Welcome to the Buyers’ Guide
Directory 2021 Available in print and online
Brave new world on a budget
THE CILIP Buyers’ Guide 2021 is focused on library management systems. The discussion is framed by look at the LMS business world with Ken Chad who describes a challenging environment. In a world where finances have already been tough for a decade – and look set to become even more difficult – Ken notes that cost cutting tactics like buying consortia now have the power to shape the market. But the relationship between LMS supplier and LMS buyer is a zero sum game. If one side wins the other side loses. This should be a catalyst for players to find common goals.
So the glass is also half full. And while budgets have been cut, so have the costs of library management systems. At the same time, the technology has advanced and opened up the digital capabilities of libraries. Not only joining up the back office – ebooks, events and bookings – but turning the back office into a shop front.
This is what the Library Consortium hopes will happen with its new LMS, and about-to-be launched Library Services Platform (LSP). Kelly Saini Badwal, Head of Cultural Services at Sutton, the lead authority in the consortium, and Anthony Hopkins, head of libraries at Merton, discuss how the new LSP will give them the data to understand their customers better, and the capability to meet their demands. It means that the community they serve will not experience a drop in capability and user friendliness when they move from the Googles and Amazons to the library’s digital offer.
Any library’s immersion in technology gives it valuable experience. Among many other insights provided by Tom Shaw, Assistant Director for Digital Innovation and Research Services at Lancaster University library, one has been sharing the library’s own technical expertise on cutting-edge cross-campus projects.
The library was a major stakeholder and partner in a project that uses Amazon’s Alexa technology to give students access to university information using their voice. In the project the library’s own experience of working with Amazon’s AWS cloud services made it a valuable partner to the university IT department, as did their help in integrating the new tool with library systems.
Cooperation between libraries and their LMS providers can help increase the value of libraries to their parent organisations. These are fluid and negotiable relationships. But underpinning all the technology that enables this, is metadata. This is what ensures people get what they want, according to John Hudson who says: “Today’s metadata must prove reliable even in circumstances difficult or impossible to anticipate... The way this is achieved is not by anticipating every circumstance – that is simply impossible – but by adhering to rules and standards.”
While the traditional buyer and seller relationship remains predominant in most sectors, there are other models. Open source, is no longer a risky or brave option according to Jonathan Field, the Managing Director of PTFS. He says that “we live in a world where open source software pervades every aspect of our electronic lives” and that it gives libraries more influence over the direction of software.
Angela Krzyzanowska 5
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