Jonathan,

That is a very good point and one that we have considered.  The 
workshops will both seek current practices as well as what each module 
workflow SHOULD be if not limited by poor technology.

What we obviously need is not "I click this button in {Millenium, 
Voyager, Aleph, Unicorn, Horizon, etc} then this button..." but rather 
"User brings book to desk, book is scanned, user card is scanned, ... , 
I hand book back to user, user exits building, but armed guards jump out 
because I forgot to demagnetize the book."  Ok, maybe not quite like 
that...  ;)

We expect diversity of workflows, but within that we also expect core 
services to become apparent.  We'll see if our expectations are accurate 
in the next few months.

Tim

Tim McGeary
Senior Systems Specialist
Lehigh University
610-758-4998
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Google Talk: timmcgeary
Yahoo IM: timmcgeary

Jonathan Rochkind wrote:
> I have to admit that I worry that too many of our libraries business
> processes as currently practiced are completely irrational and
> nonsensical, and that to model new requirements or systems off of
> them all aggregated and averaged out... may not be optimal.
> 
> Certainly, you have to collect evidence about business process needs
> somehow.
> 
> But how many of us have experienced library workflow that actually
> makes sense, instead of being habits built over years of having to do
> weird workarounds to work with systems that unreasonably constrained
> us, built on top of each other layer upon layer, combined in
> organizations siloed off so the right hand doesn't know what the left
> is doing, sprinkle on top the natural inclination of most people to
> be creatures of habit who don't like changing their workflow unless
> forced---with the result that I'm not even sure we know what makes
> sense anymore.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> 
>>>> Tim McGeary <[log in to unmask]> 11/13/08 3:43 PM >>>
> John Fereira wrote:
>> Tim McGeary wrote:
>>> The Open Library Environment (OLE, pronounced oh-lay) Project
>>> invites you to apply to participate in a two day Regional Design
>>> Workshop. The purpose of this workshop is to provide a forum for
>>> representatives of local research libraries and related
>>> institutions to discuss our work surrounding the current
>>> Integrated Library System and ideas on what this type of core
>>> system should incorporate.  Workshops are being held in a variety
>>> of locations in the US over the next 2 months. For more 
>>> information and to find a location near you, go to: 
>>> http://oleproject.org/workshops.
>> That's quite a collection of workshops schedule.  I've been
>> interested in the project since John Little first mentioned it
>> here.  On behalf of the Spring 2008 JA-SIG conference committee I
>> invited him (and he accepted) to do a birds of a feather session at
>> the conference.  There are some things that I am working on that I
>> think may fit well with the project (I was also a developer for a
>> piece of Kuali Rice, so I know some of the Indiana folks) but I
>> can't really tell from the number of workshops how the will
>> inter-relate.  Since there were a few dates where there are
>> simultaneous workshops in different cities it would seem to me that
>> some sort of video conference and a real time collaborative system
>>  (we used Macromedia Breeze for the Kuali project with developers
>> at Cornell and Indiana) would be useful.
>> 
>> With the current economy I know that travel budgets are undergoing
>> a lot of scrutiny (I've even heard of a very large university
>> system out west that may be halting all business travel for awhile)
>> attending even one of the workshops may be problematic.
> 
> John,
> 
> I hear you about the travel elements of this.  That is why this
> process will not just be closed off to these workshops.  We are
> hoping to have enough workshops to gather a wide range of business
> processes that we can sift through to find commonalities to model the
> core business practices.  On top of that, we will model the
> differences so that flexibility can be built into the OLE
> architecture.
> 
> There will be plenty of time and opportunities for public comment on
> the data gathered at the workshops and the models as they are
> completed before the architecture stage is complete.  So if you, or
> anyone, cannot attend a workshop, there will still be opportunity for
> comment, and we want and need it!
> 
> Thank you for your interest - and please encourage others who show 
> interest to participate in any way that they can.
> 
> Cheers, Tim -- Tim McGeary Senior Systems Specialist Lehigh
> University 610-758-4998 [log in to unmask] Google Talk:
> timmcgeary Yahoo IM: timmcgeary
>