               Tennant: Digital Libraries
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The Future of the ILSAugust 24, 2007 A hot topic on the speaking circuit recently has been the future of the library catalog. Those of you who have somehow found yourselves at one of my talks on this topic and failed to make it to the door in time may already know what I think about the future of library catalogs ("Future? What future? Library catalogs ain't got no stinkin' future!"). But integrated library systems are horses of a different color. No matter what I think about library catalogs focused exclusively on the holdings of one building or even a group of buildings, there is still very much a future for integrated library systems of one sort or another.Libraries must still acquire, organize, and circulate materials and the integrated library system is what performs those tasks. I think it's an open question how "integrated" such systems will be in the future, and I also think that many libraries in the future will not have a system so much as a service. Vendors are already offering these functions as an application service provider (runs on their servers, not yours), and this trend is likely to continue and even speed up. But this is all just my opinion, and I've been wrong in the past (gasp!) and will be wrong in the future (double gasp!). So the "Symposium on the Future of the ILS" being put on by the Lincoln Trail Libraries System caught my eye recently. Chock-full of engaging and thought-provoking speakers, this two-day-program-strung-over-three looks like a rolicking good time. Mr. "Library Automation Marketplace" -- Marshall Breeding -- kicks it off with an historical viewpoint that he is uniquely positioned to provide. Others following him over the next two days include my good pal Karen Schneider, Carl Grant formerly of VTLS and now of Care Associates, Elizabeth Garcia and Mike Rylander from the Georgia PINES Evergreen project, and more. I don't know who put this program together but they've done a wonderful job. If you can't make it to this, you may want to think about putting together something similar in your neck of the woods. After all, although the ILS may have more of a future than the catalog (at least in my opinion, and that's for another post), it's likely to look and act vastly different than it does today. Those who don't see the future coming are fated to have it visited on them by others. It would be nice if that weren't you. Posted by Roy Tennant on August 24, 2007 | Comments (0) Industries: News & Features
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