Along with collections, services have a significant role in defining libraries. We can conceptualize services as transactions between a library entity and its users. We can also conceptualize services as transactions between a library entity and other library or information service entities; also as transactions between subsystems of a library entity. In a networked environment populated by humans and by computers, we can envision services as interchanges among a variety of nodes of either human or computer types.
We can envision a transformation of our resources and tools by reconceptualizing them into data, services, and workflow. We can create methods to expose this data by developing interfaces that provide services between resources and/or agents on the network. Popular examples of this concept are appearing as mash-ups around the Internet. They are constructed around the use of Web services and provide relatively simple illustrations of a more comprehensive approach known as service-oriented architecture (SOA).
This article probes the feasibility of viewing libraries and their services as components that may be inter-connected to build dynamic and flexible systems. The investigation begins by establishing some similarities among approaches that model and implement systems that deal with things and their relationships. This will provide the context for decomposing large-scale operations into smaller, discrete units and will demonstrate how these units can interact. Subsequent discussion will review some intellectual work that models libraries as collections of services; will review some example cases where this concept is implemented; and will provide some introduction to Web services, SOA, and related enabling technologies.
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