The library technology industry is at a critical juncture, driven by uncertainties in funding and disruptions in technology, particularly around artificial intelligence (AI). Business transitions have included changes in executive leadership, acquisitions, and new ownership. Despite these shakeups, most vendors advanced along their development road maps, with some launching new or improved products.
State of the industry
Clarivate, which in recent years has subsumed the technology products of Ex Libris and Innovative, further strengthened its place as the industry leader. Clarivate has embraced AI across its businesses, including with the 2024 release of its Academic AI Platform, supporting a strategy to harness these technologies while delivering reliable content.
The Ex Libris suite of products, including Primo and the library services platform (LSP) Alma, have become the primary platforms used by academic and national libraries over the last decade. New Alma selections include the National Library of Thailand, University of London, and Ghent University in Belgium. Many libraries opted to deepen their involvement with follow-on products, including 23 new contracts for Leganto for course list management and 116 new contracts for Rapido and RapidILL for resource sharing. This year, Ex Libris launched Alma Specto, an AI-powered platform for managing and promoting digital collections. It also created Library Open Workflows to allow non-programmers to enable integrations in the Ex Libris platform through a user-friendly interface.
Innovative’s products mostly serve public libraries. Innovative has focused considerable development energy on its patron-oriented product suite Vega, since it is interoperable with the company’s integrated library systems (ILSes) Sierra and Polaris. The company has made progress on each of the components, including Vega Discover, Vega Interact, Vega Promote, Vega Starter, and Vega WebBuilder. Polaris has expanded beyond its well-established North American presence into multiple international markets, including Australia and Singapore.
When it comes to academic libraries, Ex Libris has significant competition from EBSCO Information Services. More than 300 libraries worldwide use EBSCO FOLIO, a comprehensive resource management and discovery package. Recent libraries selecting EBSCO FOLIO include University of Notre Dame in Indiana and University of Kansas, while the Library of Congress and Columbia University Libraries in New York City completed implementations of FOLIO to replace many legacy systems last year. EBSCO has amplified its suite of products in the last year, launching AI-enhanced search and natural language search for EBSCO Discovery Service and its full-text databases, as well as a new linked data framework for its products, the EBSCO Scholarly Graph.
EBSCO saw a major leadership change with the departure of Annie Callanan in 2025; Allen Powell has been named interim CEO.
Open source library management systems and discovery tools have expanded their presence. ByWater Solutions, the largest company supporting the Koha ILS and discovery interface Aspen Discovery, attracted 55 new support contracts for Koha and 30 for Aspen. Grove for Libraries, established in 2024, focuses on Aspen Discovery and the LiDA mobile app. Equinox Open Library Initiative supports Evergreen, Koha, Aspen Discovery, and other open source products. Index Data, the company that developed the internal infrastructure for FOLIO, provides support, development, and hosting services for FOLIO, the ReShare resource sharing environment, and other open source software and open data projects.
OCLC saw 39 new contracts for WorldShare Management Services LSP and WorldCat Discovery Service. OCLC has also employed AI to enhance the quality of WorldCat records and to add new features to its tools for resource sharing services, analytics, and collection development.
A default judgment brought an end to OCLC’s litigation against the shadow library search engine Anna’s Archive for unauthorized harvesting of WorldCat data. OCLC has also pursued litigation against Baker & Taylor for its BTCat cataloging utility; that lawsuit largely ended with Baker & Taylor’s bankruptcy, although the Bridgeall Libraries component of the suit remains active.
Constellation Software (CSI) maintained its status as one of the largest library technology industry investors, with ownership of companies including Baratz, BiblioCommons, EnvisionWare, Softlink, and Sophia. CSI’s most recent acquisition, SirsiDynix, last year launched BLUEcloud Accelerate, an initiative to advance the completion of its BLUEcloud suite. Following the acquisition, longtime SirsiDynix CEO Bill Davison left that role and was replaced by former CFO Mike Nehren.
BiblioCommons made significant enhancements to its BiblioCore discovery interface, including AI-powered search and review summaries.
Soutron Global, backed by Bloom Equity Partners, acquired Vancouver-based MINISIS in late 2024 and picked up Auto-Graphics, which offers the VERSO ILS and SHAREit interlibrary loan platform, in March 2025. Brad Frasher was named CEO of Soutron in October 2025, replacing founder Tony Saadat.
Civica, well established in Australia, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand, recently renewed efforts to market its Spydus library management system in North America.
The Library Corporation continues to be owned and managed by its founder, Annette H. Murphy, after more than 50 years. Its Library.Solution ILS saw seven new selections in major school districts as well as in mid-sized public libraries.
Of companies serving niche sectors, Biblionix targets small public libraries with its Apollo ILS while Keystone Systems specializes in libraries for the blind and print disabled. Book Systems had an exceptional year of sales of the Atriuum ILS to smaller public libraries and school districts.
In other business sectors, the use of AI has driven workforce reduction; we can expect similar dynamics in the library industry.
Systematic deployed a new version of Cicero in major European libraries, including the Helmet online library in Finland, Stockholm Public Library in Sweden, and Hamburg Public Library in Germany. Axiell won new contracts in Europe for its public library LSP, Quria, including Neuilly-sur-Seine Media Library in France.
Funding reductions for libraries and other economic headwinds have led to industry belt-tightening, with EBSCO, OCLC, and SirsiDynix reducing their overall workforce. Ex Libris, Innovative, and most of the mid-sized companies held steady or expanded slightly.
Library technology forecast
Despite current economic challenges, vendors providing technology products and services can expect good opportunities ahead. Many libraries that have been deferring system replacements may move to replace their outdated products with modern services. Vendors with international reach will naturally benefit the most. Expect at least modest growth in product sales for the next year or two.
In times of ever more constrained economic resources, companies will reap rewards from the development of broad product suites targeting current expectations. The trend of libraries acquiring bundled products addressing diverse service areas will strengthen as fewer libraries follow a mix-and-match strategy.
For libraries, concerns regarding proprietary products remain, driving incremental growth in the adoption of open source solutions, though with high expectations for comprehensive commercial support services. Many libraries remain skeptical about AI, especially related to patron-facing services.
Regardless, vendors will continue to explore new AI features, both in patron-facing interfaces and for staff workflows. They will increasingly employ AI to accelerate software development and deliver support services—even if they don’t disclose it publicly. In other business sectors, these uses of AI have driven workforce reduction; we can expect similar dynamics in the library industry. AI will continue to present both challenges and opportunities for years to come.
About the report
This briefing excerpts the 2026 Library Systems Report, which documents ongoing investments of libraries in strategic technology products in 2025. It covers for-profit and nonprofit organizations that offer resource management products—especially integrated library systems and library services platforms—and comprehensive discovery products.
The vendors included have responded to a survey requesting details about their organization, sales performance, and narrative explanations of accomplishments. Additional sources consulted include press releases, news articles, and other publicly available information. Most organizations provided lists of libraries represented in the statistics reported, enabling more detailed analysis and validation.
The full report, as well as additional personnel information, sales statistics, and vendor-provided narratives, is available at Library Technology Guides.
