The Interdependent Library System: Revisiting Human Aspects of Library Automation
VALA2024 KEYNOTE SESSION 04
Wednesday 10th July 2024, 4.15-5.15pm
Ruth Tillman
- Sally W. Kalin Early Career Librarian for Technological Innovations
- Penn State University
Presentation
Abstract
Once the star of the library technology circuit, the integrated library system (ILS) has long taken a back seat to emerging technologies—from the repositories of the late aughts to the AI of the mid-twenties. Yet the ILS is more than the origin of library automation; it still underlies the everyday work of a 21st century library.
In this presentation, Ruth considers the ILS as workspace and re-envision it as a system that is as fundamentally as human as it is technological. What can we learn by re-engaging with this apparently-monolithic and oft-monopolistic presence in our workplaces? She draws from the oral histories of Penn State’s homegrown ILS (1970s-1998) and her research into library systems maintenance and into the impacts of present-day ILS migration.
Biography
Ruth Kitchin Tillman works on discovery, the library catalog, and linked data projects at Penn State University Libraries. Her current research focuses on library systems and the people who use and maintain them. She has written and presented on metadata encoding standards, library discovery, linked data, institutional repositories, and labor issues in libraries.
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