LTS Newsletter: May 2024

Library Technology Services, Harvard Library

Welcome to Library Technology Service’s occasional newsletter for anyone interested in Harvard Library IT.

Reimagining Discovery Project Launch

As the academic year winds down, conference season is in full swing, presenting invaluable opportunities for learning and sharing within our professional community. Library Technology Services (LTS) is deeply committed to both gaining insights from our peers and contributing our own knowledge to the broader library and technology landscape. Reflecting the Harvard Library values of "Lead with Curiosity" and "Seek Collaboration," LTS staff have been actively participating in various conferences, showcasing our work, and engaging in fruitful discussions that drive innovation and excellence in library services.

We are excited to announce the launch of the Reimagining Discovery Project, a transformative initiative aimed at enhancing access to Harvard's distinctive collections. This project will unify various discovery platforms into a single, user-friendly environment, making it easier for researchers, students, and the global community to discover our unique resources.

A key component of this initiative is an emerging collaboration with the AI startup Mozilla.ai, which has just begun. Together, we will explore the potential of generative AI and natural language chat interfaces to revolutionize the discovery process. This partnership aligns with our goal to leverage cutting-edge technologies to enrich user experience and accessibility.

We are assembling a diverse team including staff from LTS and the Harvard Library as well as a student representative, and will actively engage with staff and stakeholders throughout this multi-year project. Regular updates and opportunities for feedback will ensure the project's success and alignment with the needs of our community.

For more information and updates, visit our project website. We look forward to working together to make Harvard's collections more accessible and discoverable for everyone.

Aviary Work with AVP

LTS is currently embarking on a strategic initiative to scale up and redesign audiovisual infrastructure and delivery for Harvard Library systems to increase access to time-based media collections. Between 2021 - 2023 LTS and Harvard Library conducted a pilot project to explore the feasibility of Aviary, a hosted solution supported by AVP, as a potential platform for delivery of audiovisual content. Based on the results of the pilot, LTS and AVP have been working together to enhance Aviary to provide a robust and accessible platform for delivery of audiovisual content to Harvard Library’s users. AVP is performing the first phase of development work, which includes feature enhancements to the transcript and index players and editors.

This summer, LTS and AVP will begin the second phase of this project to provide critical functionality to integrate Aviary with Harvard’s systems. This work will focus on the delivery of existing digital content from Harvard’s Digital Repository System, including streaming of Harvard audio playlists and standalone audio and video. This phase will lay the groundwork for a modernized and streamlined infrastructure pipeline for delivery of Harvard’s audiovisual collections.

LTS Portfolio Teams

In its efforts to support key service areas for Harvard Library, LTS has organized the complete range of applications, systems, and services it manages into product portfolios, bringing staff from across the department together to focus on them. Among several benefits, this update will improve how work is organized and communicated to partners in the Library. The teams are briefly described below:

The Data & Infrastructure Portfolio team focuses on how digital materials are brought in by the Library and its partners to store, transform, and share. This includes services like ePADD for email archiving and LibraryCloud for metadata access.

The DevSecOps Portfolio team concentrates on internal processes, implementing automation wherever possible, expediting and improving how application changes are delivered to production, and ensuring reliability and efficiency.

The LTS Discovery Portfolio team is responsible for a suite of products that enable the exploration and reuse of Harvard’s collections for researchers around the globe. Applications in this portfolio include CURIOSity for showcasing digital collections and HOLLIS for Archival Discovery.

The Library Management Portfolio team handles the products that track Harvard’s physical and electronic holdings, its acquisitions and cataloging of new content, provide user access to these collections, and provides front-line support service for all library users. Examples here include the Alma library platform, EzProxy for electronic access, and Leganto for course materials support.

LTS Staff

Welcome

We are delighted to welcome Carolyn Caizzi to the LTS team. Carolyn is joining us to fill the role of Senior IT Project Manager for the Reimagining Discovery project. Carolyn comes to this role with an exceptional knowledge base gained from leading library development initiatives at University of Denver, Yale, and Northwestern. Her project experience spans digital asset management, preservation, repositories, research data, and forays into semantic search using RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation).

We are thrilled to report that Avery Clements has joined LTS as our new Production Systems Librarian. Avery will spend the next few months shadowing our current support team, learning about our systems and support workflows, and will soon take part in the triage duty rotation. Avery most recently worked at CLAMS (Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing) where she provided support to member libraries for ILS, etc, trained staff on ILL workflows, and created and maintained SQL reports for library staff.

Job Listing

Opening: Digital Library Data Engineer