EnvisionWare To Build "Library of the Future" for Headquarters

Library equipment and software company EnvisionWare is planning a new cutting-edge corporate library as part of its new headquarters online to open this spring in Duluth, GA. Unlike most corporate libraries, however, this one—dubbed the "Library of the Future"—is also planned to showcase library technology from EnvisionWare as well as outside vendors, and be a testing ground for developing products.

EnvisionWare VP Michael Monk told LJ that the new space will be a functioning library for the company, containing an array of cataloged corporate materials and a librarian on staff. It will use an integrated library system (ILS) from an outside vendor yet to be named, as well as EnvisionWare's own products, including barcode and radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology.

A multipurpose library
The library will also help in the company's ongoing research, according to Monk. EnvisionWare employees, some of whom have volunteered at local libraries to better understand the market, will also have access to a working library on site.

At the same time, the space will allow customers to see EnvisionWare and other products in action in a working library environment. At a time when fewer librarians and library administrators are able to go to library conferences, EnvisionWare's library could be a place where local librarians "can see some things that they might not be able to see," said Monk.

The library will also serve as a research and testing ground for new EnvisionWare technology, though the bulk of development will still take place in the company's labs.

Vendors of necessary library products that EnvisionWare doesn't manufacture—such as an ILS—would provide them in return for being featured as part of the Library of the Future, Monk said.

The Library of the Future concept was hatched, Monk told LJ, when it was discovered that the facility that EnvisionWare had acquired for its new headquarters came with an auditorium capable of accommodating about 75 people. A portion of that space was used for the new library, which is expected to open in June, about two months after the rest of the building is completed.