Talis, brittiläinen kirjastosoftatalo on aloittanut projektin, jolla toivoakseni on kauaskantoiset vaikutukset kirjastomaailmassa. Projektin tavoitteiksi on asetettu:

  • The key aim of Project Silkworm is to remove the theoretical, technical and cost barriers to building applications that share and use content.
  • To eradicate silos of content and widen access to library catalogues, holdings information, archives, institutional repositories and specialist databases.
  • To remove walls between different applications - enrich every application and have the widest possible participation.
  • To unleash creativity, value creation and provide users with the same quality experience they currently enjoy elsewhere.
  • To work with leading open source companies and collaborate with other library vendors to build web services applications to share and enrich a common value, and to foster a network effect to problem solving.
  • To centralise complexity into the platform components and hide it behind simple interfaces so removing complexity from application development.
  • To allow developers to work in a way they are most comfortable with, e.g. providing a range of protocols (e.g. REST, SRW, Z39.50, SOAP, UDDI) and language bindings (e.g. Java, .Net, PHP, Perl).

Ilmeisesti Taliksella on luettu edellisessä merkinnässä mainittu [OPAC Manifesto->http://www.librarian.net/opac/] ajatuksella läpi.

Projektin ensimmäinen julkaisu(PDF) on myös mielenkiintoista luettavaa.

The multiple silos of content in the library and information world, and the potentially high cost of exposing them, is preventing the creativity, value creation and fantastic user experiences that should be possible today.
Perhaps the greatest barrier to progress, then, is the paradigm shift that must take place in the library and information systems world. Instead of traditional isolationist approaches, itâ€TMs time for vendors to collaborate as partners rather than competitors.