Presented at CONUL conference, June 2016, Athlone, Ireland by Dermot Frost.

1. Why the Library needs IT, and maybe vice-versa
Dermot Frost
Trinity College Dublin
The Big Question
Is it sustainable, affordable, compliant, feasible or desirable to sustain an IT environment entirely in-house
in the Library any more?
Sub-question: do IT benefit from working with the Library?
In the beginning
Way back in the dawn of computing, libraries were among the first to see the benefits that the digital
environment had to offer. Catalogues and lending systems were quickly computerized, often with home grown
or community developed systems. In-house Library IT carved out its own niche and happily serviced the needs
of its users. Central IT saw a self-sufficient community and was happy to leave well enough alone in order to
concentrate efforts on the network, finance, HR and other systems.
Over time IT moved on from the world of standalone servers under the desk, to virtualized platforms, complete
with security policies, centralized authentication systems, and a wide range of access devices from desktops to
tablets to phones. The user community also evolved, demanding seemless integration between systems that
are always available, not just during office hours.
Current practice
In Trinity, the Library and IT have learned, over time, that they are not so different. Both want to provide a
quality service to staff and students alike. Both also want to protect the reputation of the institution and so
avoid awkward issues like data breaches or licensing disputes. Finally, in the current economic environment,
both want to see resources put to best use. This meeting of minds has led to many fruitful collaborations
between the Library and IT, some of which are outlined in this poster.
The common theme in each of these projects is the recognition of specific skills that exist in each area. IT
Services brings a wealth of experience of building complex compute and storage systems and running these
services in a high-availability, always on environment. The Library brings domain expertise on the specific
application, allowing them to set the high level requirements and strategic without having to worry about the
low level implementation details.
The Big Answer
Like all strawman questions, the answer is ’it depends’. However, it is clear that the best outcomes happen
when the groups work together rather than in competition. IT has become too complex to work reliably
without at least some expert TLC once in a while.
The second question is also a mixed answer, echoing the first. The problems the Library bring to IT to solve
are often the most challenging to solve. The Library often also has the benefit of appearing prominently in
the University’s strategic plan, whereas IT is seen as an enabling service, so collaboration can allow IT to
bask in the Library’s reflective glow.
Library Management System
The most public facing library system is the
online catalogue and collection management
system. For several decades now IT and the
Library have collaborated in running this service
in Trinity.
The current Trinity LIMS is provided by
Innovative and was originally installed in 2009.
The Library led this process, developing the
requirement and managing the procurement.
IT was engaged to provide the hardware and
operating system level support for the LIMS. An
upgrade in 2013 saw Library and IT work closely
together to migrate the service to a virtualized
platform in Trinity’s new data centre.
Research Support System
The CRIS system in Trinity is called the Research
Support System (RSS). It provides a single place
where researchers register their research outputs
and invites them to deposit works in TARA,
Trinity’s institutional repository. The data in the
system is then used to build researcher and school
profiles and help with reporting on activities to
funding agencies and other interested parties.
The Library, as owners of RSS, provide the
direction for the development of the system. New
features are requested, improvements suggested
and old services marked for retirement. However,
the development is carried out entirely within IT
Services, allowing the system to leverage existing
expertise in databases and systems integration.
Digital Collections
Trinity’s digital collections are housed in Ireland’s
oldest Fedora Commons installation. In 2009, the
Library engaged with the then High Performance
Computing Centre to develop a robust and
scalable platform to host the repository. The
resultant environment based on IBM’s General
Parallel File System and the KVM virtualization
system has managed the growth of the repository
to almost 120,000 objects and several hundred
terabytes of high resolution images.
In this case, the development of the Fedora
front-end was retained by the Library, with
TCHPC managing the preservation environment
as well as the high-availability components such
as the SOLR search engine.
Digital Repository of Ireland
The DRI is Ireland’s national, trusted digital
repository for humanities and social science data.
Funded by the HEA’s PRTLI programme, the
repository was developed with input from all
stakeholders: IT, library, academia, cultural
heritage.
By leveraging existing expertise in the various
institutions, DRI was able to move from a green
field site to a repository with the Data Seal of
Approval within a short period of time. While
the initial project has now finished, the repository
has secured long term core funding which
continues the collaboration between technical,
administrative and data experts.
Thanks to Geoff Bradley, Kevin Kiely, Sheila Dunphy in IT Services and Arlene
Healy, Tim Keefe and Niamh Brennan in the Library for their input into the contents
of this poster. All opinions and innacuracies are entirely my own.