Dutch Libraries

Up to 2009 the IT services of the Dutch libraries were managed locally. This decentralized way of working caused a low rate of content reuse between local libraries, inhibited cooperation, and led to high costs.

In 2010 The Dutch Library Association started to work on a solution where local libraries could innovate independently or together in local innovation clusters, but would all use a shared infrastructure.
The goal of this infrastructure was to foster innovation, share knowledge, content and applications. Since innovation only happens on the fringes, the infrastructure needed to be extremely flexible and adaptable to local needs.

Solution

The architecture of this infrastructure is based around modern web standards and web components that can be re-used: widgets and gadgets. A central repository provides content services, video, social media interaction and storage for user generated content. The repository
gets its content directly from editors working in the system, and also from external systems using web-services and even content scraping. All content is aggregated and relationships are added automatically based on metadata standards like Dublin-Core.
Libraries can access all repository content from their local CMS instances, and use various technologies for local development. Standardized integration for Joomla and Drupal is provided, but since it’s fully accessible using a REST interface, custom technologies can connect seamlessly. Furthermore the infrastructure provides a set of standardized widgets to access central catalogue systems and CRM systems.
Content is easily reusable on iPad, website, RSS, external widgets, and mobile, by using classification and metadata search. The project was successful in enabling local development and innovation, based on known technologies, while at the same time lowering total costs and enhancing quality by supporting re-use of content and applications on a shared infrastructure.