Author Archive: Marshall Breeding

Library Systems Report 2018

By Marshall Breeding | May 1, 2018

Academic libraries are looking beyond efficiencies in collection management or improvements in library-provided discovery services. Instead, they are addressing broader education needs by inserting relevant resources into platforms that support the curriculum and enhance their institutions’ research activities. Public libraries seek technologies that improve engagement with their communities. These libraries value reliable and feature-rich automation … Continue reading Library Systems Report 2018 →

Open Source Software

By Marshall Breeding | November 1, 2017

Integrated library systems (ILS), as well as the new genre of library services platforms, are offered to libraries primarily as proprietary products controlled by a single vendor. Libraries that use these products remain dependent on that vendor for ongoing software development, solutions to systemic problems, and service enhancements. While proprietary software remains the dominant approach, … Continue reading Open Source Software →

Google promoted its “Libraries Ready to Code” joint initiative with ALA.

Tech Power

By Marshall Breeding | July 19, 2017

I probably spend more time in the exhibit hall than most conference attendees—you may have seen me browsing the aisles or rushing to my next appointment. The meetings I have with company executives and product experts inform much of my research and writing for months to come as a chronicler of the library technology industry. … Continue reading Tech Power →

Library Systems Report 2017

By Marshall Breeding | May 1, 2017

More statistics on sales performance, installations, and personnel for 2016 are available here. Consolidation deep and wide Library technology continues to consolidate horizontally and vertically. Horizontal consolidation—the merging of companies with similar business activities—shaped some of the larger players in the industry, such as Follett, and Infor Library and Information Solutions, Innovative Interfaces, Lucidea, OCLC, … Continue reading Library Systems Report 2017 →

Products related to makerspaces, like these from TeacherGeek, had a strong presence this year.

Hot Venue, High Tech

By Marshall Breeding | July 20, 2016

Though turnout was a bit lighter than usual (16,597 total attendance), many exhibitors mentioned that traffic was brisk. Vendors appreciated the opportunity to engage with current and potential library customers. Consistent with the consolidation of the industry, there were fewer booths, and many vendors showed off an ever-expanding portfolio of gadgets and devices. Technology products … Continue reading Hot Venue, High Tech →

Protecting Patron Privacy

By Marshall Breeding | May 31, 2016

Secure communication on the web provides two important benefits: identifying the website authoritatively enabling encrypted communications between the user’s browser and the server that provides the resource Encryption algorithms transform the data into a seemingly garbled form that, if intercepted, cannot be deciphered. The use of a secure communication protocol (HTTPS) provides the best approach … Continue reading Protecting Patron Privacy →

Library Systems Report 2016

By Marshall Breeding | May 2, 2016

Libraries have much at stake in products that align well with their strategies, resonate with their patrons, and facilitate the work of their staff. Previously established products are evolving to gain long-overdue modernization. In an era of web-based and cloud computing, library technology has held fast to aspects of the previous age of client–server computing. … Continue reading Library Systems Report 2016 →

EBSCO has contributed funding to a new open source library services platform aimed at academic libraries, with early versions expected to be ready by 2018.

EBSCO Supports New Open Source Project

By Marshall Breeding | April 22, 2016

If the yet-unnamed project sticks to its schedule and finds interest as lively as expected, it could open a new chapter in library technology at least as important as the advent of LSPs and the recent rounds of major company mergers and acquisitions. The initiative builds on the enthusiasm of academic and research libraries for … Continue reading EBSCO Supports New Open Source Project →

ProQuest to Acquire Ex Libris

By Marshall Breeding | October 6, 2015

Following the close, a new business group will be formed called Ex Libris, a ProQuest Company. This new entity will combine the portfolio of Ex Libris and the Workflow Solutions division of ProQuest and will be headed by current Ex Libris President and CEO Matti Shem Tov and a combined management team built from Ex … Continue reading ProQuest to Acquire Ex Libris →

