Library Automation Landscape

Current themes in the companies, products, and technologies

Marshall BreedingDirector for Innovative Technologies and ResearchVanderbilt Universityhttp://staffweb.library.vanderbilt.edu/breedinghttp://www.librarytechnology.org/

Presentation for:LIS531R: Library Automation Systems

Marshall Breeding will present an overview of the library automation industry, focusing especially on the shaping of the business environment, and on recent product and technology trends. The library automation landscape has become increasingly interesting with new dynamics of proprietary and open source products, and new models of commerce. While the ILS continues as the core business software in libraries, ancillary products have emerged that fill the ever-widening gap of functionality not addressed by the ILS. A new generation of discovery interfaces, including both proprietary and open source alternatives, has emerged to displace the much-maligned OPAC. These products offer a more modern interface and address a broader view of library collections, spanning print and electronic content.

Summary

http://www.librarytechnology.org Repository for library automation data Lib-web-cats tracks 39,000 libraries and the automation systems used. ◦Expanding to include more international

scope Announcements and developments made by companies and organizations involved in library automation technologies

Library Technology Guides

Started building database in 1995 Most comprehensive resource for tracking

ILS and other library automation products Many state library agencies do not keep

accurate records of library automation data Problem: how to resolve remaining

“Unknown” libraries. ◦ No Web site, no reliable e-mail contact

Lib-web-cats

ILS Products in CT Public Libraries

ILS Products in CT Academic Libraries

Annual Industry report published in Library Journal:

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

LJ Automation Marketplace

System Name 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

AGent VERSO 14 19 6 23 15 54 47 24

Evergreen               6Voyager 50 44 35 22 34 12 4 5ALEPH 500 80 58 51 53 83 67 29 26Vubis Smart 13 34 54 56 60 56 40 46

V-Smart               11Millennium 157 136 144 119 107 95 95 64

Koha (Classic/ZOOM)           30 57 40

Library.Solution 79 70 73 58 41 34 35 32

Carl.X / Carl.Solution       1 3 10 0 0

Polaris ILS 12 21 20 37 39 54 32 56Unicorn 117 207 124 134 91 71 121 108

Horizon 126 114 168 193 147 94 15 0

Virtua 37 60 67 35 25 27 30 39

ILS Sales Statistics: total

ILS Sales: Selected Companies

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 80

50

100

150

200

250

VoyagerALEPH 500Vubis Smart +V-SmartMillenniumKoha (Classic / ZOOM)Library.SolutionCarl.X / Carl.SolutionPolarisUnicornVirtua

ILS Sales: Polaris

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 20080

10

20

30

40

50

60

Polaris

Polaris

ILS Sales: Millennium

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 20080

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

160

180

Millennium

Millennium

ILS Sales: Koha

2006 2007 20080

10

20

30

40

50

60

Koha

Koha (Classic / ZOOM)

Installations: Millennium

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 20080

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

1,400

1,600

Total Installations

Millennium

  2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008Composite Endeavor + Ex Libris 367 382 408 417 393 418 467Composite Sirsi + Dynix 860 839 789 679 629 491 450Auto-Graphics, Inc. 45 42 42 32 32 36 38Book Systems, Inc. 88 59 58 53 50 57 63Civica 34 34 35 130 322 379 392COMPanion Corp. 86 86 62 63 65 67 67EOS International 69 69 72 79 82 82 79Equinox Software           6 13Follett Software Company 266 240 220 245 370 404 402Infor Library Solutions 127 104 104 105 77 75 72Inmagic, Inc. 44 45 40 40 40 55 55Innovative Interfaces, Inc. 268 285 285 295 295 310 326LibLime 6 14 28The Library Corporation 173 180 189 210 210 191 204Polaris Library Systems 105 65 67 68 66 69 76Serials Solutions         78 102 142Softlink America Inc. 75 80 94 97 104 115 132SydneyPLUS 65 65 56 59 60 60 60Talis 83 84 77VTLS Inc. 100 104 93 95 75 86 97

Company Personal Totals

Customer Support Ratios

Company Supported Systems Support Staff

Installed Sites

Ratio

Polaris Library Systems Polaris 38 269 7.1

Innovative Interfaces, Inc.

Millennium 176 1348 7.7

The Library Corporation

Library.Solution, Carl.Solution, Carl.X 87 734 8.4

Ex Libris Aleph, Voyager 198 4593 23.2

Auto-Graphics AGent/Verso 9 244 27.1

VTLS Virtua 41 936 22.8

Infor Vubis Smart, Advance, PLUS, Vubis Original

2 140 70.0

LibLime Koha 3 308 102.7

Perceptions 2008: an international survey of library automation◦ http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2008.pl◦ 1,340 Responses from 51 countries

Perceptions 2007: an international survey of library automation◦ http://www.librarytechnology.org/perceptions2007.pl

Perceptions Reports

ILS Product Satisfaction

Company Satisfaction

Support Satisfaction

Open Source Interest

Library Automation Trends

Library funding cuts widespread Many automation projects on hold Pressure to accept lowest-cost alternatives

rather than higher cost preferred options Hope that open source software will provide

savings Economic pressure may necessitate

innovation

Libraries feeling the pain of the economy

Increasing adoption in the United States and Canada

◦ Koha, Evergreen, OPALS Less interest in Asia, Europe, UK India

◦ NetGenLib, Koha Strong interest in Latin America

◦ Koha, ABCD

Open Source ILS

US: LibLime, Equinox, MediaFlex Aggressive marketing

◦ Concept of open source◦ Promotion of specific products

Struggling to meet expectations◦ Satisfaction lower than many companies offering

proprietary products◦ Some companies offering proprietary products

score much lower than open source

Open Source Companies

Many ILS products offered through traditional licensing continue to prosper

Some proprietary ILS products seeing significant numbers of library defections

Systems more mature and rich in features Balance of power among ILS vendors shifting Some libraries running proprietary ILS question

long-term viability and are exploring alternatives

Traditional ILS now the target of new alternative automation models

Proprietary Closed-source ILS

Traditional Proprietary Commercial ILS◦ Millennium, Symphony, Polaris

Traditional Open Source ILS◦ Evergreen, Koha

Clean slate automation framework (SOA, enterprise-ready)◦ Ex Libris URM, OLE Project

