Reimagining the ILS

The current environment for library resource management systems and discovery services currently includes an interesting mix of products created through a diverse set of development strategies.  In addition to the evolution of the longstanding integrated library system, a new genre of products, library services platforms, have emerged which embrace a substantially different set of workflows with distinct technology characteristics.  It is a realm offering products based on either open source or proprietary software.  Strategies also differ regarding discovery, with some providers preferring to bundle discovery with their resource management product and others promoting a mix and match approach.  Breeding will present an overview of this menu of options their relative merits or challenges.

"Are platform businesses eating the world?" is the title of a February, 2016 Forbes magazine book review by Brooke Manville. The phrase is a new take by authors of the book "The platform revolution" on the phrase "software is eating the world," that was coined by venture investor Marc Andreessen.

Library services platform (LSP) is the phrase conceived by Marshall Breeding a few years back ago to describe a new generation of systems that are replacing the old ILS. Was Marshall right? Are these new systems really "platforms"? This presentation argues that we still may have a way to go before even "next generation" systems can be properly labeled "platforms". I will define the platform approach and the benefits it could bring by putting it into the context of library technology and will suggest how things might work.

ILSs are evolving. Cloud-computing is causing a major shift in the way organizations manage their data. For libraries this shift entails the switch from stand-alone ILSs to cloud-based systems. The new generation of ILSs embraces this model. The University of New Mexico Libraries undertook the migration to OCLC's cloud-based ILS, WorldShare Management Services (WMS). The process required preparing the data for migration, performing the migrating of the data to the new system, testing the results, and implementing new workflows. This presentation will look at each of these stages of the migration and describe the process along the way.

Together with a library advisory council and pilot libraries, OCLC pioneered the move of library services to the cloud and to webscale with OCLC WorldShare Management Services (WMS). The vision of WMS was to create a next-generation library services platform that empowers libraries to be more efficient through sharing data, work and infrastructure—all at scale. OCLC built WMS based on libraries’ input and now we’re partnering with the 500 libraries that selected WMS as we develop it into the future.

In recent span of library technology there are two major solutions that are proving to be game-changing for the industry: cloud services and Linked Data. Cloud hosting is changing the nature of libraries internally, as well as changing the nature of data security and accessibility. Linked Data is still a young technology; vendors and libraries are still in the process of learning how catalog open-web visibility will impact both libraries and search engines. In this presentation on the two solutions driving change in the library industry, SirsiDynix technologists Eric Keith and Justin Swain will discuss the current role and expectations for the future of cloud services and Linked Data.

Library systems are becoming more sophisticated and able to bring together information resources from many points. The information about what we own is just as important as the information about non-physical resources. While the venerable AACR2, MARC and RDA have served us well in the ILS world, the data becomes even more critical in a discovery, linked data environment. Learn some painless yet effective ways to make your library's metadata more useful and accessible.

Once again, the library paradigm will be upended as a new wave of technologies arrive. Artificial Intelligence is already altering the ways people interact with and query information.

Early forms of Virtual Reality are just becoming available to the public but will upend the ways people work, socialize and experience information. The Blockchain, the technology behind digital currencies like Bitcoin, has the potential of altering the way any transaction is handled. Each of these has the potential to disrupt the way libraries do business and will likely impact the future of ILS technologies. In this talk, we will explore the current state of AI, VR and the Blockchain and consider how they will alter the touch points between the ILS and our users.

First there were computers to print card catalog cards. Then there were online cataloging systems. These added On-line Public Access Catalogs (OPACs)and a time when each functional area of the library would have a computer system from a different vendor that may or may not talk to each other. From here we moved t the Integrated Library System (ILS). Now, With the integration of the Internet and cloud computing into library services, we are in transition again to the Library Services Platform (LSP). What exactly is the LSP? How does it differ from an ILS?

Butler University Libraries had already made progressive changes in public services areas, but Technical Services remained unchanged and bound to legacy practices from decades past. For us, the best catalyst for change was a system migration to a cloud-based type of library management system. This system migration was tied to organizational restructuring and a new strategic plan, each of which intertwined with the details of the migration project and was underpinned by thoughtful analysis of how to help employees through change. Earlier research on technical services departments is discussed in light of how technical services roles will change through the adoption of streamlined workflows available in a cloud-based ILS, and how the change can help refocus a library’s efforts to fulfill its evolving mission. Details of the migration will be discussed in relation to how they inspired departmental and organizational change through updated technology.