ERPs for Non-Profit Organizations

Reading this week's articles, I could help but think about the limited experience that I've had with Integrated Library Systems. Is an ILS the library world's version of an ERP? It seems to incorporate many similar modules in the "Anatomy of an Enterprise System" depicted by Thomas Davenport (1998, 124). It includes reporting applications, financial applications, inventory and supply applications...as far as I know, our ILS at TCCL doesn't have any human resource management functions, but I can imagine that some might, some day.

Making connections to past semesters...

Reading the chapter for this week, I recalled building a database for LIS 5003: Information Systems and Networks...I was surprised when the chapter implied that the normalization step comes so late in the data modeling. From what I remember, that should be done as soon as possible, to ensure stability of the database.

I think the difference in perception is because we were building a database from information we had at hand, to suit our own purposes. We were designing it with an organization in mind, but we didn't actually have to bring together all the needs of multiple departments. To develop a large database that would serve the needs of several areas, the enterprise modeling and view integration would certainly be necessary. Though I don't remember calling it "view integration," that is essentially how we started building our database--we identified what the database would actually need to track and provide for the user, and then set about creating tables, fields, and relationships. Of course, we were careful to normalize as we started creating.

I thought the hands-on experience with the database was really excellent, though very difficult. The class may have created a monster, however. Toward the end of that semester, I was asked to take part in a small, state-wide group that was trying to identify what would be needed in a database built specifically for adult literacy programs. While other members were saying general things like "don't forget a place for assessments," I was itemizing all of the essential fields, the relationships that I thought would need to be made, and all the various reports that we might eventually want to create.

I also noticed the brief mention of XML as a way to access databases from the Web. XML is something I need to learn more about. I've recently added a couple books on the subject to my Amazon wishlist.

Thinking about the paper...

Well, of course I've been thinking about it for weeks. I knew that I'd really like to do something related to Library 2.0, but I wasn't quite sure how to tie it into IT management. Obviously, there is a connection, but I just wasn't really finding any published information.

Thank goodness, today I came across this blog: http://www.davidleeking.com/2006/08/27/davids-new-job/

David Lee King is/was the IT Director of the Kansas City Public Library. He just accepted a job as the "Digital Branch & Services Manager" at another library, which is all about bringing Library 2.0 to their services. So, obviously, Library 2.0 does have huge ramifications for IT Management, including the creation of new positions, or reassigning responsibilities to old ones.

When the IT manager is also the library director, children's librarian, and circulation clerk...

As I read “Information Technology and Restructuring in Public Organizations: Does Adoption of Information Technology Affect Organizational Structures, Communications, and Decision Making?” by Theresa Heintze and Stuart Bretschneider, I thought about so many of the smaller libraries and non-profits out there, struggling to keep working technology for their staff and customers. Through the MLIS program and through a state-wide literacy coalition, I have met so many people who wear the hat of "technology coordinator," though that is not their primary responsibility. How do these smaller groups manage their information technology? How do they manage to offer any new services, such as all of the exciting "Library 2.0" possibilities, when one person is in charge of IT, personnel, collections, fundraising, and shelving?

Fortunately, the Internet is full of geek-librarians who love to learn about technology, create nifty things, and then, being librarians, give the information away for free. In "Big Tech for Every Library," Sarah Houghton discusses how even the smallest library can create a snazzy online presence--for free--using EngagedPatrons.org . It may not run the Ethernet through the ceiling or install the wireless network, but it at least offers some web-presence solutions for those libraries strapped for staff, money, and time.

Work Cited:

Houghton, Sarah. 2006. Big tech for every library. Library Journal 131: 12-15. Available from Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, EBSCOhost (accessed September 5, 2006).