LTS Collaborates in
Mellon Funded Library Project
A $475,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to the
Duke University Libraries and its multi-national project
partners, including Lehigh University, will lead to the
design of a next-generation, open-source library system.
The goal of the project,
known as Open Library Environment (OLE) Project, is to
develop a service-oriented architecture (SOA) design
document for library automation technology that will be
flexible and customizable enough to meet the changing and
complex needs of 21st-century libraries and library users.
Vice Provost for Library
and Technology Services Bruce M. Taggart noted that, “This
is a very significant project in terms of the service and
management of the emerging electronic library. It also
constitutes recognition, at an international level, of
Lehigh University’s library – the quality of its staff and
its vision for the future.
Open source is becoming
increasingly important in the academic world and it’s
exciting for Lehigh to be among a select group of
institutions comprising the original design group.”
Library and Technology
Services’ Senior Systems Specialist Timothy McGeary, ’99,
‘06G and Catalog Librarian Doreen Herold will serve as
project leaders along with appointees from the other core
partners.
In addition to Duke and Lehigh Universities, the core
partner institutions are: Vanderbilt University, University
of Kansas, University of Pennsylvania, the National Library
of Australia, and the Library and Archives of Canada.
Other advisory partner
institutions include the Orbis Cascade Alliance, Rutgers
University, the University of Florida, the University of
Chicago, Columbia University, the University of Maryland and
Whittier College.
Concurrent with the
development of a design document, funded by the grant, the
OLE Project intends to create a community of interest that
could be tapped to build the planned system in a follow-on
project.
The project website at
http://oleproject.org
gives detailed information about the project.
--Susan A. Cady
LTS Director for Administrative and Planning Services
Article posted September
12,
2008
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