Library Technology Guides

The latest Automation Marketplace feature I authored has been published in the April 1 issue of Library Journal. This year's version, titled "The New Frontier: The battle intensifies to win hearts, minds, and tech dollars" highlights the major activities of the companies involved in producing library automation software and describes some of the major trends that played out in 2010.

This year marks the 9th year I've written this report on the industry:

• 2011: New Frontier: battle intensifies to win hearts, minds and tech dollars
• 2010: New Models, Core Systems
• 2009: Investing in the Future
• 2008: Opportunity out of turmoil
• 2007: An industry redefined
• 2006: Reshuffling the deck
• 2005: Gradual evolution
• 2004: Migration down, innovation up
• 2003: The competition heats up
• 2002: Capturing the migrating customer

This year witnessed a new phase of competition following a period of research and development that aimed to provide alternatives to libraries, both in back-end automation and end user discovery. A variety of new solutions have emerged, often representing quite different conceptual models. In a continued trend, librarians seek solutions that immediately improve the experiences of their users, especially via discovery products; meanwhile, the number of complete integrated library system (ILS) replacements declined again this year. ...continue reading

Marshall Breeding Apr 4, 2011 09:01:32 Link to this thread