Library Technology Guides

We can see a definite trend of consolidation among the organizations that create technology products for libraries. Through a long series of mergers and acquisitions, the industry has gradually transformed from being fractured in a way that pits relatively small companies against each other with overlapping products and limited revenue opportunities to one that is highly consolidated with a smaller number of large companies dominating the scene. This consolidation has resulted in a fewer number of choices for libraries, but the economic realities seem to press toward gaining efficiencies gained through combining organizations. This pattern isn't seen only among library vendors, it's a global phenomenon.

The Illinois Heartland Library System, recently formed out of the merger of four antecedent consortia, has selected Polaris to provide its shared automation system. With a total 588 members, 450 of which will initially participate in the implementation of Polaris, aptly named SHARE (Sharing Heartland's Available Resources Equally), this consortia stands as the largest consortium in the United States in terms of libraries served.

The Orbis Cascade Alliance, a consortium of 37 academic libraries in Oregon, Washington, and Oregon are implementing a strategy to share a single automation system. The current arrangement uses individual systems supplemented by resource sharing infrastructure. Alma from Ex Libris was recently selected as the technology environment to be shared among the members.