workflow systems
have been developed for the handling of all
processes not supported within the Aleph
or Fedora frameworks. These workflow
systems include a system for on demand
digitization of material still in analogue
form and a generic workflow system for
mass-digitization within Fedora.
The strategic reasoning behind the architecture
will be presented along with some
general and detailed characteristics of each
of the building blocks: Aleph interfaces,
Summa, DOMS, and the workflow systems.
There will be a demonstration part showing
the key concepts in action, seen from
the end users as well as from the library
personnel.
Jens hofman hansen, MA in Information
Science, University of Aarhus, 2005. Since
1999 self-employed usability consultant.
Since 2005 usability expert at the State
and University Library. Participator in the
founding steps of the open source search
technology Summa, including early user
studies and prototyping. 2007 to May
2010, senior user experience consultant at
Denmark’s leading digital agency, Creuna.
Leader of user-centred commercial focused
redesigns of several digital products
including 14 online banks. Today, back at
the State and University Library as special
consultant, focusing on commercializing
and bringing the library’s technology to the
world surrounding us. Author of the book
“Motiverende design” (Persuasive design),
2006. Educator and speaker at several
occasions, conferences and events inside
and outside the library world.
1 JuLy 2010
67