the past and future of library systems

Read this Andrew Pace article on the evolution of library automation systems.

I found this article to be insightful. For a combination of reasons, libraries and vendors found it difficult to go beyond the first-generation ILS and web-based online catalogs, with a "wait-and-wait" approach best describing how libraries approach the integration of current technologies into discovery and core services (642).

My take; The longer this technology model stays intact, the more difficult it will be for libraries to move away from it. For that reason, taking the first step through modernizing discovery shouldn't be underestimated. It has been a painful two years for the Orbis Cascade Alliance since it decided to migrate its INNReach-based system to WorldCat Navigator, which includes WorldCat.org-based discovery. There have been significant, tangible benefits, such as the rapid introduction of WorldCat Local at nearly half the Alliance institutions. WorldCat Local may use clunky screen-scraping and would ideally offer centralized indexed to a larger pool of article content. In my institution's case, it significantly unifies our discovery and fulfillment services and provides us with much more information on how our users use the search system (in comparison with the data that we can retrieve on usage of the Millennium Web OPAC).

While there's limited value in looking backwards, it's important to note that libraries didn't pressure vendors enough to look beyond the "increasingly expensive incremental changes" that were routinized in vendor enhancement processes (645). As with the reluctance on the part of libraries to employ current technologies in discovery and back-end systems, the approach towards systems enhancements reflects a conservative view in how libraries work to improve their automated systems.