Cloud-based automation system◦ WorldCat Local (+circ, acq, license management)

Competing Models of Library Automation

Rethinking library automation

Fundamental assumption: Print + Digital = Hybrid libraries

Traditional ILS model not adequate for hybrid libraries

Libraries currently moving toward surrounding core ILS with additional modules to handle electronic content

New discovery layer interfaces replacing or supplementing ILS OPACS

Working toward a new model of library automation◦ Monolithic legacy architectures replaced by fabric of SOA

applications◦ Comprehensive Resource Management

“It's Time to Break the Mold of the Original ILS” Computers in Libraries Nov/Dec 2007

ILS Online Catalog module no longer enough

Single point of entry to all aspects of library collections◦ Print + electronic; Books + articles + multimedia

Consolidated index of harvested content Relevancy-based search Modern interface techniques

◦ Facets, user-supplied content, search suggestions, recommendations

Focus on delivery

Rethinking Discovery

Initial products focused on technology◦ AquaBrowser, Endeca, Primo, Encore, VUfind◦ Mostly locally-installed software

Current phase focused on content indexes◦ Summon (Serials Solutions)◦ WorldCat Local (OCLC)◦ EBSCO Discovery Service (EBSCO)◦ All hosted services

Discovery product Trend

Summon from Serials Solutions New Discovery Service Consolidated index harvested from many

sources◦ ProQuest, Gale, etc◦ 300,000,000 articles represented◦ Full-text search + Citations

Local catalog data harvested, real-time link to holdings

Other local repositories harvested Others available through metasearch

EBSCO Discovery Service Consolidated index of EBSCOhost full-text

and citation data Reciprocal agreement with OCLC for

WorldCat.org data Pursuing agreements with other content

providers

Primo Central A hosted consolidated index of article-level

metadata and full-text Maintained by Ex Libris Available at no additional cost to Primo sites Available year-end 2009

Strong interest in offering social features to library users

Expected functionality in Next-gen catalogs Layer social features into legacy catalogs

◦ LibraryThing for Libraries◦ ChiliFresh – shared engine for resource reviews

Social Networking Technologies

Large portions of public libraries in the United States operate with no automation system, outdated systems, or products not suited for their type of library

Small rural libraries Many public libraries run PC-based systems built

for schools because the cannot afford more full-featured systems

Current automation options priced well above what libraries with limited resources can afford.

Cost of consortial participation can also exceed financial thresholds

Many libraries Not automated / Under automated

Strong interest in discovery interfaces Emerging interest in next-generation library

automation◦ Increasing proportions of electronic content and

complexity of operations push the limits of current system designs

Enterprise integration◦ Connect to campus authentication, courseware,

ERP, student management Need for digital preservation strategies and

products as these libraries build ever larger local digital collections

Academic Libraries

Strong interest in modernizing Web presence

Next-generation discovery systems◦ AquaBrowser, Encore, Endeca

Interest in technologies to streamline circulation◦ RFID – especially in new facilities◦ Self-check (barcode or RFID)◦ Automate Materials Handling

Public Libraries

Automatic Materials Handling

Transition to District-wide centralized automation

Integration with other administrative systems

Textbook management Access to age-appropriate pre-approved

Web content

School Libraries

Enterprise knowledge management Competitive intelligence gathering and

analysis Traditional automation tasks diminished Increasingly all virtual

Corporate Libraries

Widespread use of ISIS related software◦ Developed out of UNESCO, free but not open

source◦ Tens of thousands of libraries

Development of ABCD open source ISIS variant

Growing interest in Koha Increasing interest in commercial systems

from international vendors when economically possible

Library automation in the Developing World

Vendor hosted, Application Service Provider Increasing adoption by small and medium-sized

libraries Not a major trend for larger libraries Promoted by companies: more profitable for

them Libraries generally see lower overall costs,

more predictable budget model Systems and data managed more responsibly Hosted individual instances, not quite cloud

computing model WorldCat Local more like Cloud Computing

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)

Strong interest in regional and statewide implementations

Open Source and Commercial◦ Georgia: Evergreen◦ Indiana: Evergreen (Early Phases)◦ British Columbia: Evergreen◦ Wyoming: SirsiDynix Unicorn◦ Hawaii: Horizon

Large-scale automation

WorldCat Local discovery service Existing service in pilot stage for new

discovery service WorldCat.org data + ArticleFirst (30 million

articles) Agreement with EBSCO to load EBSCOhost

citation data into WorldCat Pursuing agreements with additional

content providers

WorldCat Local quick start No-cost option to FirstSearch subscribers No reclamation to reconcile local ILS with

WorldCat One ILS supported; must be among

supported products Program to expose thousands of libraries to

WorldCat Local as a discovery option

WorldCat Local automation platform Extend WorldCat Local to include

◦ Circulation◦ Delivery◦ Acquisitions◦ License Management

Positioned as Web-scale, cloud computing model, cooperative library system

Pilot sites being finalized; general availability in 2010

Closing thoughts Exciting time to be involved in library

systems More opportunities than ever Open source / Open access momentum Rethinking of library automation

fundamentals Fresh ideas can make a difference