[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Enriched Content

[drdata at molyneux.com]

George,

I also wrote Laura off list. Laura, apologies for the duplication.

PINES and Evergreen Indiana use Syndetics. I understood that Sitka was using
Content Cafe already. 

I had a conversation a few months ago with Dick Harte at BookLetters who told me
that his product would compete with these two products and he said he would like
to do a test in subsequent conversations. If anyone is interested, please contact
me at Equinox at the address below.

I have thought that consortial buying through Evergreen consortia would be a way
of improving the experience of users while also working towards what I have
called "Everything everywhere." Not very precise but short enough. I mean that
all of the human record should be available to anyone, anywhere. It will be a
long time coming but I think that is the goal we should be shooting for and we
are all in the first pioneering stages of this work. The goal is a worthy one.

Evergreen is a story that arises out of small public libraries and those small
libraries cannot afford "everything." When they band together, though, the
economics become more appealing to the Syndetics of the world and the small
libraries can get their enhanced content. 

I would include "free" advertising services like about.com and howstuffworks.com
also but that is a collection development question for the libraries and their
consortia.

Most states have Galileo type systems but not all but, obviously, I include such
content in my mental map of "everything."

In a political system that benefits from an informed citizenry, I think we can
work for no less than everything everywhere. And the enhanced content providers
are a first step.

Bob Molyneux
V.P. of Business Development
Equinox Software, Inc.
bob at esilibrary.com




>
>Laura, I'm glad you asked as I was interested in the same 
>kind of feedback, but haven't yet started looking at it much yet. 
>
> 
>I believe there are some Evergreen Sitka libraries that are 
>using or plan to use Baker & Taylor's Content Café (prices determined by 
>your circ stats), but our library hasn't any experience with any enrichment 
>services yet. Given the explosion of good quality free or lower cost services, 
>I'd like to see our library more fully exploit them first (e.g. 
>LibraryThing for Libraries, Google Books, OpenLibrary, etc.), but I'm curious to 
>check out Content Cafe and Syndetics since they have some advantages too. 
>
> 
>FYI, I will forward you off-list the info I just recieved 
>from B&T's Content Cafe.
> 
>George 
>Duimovich 
>NRCan 
>Library / Bibliothèque RNCan 
>(613) 996-2101 
> 
>
>
>
>From: 
>open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org 
>[mailto:open-ils-general-bounces at list.georgialibraries.org] On Behalf Of 
>Laura Sponhour
>Sent: January 20, 2009 12:27 PM
>To: 
>open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org
>Subject: [OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] 
>Enriched Content
>
>
>
>
>Hi, everybody.
> 
>Who do you use for enriched content? We’re using Syndetics 
>but are looking to compare vendors. Is anybody else using another vendor they 
>like?
> 
>Thank you!
> 
> 
>Laura 
>Sponhour
>SchoolRooms 
>Project Manager
>South 
>Carolina State Library
>POB 11469, 
>1500 Senate Street, Columbia SC 29211
>Phone: 
>803-734-8663 | Fax: 803-734-4757
>lsponhour at statelibrary.sc.gov
>www.statelibrary.sc.gov
>