ILS systems and future of library operations

Major ILS systems in the world have been facing a small but potentially a large threat from open source software. The argument in many forums for and against commercial or proprietary softwares are well founded and bring out issues important for perpetuators of these thoughts and ideas.  

The main argument in favor of ILS is the freedom from vendors. It is an unfortunate situation when vendors become a reason for change of ILS. Exisiting ILS systems in the commercial  domain have by far been effective in rendering services that were relevant and appropriate at that point in time. They also have quite well attempted to bring in new features through web 2.0 technologies though much is to be desired on that front. Not to blame the ILS software itself, most the libraries that are looking to change their ILS software do confess their dissatisfaction with vendors / developers of the ILA as the prime reason for the decision.  The trend continues and the numbers are increasing. The numbers may not be huge but significant enough for us to take note of.

This trend forces us to look at alternate models of sourcing technologies like ILS into our libraries. Open source software being the most talked about alternative, we should look at business models and various value additions that a library can look forward to in this direction. As in the global markets, we have companies being based on the OSS solutions for libraries like Liblime, Equinox, PTFS, etc coming up with innovative solutions for libraries. In India we have the Verus Solutions, OSS labs, Pyther Innovations, etc trying to come up with similar business models.

It is important that we look at models beyond just the supply of required or customised ILS. It may be required to look at solutions like outsourcing of the entire maintenace of IT application to outside the library. Here it may be possible to have companies that look after hosting your server, software and also servcie your backup and maintenance needs. Extending this we may find services (based on open source software) like developing and hosting library website through a CMS (content management system) like Joomla or Drupal, developing remote access and federated searching service based on Shibboleth or DBWiz, and may be a basic service of staffing the library.  It may sound far fetched but we may find companies hiring LIS students and training them to service their clients. In fact I know of a RFID company that recruited LIS students on contract for one of its project and is looking for making this a strength of its ofering to clients.

It may not be out of place to mention that CMIE has an offering wherein specialist in business information is posted at client site along with its databases. Stack assistants are provided by a third party to the IIMA Library for quite some time now.  The present poor situation of recruitment (especially in government) may see these practices to make sense wherein employment is outsourced at the lower levels for monotonous jobs. It is important to note that core library specialist skills like reference services, collection development, information literacy services, planning and strategy, coordination and monitoring, development and growth, etc cannot be outsourced. One may be able to look at circulation, shelving, data entry, running and maintenance of IT systems, etc for such opportunities. This may be a boon for libraries that are suffering due to staffing problems.

These issues and points may not make sense today but will creep into our systems slowly but surely. There does not seem an iota of doubt in my mind.

Forecasting publishers pains!

The global financial crisis is moving towards emerging economies like India and one can see clear impact in the library sector. Rising dollar rates and (unfounded) price increase in journals and databases defy the logic of increase demand leads to decrease in prices. On a general note it is quite evident that all libraries have been faced with budget cuts, directly or indirectly. In India the same product today costs about 30-40 % higher than previous year. This is mainly because of the fact that US dollar prices (common currency we pay for foreign titles) has gone up from about Rs. 40 a dollar to about Rs. 51 a dollar today. Add to this the greedy publishers have increased their prices in the range of 7-15%. Now even if we do not look at cut in budget and increase it by 10% as in the bygone days, one cannot subscribe to the same content as we did last year.

The point is that where does all this lead to. We may soon have a time when major libraries will not be able to afford to subscribe to content on a continous basis. With global crisis looming large at our doorsteps  we need to work out alternatives in this direction and be prepared to face the worst case scenario.

My hunch is that if all libraries and publishers put their head together we may come out with sensible solutions without harming each others survival. Survival may be a strong word but doesnot have a substitute, atleast for the publishers first.

Globally there are movements to contain the impact of future financial constraints. It is time that we in India, as librarians, get together and plan for the challenges.