Home | Developments in Integrated 
Library Systems (Summary)
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Stock management
Modern integrated library systems collect information about the performance of stock in terms of issues, making it possible to ascertain whether the bookstock is achieving predetermined levels of issues during its lifetime. (See also performance measures)

• Information can be collated relating to particular branches or particular subjects enabling a detailed picture of the use made by the public of particular books in particular places, removing much of the subjectivity which used to be an unavoidable feature of stock purchase and management.

• Stock which has been heavily issued or which is not issuing enough can be identified and appropriate action taken. It must be remembered that libraries have a stewardship role regarding items of special value, local interest or rarity, and such items will need to be identified in the system to avoid discarding them.

To ensure that stock is issued as much as possible it may be necessary to rotate or exchange stock in branches.

• It is better to identify stock as suitable for circulation when it is ordered, though it can of course be so identified at any stage.

• It may be advisable to identify part of the book-fund as being for the purchase of circulating stock.

• Libraries may be paired or a circulation rota may be drawn up, such that only one copy of a particular book/library item is bought for that rota so that it can later be exchanged. Normally six months is considered long enough for a book to stay in a library before it is moved on.

• Reports are sent to a branch advising them of stock to be taken from the shelf and moved on. Any stock on loan is re-routed on return.

Commercially produced integrated library systems now commonly include a stock management module to enable books to be identified as circulating stock and to facilitate what can at times be a troublesome process. For example, the Galaxy circulation control software has a stock rotation module as does the Dynix system.

Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS)
Users request an item from the on-line catalogue and it is searched for by a robot in the automated storage and brought to the library for the user; the whole process is automatic and should be very quick. These systems are akin to the machinery used by supermarkets and warehouses to store produce and retrieve it automatically. RFID may well make them a realistic possibility. They have the following advantages:

• Because staff and public do not need access to the store, the temperature, humidity and pressure can be adjusted to suit books and documents rather than people.

• Lighting, wall coverings and false ceilings are unnecessary.

• ASRS can return the books to the bins in which they are stored in a fraction of the time normally taken by human shelvers.

• The system records the use made of individual volumes which is useful for stock-management; little used volumes may be discarded and well-used volumes can be brought back to the open access part of the library.

Such a system would clearly only be useful to a library service with a large number of books to store, but some public library services may be big enough to justify the expense. For a discussion of the merits of such a system (see www.ala.org/acrl/kirsch.pdf). The applicability of ASRS to the storage of archives does not need to be underlined.

Interlibrary loans and document supply
Interlibrary loan, or the loan or supply of books or other items, is a scheme libraries use to gain access to materials they do not hold. Most libraries will participate in such schemes which may be organised on a local, regional, national or international basis. ISO 10160 provides specifications relating to ILL, requests, request forwarding, forwarding and notification, shipment, conditional reply, cancellation etc. It has been amended to support electronic data delivery. Commercially available integrated library systems often include a module designed to deal with interlibrary loans for example Galaxy by DS Ltd and Talis.

Serials control
Serials check-in can be speeded up. Systems now available handle such things as prediction pattern handling, claiming and currency conversion. Orders chasers are generated automatically and counts of items received or outstanding are available online.
Commercial ILS vendors are tending to base serials control systems on the MARC21 Holdings Format. Libraries must cultivate an understanding of MARC holdings coupled with an appreciation of how the format serves their needs in anticipating next expected issue, claiming, and contributions to OPACs and union lists.

Community Information (See also diverse cultural content)
ILS systems should support community information systems designed to be accessible to the public, perhaps by means of a website.

• They may provide access to staff and public alike; useful to those library services running a telephone based enquiry service.

• They may have search facilities including browsing indexes, free-text and searches by subject and by locality.

• Letters and emails generated automatically to people requesting updates to information in the database.

• Out of date information should expire automatically.

Z39.50 searching on OPACS
The Z39.50 protocol gives searchers the ability to query any catalogue or bibliographic file without needing to understand the different search interfaces provided by different software suppliers. This addition is needed by libraries which are members of co-operating groups. (See resource description)

Management Information Systems
It is now possible for ILS systems to include management information modules which generate reports based on the data recorded by the system. The management information may be supplied alongside the main server and the main database is “mirrored” on the MIS database enabling complex searches to be carried out in real time without affecting response times. Different user permissions can normally be defined. (See also performance measures.)

The impact of new technologies on traditional ILS modules
The newest technology in this field is RFID - Radio Frequency Identification. Its adaptation for use by libraries is very recent. An RFID system comprises 3 essential components:

• A tag, or a label placed inside each item. It contains an etched antenna and a tiny chip which contains bibliographic information and a unique number which identifies each item.

• An antenna which generates a radio frequency field.

• A reader which powers the antenna. The information stored on the chip is decoded by the reader and sent to the p/c or server.

Some tags can be reprogrammed, some cannot. Some tags cannot be used as security tags, some can. Tags have varying amounts of memory. The more the memory the greater the cost. Purchasers should ascertain how much memory they need.

Barcode-based systems currently in use cause delay by requiring the correct line-of-sight positioning of a barcode in relation to an optical barcode-scanner. They do not themselves store any information about the item but must be related to a database.

RFID tags have the following advantages:

• The tags store about 90 bits of information about each item.

• Some have memories which can be updated.

• They can be read through book-covers, while in motion, several at a time and while they are some inches away from the antenna.

• RFID systems should be compatible with the computerised catalogues now in use but this is by no means certain and checks should be carried out.

In addition, readers’ tickets can be smart cards which would also record information abut them, which could be automatically updated as they passed antennae, books would be discharged from their tickets or charged to them, fines and reservation charges calculated, and the information would be on their cards not on the database as at present. This could have uses in the personalisation of services.

The kind of function performed by RFID more quickly and efficiently than formerly includes:

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