Library Technology Forecast for 2014

Marshall Breeding may be our industry’s foremost authority on library automation and discovery technologies. In his recent “Library Technology Forecast for 2014 and Beyond,” he notes that “libraries have to make extraordinary efforts to impress their patrons with the information resources and services that they offer on the web while remaining true to core library values.” And they must make these extraordinary efforts in the face of numerous challenges. Here are the basics of Breeding’s forecast. Strategic Cooperation The trend in strategic cooperation will be towards larger implementations of library automation infrastructure. Library Services Platforms and Discovery Services The next phase of automation, “for better or worse,” will tend toward partnering with technology providers that offer a “more comprehensive product suite rather than libraries working with multiple vendors.” These comprehensive product suites will include discovery front ends. Ebook Lending Breeding notes recent gains in the technical ease of lending ebooks and expects significant progress in fully integrating ebooks into catalogs and discovery products. Models of Development and Innovation Because their development resources exceed those of open source projects, commercially licensed library products will “continue to dominate [development and innovation] in the short term.” Consumer Technologies Libraries must meet consumer expectations. Libraries are not fully prepared for the reality of the mobile device majority. Industry Trends The library technology industry has been relatively stable. It is currently more consolidated than it has been in the past and we may see additional consolidation among library technology service providers.