Integrated Library Management Systems: overview
| Published date | 01 February 1999 |
| Pages | 3-10 |
| Date | 01 February 1999 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040713 |
| Author | John Akeroyd,Andrew Cox |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Integrated Library
Management
Systems: overview
by John Akeroyd Head of Learning and
Information Services, South Bank
Uni-
versity & Director of LITC and Andrew
Cox, Researcher, LITC, South Bank
University
In this article we review the development of
Integrated Library Management Systems, and
look at some broad trends in their
development. More and more core functions
and special features have been integrated into
library
systems,
and there has been a move
towards industry standard databases,
operating systems and architecture. The
second part of
the
article looks at more
aspirational library system designs, that reflect
libraries' new needs in the light of
the
electronic publishing revolution and the open
source software movement.
Past and present
Integrated Library Management Systems (ILMS)
have their origins in the late 1970s; they grew out
of systems which had been developed to cope with
one or more discrete functions within libraries. For
example Pica in The Netherlands and BLCMP in
the UK originated in cataloguing systems. These
were essentially co-operative systems, designed to
ease the burden of cataloguing by sharing records
and resources. ALS and the LIBERTAS system
had their origins in simple library issue systems
but which eventually expanded to include other
functionality.1
These early systems were soon joined by purpose
specific ILMS, sometimes aimed at specific types
of library such as schools, colleges or research
Universities. There has been a surprisingly
consistent flow of new systems over the years
despite the obvious limitations of the market,
though new systems tend not to provide significant
levels of innovation except perhaps in pure tech-
nology.
Circulation systems
Circulation is perhaps the least problematic of the
ILMS functions. That is not to say that it is not a
complex matter but, perhaps as a consequence of
increasing standardisation in issue policy across all
libraries, coupled with a high level of
parameterisation, circulation is perhaps the one
function which now causes the library manager the
least problems. In the early days of
the
ILMS, the
most common concern was machine failure,
leading to the withdrawal of
all
services, but the
increasing reliability of machinery, which can
almost guarantee 100% up-time, and with simpli-
fied processes for down-time and recovery, it has
become much less a concern; down time now is
more often planned than accidental. Circulation
systems are also now able to cope with multiple
libraries, multiple agencies and multiple policies
so that they might straddle entirely different
politically or economically based libraries. They
typically use barcodes, which seem to have be-
come a relatively standardised means of input,
perhaps given the ease of creating and labelling
books with them, although there are other input
devices.
Recent developments include :
• Self service
An important recent innovation has been
self-issue and self-renewal. The difficulty
with self-issue is not with software, but has
more to do with the need for security and for
desensitising securely tagged material. But it
is a potentially massive time saver. At Hull
20%
of issues are now self
issue,
as Diane
Leeson points out in her article below.2
• E-mail overdues
Another recent development has been the
use of
e-mail
to send notices and overdues,
which both simplifies the paperwork
involved in notification and can provide
significant savings in labour. Implementations
are becoming more and more sophisticated,
as Sudell and Robinson point out, the
Aleph system can handle multiple user
addresses posting overdues to students to
term time and vacation addresses as
appropriate.
VINE 115
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