http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2005/04/07/the-failure-of-middleware-part-7-oai-and-google-scholar/ A librarian, writer and educator reflecting on the profession and the tools we use to serve our patrons Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:11:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.3 http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2005/04/07/the-failure-of-middleware-part-7-oai-and-google-scholar/comment-page-1/#comment-1714 Meredith Sun, 10 Apr 2005 01:33:03 +0000 /?p=201#comment-1714 I agree that great things are being developed right now to make library middleware more user-centered. I've certainly been very impressed with many of OCLC's recent projects. But I think if we can't change librarians' thinking about searching and the catalog, it will be much more difficult to implement these great solutions. I know I can be cynical about vendors sometimes, but I do think we librarians share the blame for the lack of innovation. I agree that great things are being developed right now to make library middleware more user-centered. I’ve certainly been very impressed with many of OCLC’s recent projects. But I think if we can’t change librarians’ thinking about searching and the catalog, it will be much more difficult to implement these great solutions. I know I can be cynical about vendors sometimes, but I do think we librarians share the blame for the lack of innovation.

]]> http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2005/04/07/the-failure-of-middleware-part-7-oai-and-google-scholar/comment-page-1/#comment-1706 Eric Childress Thu, 07 Apr 2005 17:23:54 +0000 /?p=201#comment-1706 A very well-written and thoughtful series of posts. You mention RedLightGreen and OAIster as useful search channels, and I agree. But it should be pointed out that libraries are working to surface their resources to users through the search engines (OCLC's Open WorldCat, for example, http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open) and that libraries, local system vendors, and other library-related organizations are building and releasing web services/service-oriented architecture (SOA) offerings from RSS feeds to various modular components. In short, more and better middleware is arriving daily. Cheers, Eric. A very well-written and thoughtful series of posts. You mention RedLightGreen and OAIster as
useful search channels, and I agree. But it should be pointed out that libraries are working
to surface their resources to users through the search engines (OCLC’s Open WorldCat, for
example, http://www.oclc.org/worldcat/open) and that libraries, local system vendors, and
other library-related organizations are building and releasing web services/service-oriented
architecture (SOA) offerings from RSS feeds to various modular components. In short, more
and better middleware is arriving daily. Cheers, Eric.

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