US Library Systems Report explores ‘businesses consolidation and tech innovation’

The American Library Association’s American Libraries publication has released its annual Library Systems Report by library technology consultant Marshall Breeding.

The report argues that the library technology industry has entered a new phase: ‘business consolidation and technology innovation.’

‘Development of products and services to support the increasingly complex work of libraries remains in an ever-decreasing number of hands,’ writes Breeding. ‘Not only have technology-focused companies consolidated themselves, they have become subsumed within higher-level organisations with broad portfolios of diverse business activities. The survivors of this transformed industry now bear responsibility to deliver innovation from their amassed capacity.’

Breeding also writes that ‘modern web-based systems delivering traditional library automation and discovery capabilities are now merely table stakes’. ‘Real progress depends on building out these platforms to support the new areas of service emerging within each type of library,’ he writes.

Read the full report here.

Category: Library news International