Home | Developments in Integrated 
Library Systems (Summary)
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SCOPE

Issues dealt with in this guideline include:
Voice renewals and telemessaging
Stock management
Automated storage and retrieval systems
Interlibrary loans and document supply
Management of local information in digital form
Management information systems
Resource discovery
Guided access
Access to content
It also explores the application of RFID on traditional modules.

POLICY ISSUES

The issues involved in this DGM are house-keeping issues for libraries and have, for the most part, not been the subject of national government policy or of policy formulated by international organisations such as the EU, except insofar as all publicly funded bodies have an overriding duty to obtain the best value for the money which they are given to administer the services needed by the public.

Given this, libraries are faced with difficult choices:

• The newest ILS are effective but are expensive to install and run. A system will probably save staff costs once it has been introduced but it may have been ‘overhyped’ – not enough libraries have installed it yet to be sure of its potential.

• A library system may have to be bigger than a certain minimum size to get the benefits of at least some of the modules now on offer as part and parcel of an ILS.

• Libraries may have only a small amount of room for manoeuvre. They can select from among the various commercially produced systems but have little influence over what is produced.

• Developments in the technology are driven by the needs of commerce, not by the needs of libraries, which, as small players, tend to be the beneficiaries of minimally adapted systems originally devised to meet the needs of totally different organisations. They cannot prevent the obsolescence of technology, for example barcodes, even if it suits their needs.

• Commercial organisations measure the suitability of a new technology by its profitability or otherwise; what criteria are libraries to use?

The concept of an ILS is by no means new and some libraries are on their second or third system, but a brief overview here may be helpful. In an integrated system there is one record for a book, created when it was ordered and expanded when it was catalogued. When it is borrowed, the borrower’s records are attached to those of the book.

The basic modules are usually seen as:

• A public access catalogue.

• Circulation records, including database of users.

• Cataloguing and authority control.

• Acquisitions records.

Such a system has a number of advantages:

• There is no need to create and update multiple records for the same item.

• Fewer errors will be made.

• Users of the system, staff and public, have all the information they need in one place.

This Guideline will explore some of the issues connected with the extensive developments in Integrated Library Systems which have recently become possible and which, while commercially available, could be described as still in the development phase. These take the form of:

• additional modules which can be added to an ILS.

• radical improvements to the technology affecting traditional modules i.e. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID).

Home | Developments in Integrated 
Library Systems (Summary)
Full Text: Page 1 | Page 2 | Page 3 | Page 4