I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library

October 29, 2008 3:19 AM

Please point me to resources that will help me learn about libraries, library software and IT as it applies to libraries (OPAC, etc.).

Hello most esteemed MeFite librarians!

An awesome opportunity which would allow me to combine my interest in libraries (thanks MeFi!) with my experience and skills in software engineering has come my way.

I have an interview with a major European maker of library management software in early November. The position is project leader, responsible for a team developing web-based library software. My guess is that my team would be responsible for developing OPAC (textual-based and/or graphical) applications, but details are sparse.

I'm interested in learning about existing software applications, new trends and also finding places where librarians hang out to talk about these and other library-related topics. Can you point me in the right direction(s) so I can educate myself about your (super sexy) profession?

posted by syzygy to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Planet code4lib is an aggregator of library and code topics. The IRC channel #code4lib on freenode will hook you in, too.

The business end is pretty well covered at Library Technology.
posted by vautrin at 4:00 AM on October 29, 2008

Have you tried volunteering at a library? You also want to go to conferences like Access in Canada.
posted by QIbHom at 6:52 AM on October 29, 2008

Secondig code4lib and the IRC channel -- that'll get you an education right quick. Also conferences -- Canada's Access is a great one but there are plenty more -- Internet Librarian, CNI, ALA. These are North American though, so you might be more comfortable sticking at home.
posted by the dief at 7:16 AM on October 29, 2008

I used to work in IT for a library consortium in New York state. The source I always used to learn about library software and technology was the annual Computers in Libraries conference. Check to see if they make any proceedings available, or if maybe any presenters put their stuff on SlideShare or similar.
posted by ImproviseOrDie at 10:42 AM on October 29, 2008

Thanks for the suggestions.

Re: Volunteering. Good idea, and one that I will consider if and when I get the gig. I'll have to see what kinds of opportunities there are to volunteer in Austrian public libraries.

Re: Conferences. Also a good idea, but one that is also probably farther down the road.

vautrin: Thanks for the links. They've led me to some other interesting resources already (i.e. DLF ILS Discovery Interfaces, Infonatives).

Any other suggestions? What's missing in today's crop of OPACs / graphical OPACs, library web sites?
posted by syzygy at 2:24 AM on November 3, 2008

Because you mention that you'll likely be working on web-based OPAC-type apps, you may want to have a look through the archives of the Next Generation Catalogs for Libraries list. If you do a library literature search for "Next Generation OPAC" you'll find many articles that cover the shortcomings of traditional OPACs and the current development landscape. There are lots of overviews available online, too.
posted by alb at 10:03 AM on November 6, 2008