Library alchemy – transforming digital information into physical

This is my first attempt at putting digital information out into the physical library.

Many students go straight to the bookshelves when they want information. Completely bypassing the computers with millions of relevant articles and books that we librarians have cunningly placed conveniently obstructing their way into the library.

By putting a touchscreen (Asus EEE Top) where the books are I hope that they might discover all that is available in digital format as well. The screen shows an article on the subject that is on this shelf, the Falklands war of 1982.

I have set up a netvibes page with preconfigured searches in RSS and some useful pages on the subject. By touching the screen the students can access articles and webpages directly.
There is a printer at the end of the bookshelf so they can print out anything interesting they find.

Needless to say, this is all very experimental and beta. I must solve a lot of small issues before school starts in august. Security, navigation and automatic reset are some that I have discovered just today.  I have not solved the issue on integrating my library OPAC into the netvibes page, but on the other hand, when you are at the correct section, who needs the OPAC to see what books are in? But I am really happy with how this worked out so far.

Heart of Gold in Bergen

Just passed this on the way to work this morning and could not resist posting. What a wonderful reminder of all the great imagination and creativity the human mind is capable of. One thing is this ship which really defies most conventional shipbuilding ideas, but the other is the reminder of Douglas Adams fertile imagination and the wonderful improbability drive starship Heart of Gold which this reminded us of. My wife and I giggled when we saw it and she said “Heart of  Gold” almost immediately. I’m so lucky to be married to a woman who can make such connections!

To host or not to host, that is the question

Just a few days into the process of moving from one ILS to another I discover that another library in California is a bit further along the same way that I am now on. Great to know I’m not alone.

One question that came up on the Koha migration blog yesterday was one we also had to consider when we decided to move to Koha. Should we host the ILS at our vendor, or should we keep the system in-house?

We had one of our IT-persons with us during the discussion of this issue, and fortunately, I’m happy to say, our IT-person was completely open to the idea that our vendor could access and trouble-shoot on the in-house server. The deciding factor from our point of view was that the price for hosting and in-house was the same, and  lightening the load for our IT-people is a high priority for me. So we go for the hosted solution, but always with the option to move to one of our servers if we want. This is the preferable solution for our vendor as it simplifies upgrading and control of multiple installations.

It will be interesting to see which type of libraries migrate to Koha here in Norway. My prediction is that secondary education libraries and small academic and special libraries will lead the way. Most of these libraries will probably prefer a hosted solution if the price is right:-)