If you’re trying to convince administrators to start a Twitter feed at your library, use the arguments presented here: The Five Worst Excuses for Not Using Twitter, posted on TwitTown. My guess is that the arguments against it that you hear at work mirror those written about here. The author is a true Twitter-lover, and the tone reflects that. As a non-Twitter-lover-but-still-a-Twitter-user, I still contend that Twitter can have a definite use in a library setting and an even more definite use for personal reasons (including using it as a channel to pass on links to your other work, be it writing/multimedia/etc.).
The library I work for, the San Jose Public Library, is currently recruiting for an Assistant Director. This position directly supervises my department, Digital Futures, among many other duties. You can read more about the position in the recruitment brochure. To learn more about the library, read through SJPL’s About Us web page, including some statistics, the library’s mission & values, and more.
Queens Borough Public Library has filed a huge lawsuit against Sirsi (technically the Dynxi Corporation they bought out). They complain that they put out an RFP and chose the Horizon Library automation system (from, at the time, Dynix) which was then bought out by Sirsi. Sirsi then, according to the complaint, did not fulfill the contract. You can read the full complaint here. Two excerpts follow to give you an idea:
1. This case involves a fraudulent bait and switch scheme by Defendants against not only the Queens Borough Public Library, the highest circulating library in the nation, but other libraries as well.
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7. After two years and spent millions of the Library’s dollars, Defendants announced that Dynix would not provide the promised software (in fact, no software was ever provided) and attempted to foist Sirsi Corp.’s previously rejected and technologically inferior software on the Library.
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9. Upon learning that Dynix and Sirsi Holdings would not, as they repeatedly promised, deliver the software the Library contracted for, the Library demanded that Dynix and Sirsi Holdings perform in accordance with the agreements. Dynix and Sirsi Holdings declined to do so.
I am very interested to hear how the negotiations go, but expect to see some courtroom drama. As this affects other libraries, not just Queens, and as Sirsi is a huge company with a reach into many library services, one can expect to see many Sirsi customers watching this very carefully.
For more info, see a Library Journal article by Josh Hadro.
found via Marshall Breeding’s LibraryTechnology.org
III’s CEO, Jerry Kline, is launching SkyRiveron Friday. SkyRiver is an alternative bibliographic utility, akin (and competition to) OCLC and LibLime’s ‡biblios.net. From the Library Journal story today:
A new company called SkyRiver has launched a bibliographic utility, directly challenging long-dominant OCLC. Over the last 18 years, strategic acquisitions by OCLC have narrowed competition, but SkyRiver—founded by Jerry Kline, the owner and co-founder of Innovative Interfaces—aims to expand the market and offer an alternative bibliographic utility for cataloging that could save libraries up to 40 percent off their expenditures for bibliographic services.
The product is stated as being open, and offering bibliographic records without many of the restrictions that the other products have. No information about pricing has been released. Speculation abounds about OCLC’s reaction to SkyRiver. So far we’ve had silence, but some anticipate a more vocal response after the launch date.
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