Peterson Attends Idaho Conference on "Next Generation ILS"

State Library Consultant Jay Peterson attended a program on Integrated Library Systems (ILS) in Boise, Idaho, July 21-22, 2008.  According to Peterson, ILS help libraries everywhere provide efficient service to their customers and covers all aspects of life in a library from circulation and cataloging to managing online resources.

"But libraries big and small have issues with the ILS market right now," said Peterson.  "It's mostly due to what is seen as a very volatile time in the ILS industry.  Vendors have been consolidating and leaving some libraries high and dry with software that will never be upgraded without costly migrations to new systems.

"Some libraries have turned to a new model of ILS development that shifts the burden of development of new features and services from the vendor to the libraries themselves, leading to the rise of Open Source ILS systems.

"The problems in the ILS world are very complicated, but if we push to create standards of interoperability and seek new models of software creation that play to the strengths of the library community and create better services for our users, libraries won't be left out in the cold.  The public will see what a great social and economic value there is in libraries well into the future," Peterson said.

A more indepth article about what Peterson learned at the symposium will be included in the next issue of the State Library's newsletter, "Footnotes."