Eric Schnell’s Introduction to Library SOA

Posted on Wednesday, October 17th, 2007, at 12:16 pm, and filed under Library SOA. Note: Hypertext links in the printed form of this document are marked with a superscript "L" plus a number. The number corresponds to the list of web addresses at the bottom of the document.

Back in June, Eric Schnell posted a five part introduction to applying Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) concepts to library applications. Along with his comparison of the predominant ILS architecture with Henry Ford’s application of assembly line manufacturing this is a great non-techie introduction to SOA form a library application perspective. I had reason to run across these again earlier this month and remembered that I had not posted a summary and pointers here.

Part 1 is an introduction with a brief overview of why SOA is interesting. Part 2 is a description of the silos of content that exist today which in part 3 Eric describes how the silos can be collapsed and the structure of services that surround them. Part 4 describes the challenges of doing this from the vendor lock-in that makes is financially not viable for SOA-based solutions to break into the space. In part 5 Eric offers some final comments on the introduction of SOA into library applications.

Well worth reading and bookmarking for future reference. Nice job, Eric!