Andrew Pace
Head, Systems, North Carolina State University Libraries
Campus
Box 7111
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
Telephone: 919.515.3087 Fax:
919.513.3330
/ http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/staff/pace/
Andrew K. Pace is Head of Systems at NCSU Libraries, where he has participated in several successful initiatives, including a recent ILS migration, E-Book circulation, Web services interface design, a laptop lending program, and development of NCSU Libraries' electronic resource management system. Prior to NCSU, Pace was a product manager for library vendor, Innovative Interfaces. Pace is at-large member of the LITA Board, and is active in the Open eBook Forum (OeBF) and NISO. He is a frequent speaker and writer on several library topics. He has a regular column in Computers in Libraries magazine titled "Coming Full Circle," and is the "Technically Speaking" columnist for American Libraries magazine. His first book, The Ultimate Digital Library: Where the New Information Players Meet, was published by ALA Editions last year.
| -- October 14, 2004 8:45 am - 9:45am |
The Integrated Library System (ILS) as we have come to know it is finished. First loosely integrated, then more fully so, the ILS has finally arrived at a plateau of innovation, where "state of the art" is the best a library can hope for. Inevitably, the legacy technologies of the ILS are clashing with web innovations. The web creates opportunities, challenges, and expectations that are fueling changes in the ILS.
Librarians are dismantling systems, and creating new modules, out of frustration with the inflexible and non-extensible technology of their proprietary systems. Vendors are also creating standalone products both to harness newer technologies and capture or invent new market shares. In the newly dismantled library system, many expect that new modules will communicate with old ones, products from different vendors will work together, and a suite of existing standards will make distributed systems seem transparently whole. Today, interoperability in library automation is more myth than reality, and some wonder if we may lose more than we gain in this newly dismantled world.
Based on a "Dismantling Integrated Library Systems" Feb 1 2004 Library Journal cover story