The Future of Integrated Library Systems Marshall Breeding

The Future of Integrated Library Systems Marshall Breeding Director for Innovative Technologies and Research Vanderbilt University http: //staffweb. library. vanderbilt. edu/breeding January 12, 2006 Pacific University

Areas of Interest l Business and Industry Trends l Technology Trends

Industry Trends The business is becoming more brutal… It’s important to understand the underlying business environment that steers the direction of the industry

From Fragmentation to Consolidation Sirsi + Dynix + Docu. Tek + DRA + NOTIS + Multi. LIS + INLEX = Sirsi. Dynix + ? l Library clients captured through acquisition l Greater disparity between the smallest and the largest companies l

Who owns the Industry? Some of the most important decisions that affect the options available to libraries are made in the corporate board room. l Increased control by financial interests of venture capital l l Sirsi. Dynix -> Seaport Capital + Hicks Muse Ex Libris -> Walden Israel + Tamar Technology Geac -> Golden Gate Polaris -> Croydon Company

Growth Strategies l Assembly & Acquisition: l l l Sirsi. Dynix Biblio. Mondo Some companies continue to prosper and grow organically through steady sales of products to new libraries l l l Innovative Interfaces The Library Corporation Keystone

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

A New Role for OCLC? l Library-owned cooperative on a buying binge of automation companies: l l Openly Informatics Fretwell-Downing Informatics Sisis Informationssysteme PICA Acquired a broad range of technology components l Open World. Cat will grow into a much broader set of services l Stands to effect great change in the position of libraries on the Web l

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

The Future Business Environment? A fewer number of larger companies l Additional Mergers and Acquisitions among ILS competitors still possible. l More cross-industry ownership l l Courseware + ILS? ERP/CRM + ILS? Publisher + ILS?

Technology Trends

The ILS is not dead Rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated l A well-functioning automation system is essential to the operation of the library l Libraries have never needed automation more than today l

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. l We need to fill in some gaps and achieve better integration. l Single point of management for each area of content l

Resource Sharing Limited budgets with ever increasing demands for broader services require efficient sharing of collections l Opportunities to make ILL more like circulation l Fast delivery of physical items from non-local collections: remote storage, consortium partners, ILL l Libraries need to offer resources far beyond their own local collections. l

Large-scale automation l l l Trend toward automation through consortia and other consolidated library organizations Current hardware and software platforms support ever larger pools of libraries and resources. The number of libraries and the size of collections that can share a single system is extremely large. Economies of scale: makes better use of computing components and technical personnel. ASP / Vendor-hosted automation Fewer libraries choose to maintain their own independent automation system. Modern security challenges further increase the cost and risk of single-library implementations.

The ILS Crisis The ILS, which had been steadily evolving for over 2 decades reached a crisis in about 2000. While libraries had evolved into new roles involving increasing electronic content, the ILS remained overly fixated on print and traditional materials. l We now in catch-up mode. l

Response to the Crisis l Urgent need to better manage and deliver access to electronic content. l A bevy of add-ons: Open. URL Link Resolvers l Metasearch environments l Electronic Resource Management modules l Journal content holdings data services l

High Cost of Low Integration Libraries forced into the role of systems integrator l Each of the add-on requires a well-planned implementation project and ongoing system and data maintenance. l Multiple implementation projects l l l Academic libraries often limited to one major product implementation per year It can be a three-year process to build a complete system: Link Server, Meta. Search, ERM

Business motivations l The add-on approach has as much to do with business opportunities as it does with technical design. l Given the saturation of the ILS marketplace, companies need to have new products to sell. l An interest in selling to non-ILS client libraries favors a stand-alone/less integrated approach.

Blindsided despite Obvious Trends Libraries have been acquiring and creating electronic content since the emergence of the Web l 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. l

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

Economic considerations l l l Increased complexity of library collections and operations require more sophisticated automation solutions. The cost of automation systems should be expected to increase over time. Large investments in electronic content naturally involves some investment in tools for management and access. Some trade-off between personnel costs and automation costs, but not always Library automation costs are low relative to other industries and business sectors. Libraries often increase their automation costs by tweaking the details of how their systems work.

Path to Recovery l More systematic approach toward hybrid print/electronic collections l Open. URL-based linking widely deployed l Metasearch stands as the current kludge for unifying the OPAC and ever-growing collections of electronic content l Library portal options still limited and immature

Portals l l l Current development efforts focus on the frontend of the ILS Expand the Web-based OPAC into something more like a portal RSS—race to integrate RSS into the OPAC Enhanced content. Customization Begins to replace some components of the library Web site

Opening Up the System l l l ILS Vendors offering APIs to the internal functions of their systems Allows programmatic access to library data and system functions Facilitates the integration of the ILS with other applications Allows the library to extend functionality independently of the vendor Application Programming Interface: works in conjunction with a scripting or programming language.

Integration with external systems l Libraries often need their systems to integrate with external non-library applications l Business-to-business interactions: procurement, payment, etc l Content partners

Web Services / SOA l Suite of XML protocols to enable systemto-system interactions l Service Oriented Architecture: design of enterprise applications to work together within a framework based on Web services l Widely deployed in other industries l Beginning to take hold in library arena

Strategic Integration l Library data and services need to be expressed in non-library applications l l Courseware Student Portals Higher-level information environments l World. Cat, Google, etc. l Current mechanisms are inefficient l EG: Standard Web service for delivering holdings and availability based on ISBN query l

Metadata Flexibility l ILS still bound to the MARC record l Other metadata schemes favored for content types other than traditional library materials l Better support for Dublin Core, VRA, MPEG-7, MPEG-21, MODS, METS l The ILS could provide a cataloging environment for all types of content.

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

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