Library Technology Guides

I'm been thinking lately about what a library automation system would look like today if we had the chance to start completely from scratch. I don't necessarily think we'll ever get the chance to start over, but I do worry that we're entirely too constrained by the ILS in its current form. In my Systems Librarian column for the Nov / Dec issue of Computers in Libraries, I present a few of the ways that library automation systems could serve libraries better if we could rebuild them around the ways that libraries work today.

I anticipate that the next cycle of library automation developments will focus more on the ILS, but hopefully in a completely redefined form. The basic structure of today’s ILS was cast more than 20 years ago. The next generation of library automation systems needs to be designed to match the workfLows of today’s libraries, which manage both digital and print resources. In order to provide efficient and effective support, the software needs to be designed around the processes and tasks that meet the goals of the organization. The current slate of ILS products works on many assumptions about library workflows that have long since changed. The next generation would benefit from a thorough re-examination of the day-to-day work that takes place inside libraries.

Read the entire article. Here's a list of Systems Librarian columns.

Marshall Breeding Feb 12, 2008 18:39:13 Link to this thread