Top library technology related issues in UK Higher Education?

Looking at the HELibTech page view statistics the following issues are the most viewed pages:
Shared Services
Discovery
E-books

Ken

Ken Chad Consulting Ltd,

Tel +44 (0)7788 727 845. Email: ken@kenchadconsulting.com  www.kenchadconsulting.com

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E-Textbook provision - New opportunities for libraries to get involved

I have added a short piece on a new initiative by publishers and vendors in the area of e-textbooks. They are approaching faculty directly at present. I have added a link to an article by a University of Leeds on this subject.

Discovery Services - Code of Practice

Information obtained from the NFAIS "Code of Practice: Discovery Services Review of Draft":

The National Federation of Adanced Information Services (NFAIS™) is releasing a draft Discovery Service Code of Practice for review and comment by March 16, 2012:

http://info.nfais.org/info/codedraftintroduction.pdf

NFAIS is inviting all members of the information community to review the draft and submit questions and comments for consideration by the Code Development Task Force. Are there other issues to be considered? Who do they impact? What solutions should be considered? All comments are welcome and can be submitted online at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RV257LM.

Discovery Tools

The HELIBTECH wiki now links to Discovery Tool product pages from the main Discovery section: http://helibtech.com/Discovery
Topics covered include: vendor information, key features, a list of known customers, and links to further reading. These pages give an overview of Discovery Tools and should help with product comparison. Included within this section are:

• AquaBrowser
• Blacklight
• Ebsco Discovery Service
• Encore
• Endeca
• FAST
• Primo
• Summon
• VuFind
• WorldCat Local
• XC

If you are using a Discovery Tool and you would like to be added to the customer list or to would like us to link to information you think may be relevant then please get in contact (tweet @helibtech is the easiest way).

Mobile infrastructure and services for libraries

I just came across this list of JISC projects which have just started under the "Mobile Infrastructure for Libraries programme" and will be worth following in order to expand the section on "Mobile computing".

Mobile Infrastructure for Libraries – New Projects

In fact, "mobile computing" it's probably too narrow a label, maybe could take the JISC wording and relabel to "mobile infrastructure" or "mobile technology".

EPUB 3

I have added a link to an Online slide presentation from one of the seminars at Online Information 2011 by Sandeep Dhawan, Head of Business Development & Delivery, Datamatics Thinking and planning the EPUB3 way on the possibilities that EPUB opens up for academic publishing. This should finally encourage a synergie between STM content and the e-reader.

Next-Gen Catalogue User Experiences

I recently attended the ChrisMash library event in London. One of the speakers was Andrew Preater from Senate House Libraries who spoke on users' experiences of next-gen catalogues. When deciding on purchasing library technologies, sometimes the user experience can be overshadowed by specifications, cost, or technical issues. Andrew reminds us that library users should be uppermost in our minds when selecting new technology.

Andrew has written a blog post entitled toward ethnographies of the next gen catalogue user which summarises the findings of his research in this field.

Further reading:
ChrisMash presentation

MSc dissertation