Programme group: Architecture & Middleware
Chairman Arne Sørensen
The main tasks of the programme group is to build up an IT-architecture that will guarantee a coherent Danish IT-infrastructure for the libraries in general and the research libraries in particular, to ensure an architecture that will form part of a coherent Danish architecture for modern citizen and user services and efficient digital management as well as support the establishment of actual common components and common operating solutions for the libraries.
The area’s action plan is divided into five action lines:
- Simplification and consolidation in national communities
- Architecture and interfaces for ’Integrated Search’
- User and access management
- The library in digital Denmark
- Business processes
Many members of the programme group participated in the National IT and Telecom Agency’s architecture conference in April 2008.
Activities
In 2008 there have been seven active projects, three of which finished during that year:
DanBib as genuine union catalogue
The project has worked out a model which in the final analysis can mean a radical reorganisation of the workflow that is today spent on the cataloguing of physical materials. The basic idea is to support a dynamic process where entries in the union catalogue are at any time updated to an ideal quality level, and where the individual libraries can connect their local versions of the entry to the joint entry so that common updating is automatically spread everywhere in an automatic process. The purpose is thus both a quality enhancement and improved efficiency. The project has attracted a lot of stakeholders with about 50 participants involved in the central workshop. Despite the project concerning one of the traditional areas and querying previous virtues and quality norms, the project’s recommendation still turned out to be to carry on with an actual implementation project. The support for this will show whether the reorganisation will in fact succeed. The implementation project is to be completed in 2009.
Danish libraries in Worldcat
The project has two objectives: Firstly to improve the basis for reuse in cataloguing via access to Worldcat which is the world’s largest catalogue of physical library material, and secondly to exhibit Danish libraries’ material more systematically in Worldcat and thereby encourage international loans from Danish libraries. Thus the project is related to DanBib as genuine union catalogue, but as opposed to this the Worldcat project does not change the prevalent routines in the libraries. The backing for the project has therefore been completely unambiguous. Also this project will be subject to an implementation follow-up in 2009 where the experimental phase will be followed by actual full operation.
Preliminary study of business and agreement models for services
The purpose of the project was to examine the library sector’s need for common guidelines for business and agreement models in relation to offering and accepting various types of services. It was a question of a preliminary study via a qualitative interviewing round in various relevant libraries and gathering inspiration from other public and private organisations. The project concluded that the preparation of actual business cases (and models for these) was outside the programme group’s field of activity, and rather belongs in managements and general business development in libraries. The project’s recommendation is preparation of a DEFF standard contract that can be used across libraries when agreements have to be made with internal or external customers. So far no follow-up on the project has been planned.
Other initiatives
The programme group continues to have an important share in the national project on user and access management which is now organised in www.wayf.dk. It happens partly via major roles in the steering committee for this interministerial initiative, partly by supporting and exploiting projects like the present one: Connection of commercial library services to Wayf.
Altogether the programme group has launched initiatives which are significant for further collaboration and consolidation among the research libraries. In many cases, however, the sector is influenced by traditions and institutional egotism which makes it very hard indeed to succeed in establishing common solutions. During the period it has, however, been possible to observe other initiatives working in the direction of common systems and consolidation, like for example the recommendation in Danish Universities’ report on libraries and the initiative behind Statens IT, both of which initiatives emerged during 2008.
Read more at https://infoshare.dtv.dk/twiki/bin/view/ ArkitekturMiddleware/WebHome
This page forms part of the publication 'Annual report from Denmark’s Electronic Research Library 2008' as chapter 6 of 17
PrintPublication may be found at the address http://www.bibliotekogmedier.dk/fileadmin/publikationer/publikationer_engelske/deff/annualreport_2008/index.htm
© 2009