Notes from a talk I attended …
Speaker: Marshall Breeding
Current State of the Industry:
Check out Marshall’s Library Technology Guides (www.librarytechnology.org) – great info on who is using what ILS systems, what libraries switched ILS systems, etc.
Most used ILS software in the world: Isis ??? never heard of it! Marshall’s point – there’s a lot happening in the global ILS industry that we don’t really know about in the US
Horizon is next to last on the list of “how satisfied is your library with your current ILS system?” – Great – that’s what we have!
Marshall does say take those stats with a grain of salt – people on both ends of the spectrum respond, people int he middle don.t That said, he’s gotten over 2000 responses to his survey.
Observations from his 2009 Perceptions report:
– small libraries generally receive higher perception scores.
– Companies supporting proprietary ILS products receive higher satisfaction scores than companies involved with open source ILS systems
Discovery Platforms are mattering a lot more right now – that’s what our patrons see, so libraries want to spruce those up.
Library users in transition:
they don’t want help in the beginning anymore.
Tech in transition – web-based, cloud-based is the new thing. Client/server is the old thing. Local computing is shifting to cloud platforms.
Full spectrum of devices – mobile, web, tablet, etc…
Evolutionary Path: ILS systems are slowly evolving – they are wrapping their legacy code in APIs and Web services
Revolutionary Path: Ex Libris URM, Kuali OLE, WorldCat Management System
What does it mean to be open?
Interestingly, open source systems generally run behind proprietary systems in terms of customer-facing APIs… which makes sense. Smaller libraries are using the open source system, larger libraries with complex problems are using the proprietary systems.
Cool – he has a table showing what discovery layers work with what systems – http://www.librarytechnology.org/discovery.pl?SID=20100413922332763