Kochtanel and Matthews (2002). Chapter 1. The evolution of LIS and enabling technologies. Library Information Systems, pp. 3-12.

Summary

This article traces the history of library information systems (LIS) beginning all the way back in the 1930s. Kochtanel and Matthews highlight many of the technological developments over the last 70 years and try to distinguish between different periods: the host centric period, the network centric period, and the end user centric period. These defined eras of computing in libraries take us from punch cards and the automation of circulation services to use of the internet for researching and accessing a wide-range of library services and offerings. As a young person who never experienced punchcards and mainframes, it is interesting to see this development traced over much of the 20th century. The authors also include some predictions for the future, which they believe will include a further emphasis on digital resources and greater use of the internet. Almost ten years later, and it seems like they were right.

What I learned

This article provided a lot of historical context for much of the library technology I am familiar with today. It is also nice to see an even-handed approach to the intersection of libraries and technology instead of a focus on the demise of libraries or some justification for the future of libraries. This was just a factual article providing background.

I thought Kochtanel and Matthews did a nice job of speculating on future developments briefly without throwing out outlandish or impossible future possibilities. On page 11, there is a discussion of how users want an integrated single application from which they can access a variety of resources instead of having to navigate any number of separate systems and databases. I think this is something we see more and more of now. Aggregators are very popular and one of the greatest benefits of Google is its single search box that provides results from a vast number of different locations/resources. Page 11 further goes on to mention that users "are more interested in accessing information from distributed locations, any time of the day, any day of the week." I think this statement in particular foresees the development of and reliance on cloud computing. Users do want to be able to access their information from a variety of locations at any time, and storing data in the cloud is one way to make that happen.

What I am taking away from this article

Technology, both generally and in libraries specifically, has come a long way, and I am lucky enough to be living in the current day where so much information is immediately at our fingertips.

Discussion question

On page 7, they authors write, "Today's applications of technology in libraries are more focused on information content and the end user and, as such, support the user directly in his or her quest to identify information resources, some of which are now encoded digitally. Yes, these applications still rely on technology as a tool (but not an end unto itself)." In the years since this article was published, do you think we've moved more toward using technology as an end unto itself? And what does that even mean?