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THE SYSTEMS LIBRARIAN
Tech to Serve Academic and Research Libraries: The Dynamics of Expanding Platforms
by Marshall Breeding
| I anticipate that over the next few years, the movement of academic libraries to LSPs will proceed even more quickly. |
Academic libraries face incredible challenges in forming strategies that best serve their institutions broadly and meet the specific needs of faculty members, students, alumni, and other members of their community. They must be well-aligned with the priorities articulated by the administration of the college or university and responsive to the needs of faculty members, other staffers, and students. The dynamics of building collections and delivering services aren’t static, but morph over time according to shifting institutional priorities, changes in the realm of scholarly communications, budget constraints, and the technologies available to support library efforts. Managing collections has always been one of the primary roles of academic libraries. These collections must be honed to serve the diverse information and research needs of all aspects of the educational institution. Academic libraries maintain large and complex collections of materials spanning many formats. The Emergence and Ongoing Adoption of Library Services Platforms
One of the key technology trends in academic libraries for a decade or so (2012–2024) has been the migration from legacy ILSs built to manage print collections to library services platforms (LSPs) designed for a more comprehensive approach to resource management. These products provide workflows and knowledgebases that are able to efficiently manage e-resources in addition to print books and ebooks. The transition to LSPs is not universal, with a modest contingent remaining on ILS products. The emergence of the comprehensive management model offered by the new category of LSPs can be seen as a decade overdue relative to the already changed reality of academic library collections. The quick adoption cycle reflected the pent-up frustration of academic libraries that were already struggling to manage growing proportions of e-resources with inadequate tools.
The consolidation of the library technology industry has also played a role in the movement toward LSPs among academic libraries. Mergers and acquisitions have reshaped the library technology industry. Today, academic libraries acquire products and services from a relatively small cadre of providers. Some of these providers have built or acquired multiple product families. These vendors have worked hard to maintain multiple products knowing that abruptly discontinuing any strategic product imposes disruption on libraries. In the very long term, we can anticipate that at least some of these products will eventually fall out of use as libraries move to newer systems that are more suited to their needs.
I anticipate that over the next few years, the movement of academic libraries to LSPs will proceed even more quickly. Many of the ILS products that remain in use in academic libraries are long past their life expectancy. Not only do they not offer robust functionality for managing e-resources, but they also may be difficult to operate within the enhanced security environments required as cyberattacks become more frequent and more sophisticated.
Integrated Discovery
It has already become a reality that academic libraries mostly work with a single provider for both resource management and discovery. The moment has passed when academic libraries would acquire discovery products separately from their core resource management platform. These two areas of functionality have become tightly interrelated. Any benefits in using a discovery service other than the one delivered by the provider are overwhelmed by the challenges of integration. The main exception can be seen in libraries that develop their own customized discovery interfaces, using tools such as Blacklight. However, most of these continue to use the API from the discovery service of their LSP provider to search and access scholarly content from their e-resource collections.
The Expanding Role of the LSP
LSPs serve as a foundation for an expanding ecosystem of services to support academic and research libraries. A variety of optional components or products can be layered on them to address additional areas of library activities. These optional components take advantage of data, services, and APIs available in the LSP and may be able to provide services more efficiently than integrating with third-party products. Some of these additional layers of functionality might include resource sharing, management of materials for academic courses, enhanced analytics, and management of digital collections.
The LSP has generally gained acceptance as an efficient model for managing the print and electronic collection of academic libraries. Extending these platforms to also manage digital collections of images, video, sound recordings, and related formats seems like a natural progression. Similar efficiencies may be gained through bringing the management of digital materials into the scope of the LSP, as was gained with published e-resources. These strategies for expansive, integrated platforms do not mean the demise of third-party products. Libraries will continue to need many products and services beyond those provided and may choose alternatives to those offered by their core LSP vendor.
Library Partnerships With Technology Vendors
These dynamics mean that libraries will engage in developing deeper relationships with a small number of technology providers rather than assembling an environment with components from multiple vendors. With these relationships also come dependencies. Placing all of your eggs in one basket is a valid concern that can be mitigated only as providers demonstrate their commitments to deliver valued products and services. These relationships also depend on libraries and vendors negotiating reasonable prices. Fortunately, multiple vendors and open source alternatives persist in each major category of technology products, giving libraries alternatives should costs become unreasonable.
These partnerships between libraries and their strategic technology providers require a deeper level of trust in the ability of those providers to deliver and support high-quality products. They also need alignment between the long-term strategic expectation of the library and that of the vendor. They require assurance that the vendor has sufficient stability and resources to fulfill its responsibilities for the long term. These partnerships may endure for decades. When libraries acquire multiple layers of products and services from a single strategic vendor, the complexity and cost of changing will be high.
These alliances and partnerships cannot be taken for granted. Although any partnership comes with occasional missteps, major failures can lead to drastic measures. Despite the high cost of change, libraries must be prepared to reassess their relationship with their strategic technology vendors should major problems arise. Vendors must continually earn the business of their library customers to maintain close partnerships with them. |
Marshall Breeding is an independent consultant, writer, and frequent library conference speaker and is the founder of Library Technology Guides (