Let's be realistic here, many of us who are an III sites didn't arrive here
until LONG after the decision was made on an ILS. Given how much flux
libraries are in today it is very realistic for a library to shift
priorities and go from few or no developers to a reasonable development
staff. This is what has happened at UH.

The basic fact is that the needs of libraries and their users change over
time. An ILS vendor should be flexible enough to respect this fact.
Otherwise libraries are put in the situation of having to choose to
undertake a ILS migration (which having been through one is a trying
experience at best) or not be able to adequately meet their users needs.

Karen

On 5/15/08 3:38 PM, "Bob Duncan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> At 12:57 PM 05/15/2008, David wrote:
>> . . .
>> Of course, empowering developers, or their customers in general, is not
>> in the III business model, so I don't think we can expect much from
>> them.
>
>
> I think that III is very much into empowering their customers, but
> their customers are libraries, and the bulk of Innovative libraries
> don't have access to developers, and may not actually need any of the
> enhancements that a talented developer might provide.  To most III
> libraries, customer empowerment comes in the form of being relieved
> of having to worry about the nuts and bolts management aspects of the
> ILS so we can concentrate on providing good services to library
> users.  The III turnkey systems that are derided by coders/developers
> actually make a lot of sense to libraries that have no real systems
> staff.  And to many of those libraries it makes more sense for III to
> spend development efforts on tools that address a specific need than
> to spend it on general purpose tools that require someone with the
> imagination and creativity to put them to good use.  If you don't
> know how to cook and you can't hire someone who does, that hot dog
> cooker comes in pretty darn handy when all you want is hot dogs.
>
> Note that there are things about the III system that drive me nuts,
> an SOA model would be nice, and I understand the frustration that
> folks on a list like this feel when they come up against the closed
> aspects of a III turnkey arrangement.  But if you're a
> coder/developer who feels constrained by it and/or the system's lack
> of interoperability with other tools, might I suggest that the bad
> guy is not III, but whomever signed on the dotted line to purchase a
> system that doesn't meet the needs of your library.
>
> Bob Duncan
>
>
> ~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
> Robert E. Duncan
> Systems Librarian
> Editor of IT Communications
> Lafayette College
> Easton, PA  18042
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.library.lafayette.edu/

--
Karen A. Coombs
Head of Libraries' Web Services
University of Houston
114 University Libraries
Houston, TX  77204-2000
Phone: (713) 743-3713
Fax: (713) 743-9811
Email: [log in to unmask]