Simpatico With Ones and Zeros

Computers in Libraries, Sep 2009 by Kaser, Dick

It's all about data this month. Data storage. Data protection. Data mining. Linked data. Data on pricing. Data on licensing. Backing up data and archiving data -based stuff.

When we looked at it all together, all we could say was, wow! Data are cool.

One of the most timely pieces in this issue is by Stephanie Buck, a graduate student at Simmons College, whose article takes you on a quick tour of popular web services sites, suggesting that you seriously consider using these "cloud computing" destinations for both basic computer applications support in your library and economical off- site data storage. IT on a dime? Maybe even less.

Thumb the issue and you'll find plenty of other useful tips for managing the challenges that IT professionals in libraries face every day, including avoiding data loss from PC crashes.

In this issue, we've also followed up on a story we published exactly a year ago on managing license data using an open source electronic resource management (ERM) solution, now called, cleverly enough, ERMes. A year ago, the authors wrote about how they had developed this solution as a means of managing 200 database licenses at their library, announced that they were making the solution publicly available, and invited other libraries to use it (for free, of course). Between then and now, 19 libraries have adopted it. Maybe you'd like to check it out too.

Author Amber Woodard from Cumberland University was a particularly good sport when, after viewing her proposal on "digital library makeovers," we asked if she would be willing to let the world watch as she attempted, in her own words, to move her library from "Zero to 2.0." As she works over the next several months to make the big leap, we'll be monitoring her progress here. In Part 1 of the narrative, she describes her goals and strategy.

Dick Kaser, Executive Editor

kaser@infotoday.com