The Boston College Libraries, LogiInfo and Contextual Delivery of Library Services

Once again, this is my first post in quite a long time. But I've been busy. I think I will keep a sporadic log here of the ways in which we develop new Web services at the Boston College Libraries, using a combination of LogiInfo, Java Web apps, Web services, Perl CGI, Ajax, perhaps some ASP.NET and, frankly, whatever else works.


We are calling this endeavor the Aerie Project. The purpose of the project is simple and open-ended: to create a framework/(dare I say it?) portal/dashboard/iLibrary to deliver online library services that take into account the student/faculty/staff member's context - and to decouple these services from the Aerie framework and reuse them in other environments to meet the library's overall service goals. Simple, right? Everyone's doing it. Web/Library 2.0 and all.


For me, one of the inspirations for this project was Lorcan Dempsy's 2003 article The Recombinant Library. In it, Dempsy presents an excellent distillation of the development of information "portals" and the problems they are meant to address, as well as some of the problems such portals themselves present. With much foresight, he muses on the possibilities presented by decoupling services from specific library systems and making them available in other contexts - for example, in course management systems or campus portals/intranets.


He says, "The major development issue facing libraries today is how to create a network environment which is rich in services and which meshes with user behavior in useful and convenient ways."


Indeed. That is it in a nutshell, and, despite the fact that Dempsy's article is more than five years old, this contention still holds true.


The difference, perhaps, is that we - people, not just librarians - are much, much more aware of the novel ways that decoupled, granular data services can be combined and reused. Think mashups, etc. When Dempsy was writing in 2003, Web Services were, of course, just emerging.


In any case, when I first read the article, the conceptual framework Dempsy provided really helped me to begin to think coherently (I hope) about possible ways to provide richer, more flexible, services that can be woven into user behavior more easily.


If you think about it, we - as a University Library - actually know a hell of a lot about our users. Not only do we know what books they have checked-out (now and in the past), we know their current schedule, their major(s)/minor(s), what degree(s) they are pursuing, where they are from, where they currently live, what events are going on in their department/major area of study. If I took the time to think some more I could probably come up with a lot more stuff we know (or can infer).


So, what do we do with all of this juicy info?


This is just the first set of thoughts and ideas. There is a lot more...