Web services in Libraries

A couple of documents have been floating around in the past few days that give me hope that someday I will understand where the library world might be able to go with Web Services and Service Oriented Architecture.

Links are here so that I can absorb them again on a day when the brain is less clouded.

Disruptive Library Technology Jester has a really interesting series of posts on SOA. His analogy of a transportation system is a really useful one, I think.

• Defining “Service Oriented Architecture” by analogy
• Services in a service oriented architecture
• The Dis-integration of the ILS into a SOA Environment

As well, there’s a NISO report on “Best practices for designing Web Services in the library context.” Mm-mm. Niso-ey goodness.