A major study has just been published on the Library Management System (LMS or-- ILS is US parlance) market in UK Higher Education. It was commission by the UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Society of College, National and University Librarians (SCONUL)
‘The JISC & SCONUL Library Management Systems Study An Evaluation and horizon scan of the current library management systems and related systems landscape for UK higher education' is available from JISC or my web site.
http://www.kenchadconsulting.co.uk/images/stories/lmsstudy.pdf
Although its focus is bounded by sector and geography I think you will find much that is relevant and I hope interesting and useful. Clearly the issues libraries face in UK HE have much in common with the issues facing libraries elsewhere. If you want a brief summary I’d advise looking first at section 7 ‘Making Decisions’. This focuses on how libraries can ‘invest wisely in a period of disruptive change’ It summaries some of the key market responses (e.g. Vertical Search’, Interoperability, Open Source etc) and suggests some ways forward.
As the UK HE market is relatively small I was able to enumerate an almost complete picture of the market (who has got what system, market share etc) and make a pretty good estimate of revenues. Many of you will be familiar with the changes in ownership, market consolidation and private equity issues that characterise the global market and of course we see this in the UK too though there are some local differences. I only interviewed the 4 main vendors (ExLibris, Innovative, SirsiDynix and Talis) who together account for around 90% market share. There is some illuminating comment from them (see especially section 5 'Vendor perspectives' and also Appendix 2 'Vendor profiles') about how they see the landscape and how they are responding.
LMS/ILS vendors like OCLC that have a major market share in some other (esp. European) regions only have a tiny share of the UK LMS (ILS) market so weren't interviewed though clearly what OCLC (and Talis and others) are doing in terms of library 'Platforms' is important and is analysed.
We also surveyed all UK He libraries and got a great response -c 60%. There is some interesting situational data and also data on what libraries are planning to do.
Regards
Ken
Ken Chad, Director, Ken Chad Consulting LtdTel +44 (0)7788 727 845Email: ken_at_kenchadconsulting.com www.kenchadconsulting.comRegistered in England & Wales - Registered No. 6099834
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Received on Wed Apr 16 2008 - 14:51:19 EDT