SirsiDynix booth at ALA 2015 Annual Conference and Exhibition

A Look at Tech

By Marshall Breeding | July 23, 2015

One current trend in library technology aims to improve the engagement of patrons with libraries or to provide tools to help users work more effectively. In many respects, the technologies on display reinforced the theme of the “Library Systems Report 2015,” operationalizing the innovations brewing in recent years, including the increased adoption of Semantic Web technologies … Continue reading A Look at Tech →

Library Systems Report

By Marshall Breeding | May 1, 2015

Tied to the economy of libraries, the vendors that make up the library technology industry support a stable but highly constrained economic sector, with global opportunities. Library budgets may never recover to pre-recession levels, fueling interest in technology to improve their efficiency and the impact of collection resources. Products able to deliver efficiency, innovation, and … Continue reading Library Systems Report →

Supporting Print, Digital, and Mobile

By Marshall Breeding | August 5, 2014

The exhibit hall at the ALA Annual Conference in Las Vegas provided both a respite from the weather and a chance to learn about the latest developments in library technology. As the world’s largest exhibition of library products, the ALA Annual Conference continues to be a unique opportunity to assess current technologies from an almost … Continue reading Supporting Print, Digital, and Mobile →

Latest Library Links

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Donna Bryson writes: “Fantasy fiction was largely dominated by white men in decades past, but today diverse writers are bringing new voices to the conversation, imagining futures based on more inclusive readings of the past and creating multiethnic worlds that can help people understand their own. Certainly, speculative fiction writers since at least Octavia Butler have looked beyond Europe for inspiration. But no longer can they be dismissed as niche. Audiences and readers are flocking to well-drawn worlds inspired by African and Asian countries.”

Christian Science Monitor, May 21
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ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions will host a new session of its 90-minute workshop, “How to Respond to a Security Incident in Your Library” with Steve Albrecht on July 26. Albrecht will take the top 10 security, behavior, crime, and emergency-related incidents that occur in libraries and describe the issues, the concerns, and the responses surrounding them. Registration is through the ALA Store.

eLearning Solutions, May 25
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ALA Publishing eLearning Solutions will host a new 90-minute workshop, “Sensory Storytime Programs” with Jennifer Roy, on July 25. With as many as 1 in 59 children with autism, libraries across the country have begun to recognize and meet the need for an alternative storytime offering. Roy will offer practical strategies so you can better connect with this target audience. Registration is through the ALA Store.

eLearning Solutions, May 25
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The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect May 25, and is likely to have a significant impact on the way libraries around the globe manage personal data. To help libraries consider what they need to do in response to the GDPR, the Association of Research Libraries has published an issue brief on the topic by Anne T. Gilliland, scholarly communications officer for University Libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Association of Research Libraries, May 24
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What role should public libraries play in civic engagement? That was the question posed to a cross-section of leading thinkers—invitees from public libraries, civic media, technology, collective action, and the arts—at a gathering hosted by the University of Washington Information School’s Technology and Social Change Group. A new TASCHA report documents the ideas shared at the forum by such participants as Brian Bannon (Chicago Public Library); An-Me Chung (Mozilla); and Diego Merizalde (Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia).

University of Washington Information School, May 25
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Maura Brannigan writes: “The fashion industry has been riding a nostalgia wave for several years. For many brands of price-points high and low, this poses a challenge: to create newness while reissuing pieces it designed 10, or 50, or more years ago. How do fashion houses package their past while also contemporizing it, looking to the future? They hire an archivist like Olivia Mueller, archivist at Gap Inc., an MLS graduate of Pratt Institute with an advanced certificate in archives.”

Fashionista, May 17
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Several major US media websites were blocked to Europeans on May 25 as the European Union’s new data protection law kicked in. The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, and other publications owned by Tronc chose to black out readers rather than comply with the General Data Protection Regulation. News sites owned by Lee Enterprises, which include the Arizona Daily Sun and Star papers and the Times of Northwest Indiana, were also unavailable in Europe. Websites run by media firm A+E Networks, including History.com and FYI, were also down.

CNBC, May 25

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