1. Trends in Library Automation
Marshall Breeding Director for Innovative Technologies and Research
Vanderbilt University
Alaska Library Association
Annual Conference
February 24, 2006

2. The business is becoming more brutal…
Industry Trends
The business is becoming more brutal…

3. Fragmentation vs Consolidation
Library industry fragmented
Industry entering phase of consolidation
Library industry still fragmented
Many companies competing for a limited market with overlapping products with marginal differentiation
Sirsi + Dynix + DocuTek + DRA + NOTIS + MultiLIS + INLEX = SirsiDynix + ?
Library clients captured through acquisition
Greater disparity between the smallest and the largest companies

4. Who owns the Industry?
Some of the most important decisions that affect the options available to libraries are made in the corporate board room.
Increased control by financial interests of venture capital
SirsiDynix -> Seaport Capital + Hicks Muse
Ex Libris -> Walden Israel + Tamar Technology
Geac -> Golden Gate
Polaris -> Croydon Company
Privately owned by Founders
Innovative Interfaces
The Library Corporation
Keystone Systems
Division of Larger corporation
Endeavor
Open Text

5. Growth Strategies Assembly & Acquisition:
SirsiDynix
BiblioMondo
Some companies continue to prosper and grow organically through steady sales of products to new libraries
Innovative
The Library Corporation
Keystone

6. Libraries demand choice.
Room for niche players
Domination by a large monopoly unlikely to be accepted by library community

7. A New Role for OCLC?
Library-owned cooperative on a buying binge of automation companies:
Openly Informatics
Fretwell-Downing Informatics
Sisis Informationssysteme
PICA
Acquired a broad range of technology components
Open WorldCat will grow into a much broader set of services

8. Key Issue
It’s essential for libraries to partner with a company that will be one of the survivors of the industry.
Very disruptive to a library’s automation strategy if its vendor is acquired.
Given the relative parity of library automation systems, choosing the right automation partner is more important than splitting hairs over functionality.
Understanding of library issues
Vision and forward-looking development

9. The Future? A fewer number of larger companies ILS Sales will decline
Some weaker companies may allow themselves to become acquired
Consolidated companies will consolidate product offerings
ILS Sales will decline
Fewer opportunities for sales in US and Canada
Focus on Non-ILS offerings
Define a new ILS
More International marketing
More cross-industry ownership
Courseware + ILS?
ERP/CRM + ILS?

10. Technology Trends

11. The ILS is not dead Rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated
A well-functioning automation system is essential to the operation of the library
Libraries have never needed automation more than today
The ILS does need to be redefined
Give primacy to electronic content
Maintain solid support for print materials
Designed to integrate with external systems
Evolve into Service Oriented Business Application
Compartmentalize and contain resources invested in traditional ILS functionality to catch up with deficits in supporting electronic content

12. Comprehensive Automation
The goal of the Integrated Library Systems involves the automation of all aspects of the library’s internal operations and to provide key services to library users.
As the scope of libraries evolve, so must the scope and capabilities of the ILS

13. Resource Sharing Limited budgets demand sharing collections
Opportunities to make ILL more like circulation
Fast delivery of physical items from non-local collections: remote storage, consortium partners, ILL

14. Large-scale automation
Trend toward automation through consortia
The days of single-library ILS implementations are waning
An increasing portion of ILS sales involve independent libraries joining a consortium to gain access to a shared automation environment
Small and mid-sized consortia are merging into larger ones
ASP / Vendor-hosted automation
Take advantage of industrial strength hosting facilities
Realization that small libraries do not have the resources to deal with security, disaster planning, and other technical aspects of maintaining and ILS.

15. The ILS Crisis
The ILS, which had been steadily evolving for over 2 decades reached a crisis in about While libraries had evolved into new roles involving increasing electronic content, the ILS remained fixated on print and traditional materials.

16. Response to the Crisis A bevy of add-ons: Replacement OPAC interfaces
OpenURL Link Resolvers
Metasearch environments
Electronic Resource Management modules
New front ends and portals
Replacement OPAC interfaces
AquaBrowser Library
Endeca Guided Search

17. Blindsided despite Obvious Trends
Libraries have been acquiring and creating electronic content since the emergence of the Web
One of the most fundamental changes in the nature of libraries, yet the automation systems fell behind in features needed to manage and deliver electronic content.

18. A fundamental failure
The emergence of these non-integrated add-on applications stand as an indictment that the ILS failed to evolve in step with changes in the library environment.
Libraries failed to demand adequate tools in time of need. Satisfied with ad-hoc solutions.
Vendors failed to incrementally evolve their core products to accommodate electronic content.
The ILS would be much different today if it gained these functions as native capabilities.

19. Threats and challenges -- general
Library users expect more than they currently receive.
Google and other modern Web destinations set high user expectations.
Library offerings seem clumsy, complex, and ineffectual.

20. Threats and challenges – academic
Libraries struggle to find their place in the academic enterprise
Organizationally: Role in academic support and student life
Virtually: Challenge to be both conspicuous and transparent in the academic web presence
Challenges:
be a great destination among the Web services the university offers its faculty and students
To deliver library services through non-library interfaces: campus portal, courseware, etc.

21. Threats and challenges – public
Increased pressure to:
Reduce costs
Share resources
Increase service quality
Integrate with municipal or county IT infrastructure and support structures
Integrate with e-government systems
Deliver access to more electronic content

22. Threats and challenges – schools
Automate at the district level rather than individual school libraries
Decrease IT support burden
Support assessment and reporting requirements
Integrate library automation with other school administration systems
School Interoperability Framework

23. Path to Recovery?
More systematic approach toward hybrid print/electronic collections
Adoption of technologies that support e-content
OpenURL-based linking widely deployed
Metasearch stands as the current kludge for unifying the OPAC and ever-growing collections of electronic content
Develop new search and information discovery models
Redefine the library catalog
Not just the physical holdings
Library portal options still limited and immature
New library interfaces with more comprehensive scope
Library Web services that integrate into strategic higher-level interfaces and portals

24. Questions and Discussion