Marshall Breeding

Library Services Platforms: A Maturing Genre of Products - Library Technology Reports Marshall Breeding

Publisher Marketing: The genre of library services platforms helps libraries manage their collection materials and automate many aspects of their operations by addressing a wider range of resources and taking advantage of current technology architectures compared to the integrated library systems that have previously dominated. This issue of Library Technology Reports explores this new category of library software, including its functional and technical characteristics. It highlights the differences with integrated library systems, which remain viable for many libraries and continue to see development along their own trajectory. This report provides an up-to-date assessment of these products, including those that have well-established track records as well as those that remain under development. The relationship between library services platforms and discovery services is addressed. The report does not provide detailed listings of features of each product, but gives a general overview of the high-level organization of functionality, the adoption patterns relative to size, types, and numbers of libraries that have implemented them, and how these libraries perceive their performance. This seminal category of library technology products has gained momentum in recent years and is positioned to reshape how libraries acquire, manage, and provide access to their

Contributor Bio:  Breeding, Marshall Marshall Breeding is the editor of Smart Libraries Newsletter for ALA TechSource, as well as the creator and editor of Library Technology Guides and a columnist for Computers in Libraries. He has authored the annual Automation Marketplace feature published by Library Journal since 2002. He has edited or authored several books, including Cloud Computing for Libraries, published in 2012. Former Director for Innovative Technology and Research at the Vanderbilt University Library, he regularly teaches workshops and gives presentations internationally at library conferences.