Cooler than your iPod?

Byline: Tim Buckley Owen

Cooler than your iPod?

Humming away in the background, performing all the routine tasks without which a library could not function, integrated library systems are very easy to take for granted. Yet they are frequently the library's shop window, too A- and recently they got a

wake-up call from systems guru Marshall Breeding.

"How many of you believe your library automation system gives you everything you need?" he challenged at last year's Talis Insight conference. "Is it cooler than your iPod?"

People rarely change their system supplier because of the complexities involved, he said. So does this mean they are stuck with inflexible closed legacy systems and few of the collaborative features that users take for granted on Amazon?

"There are some really old-fashioned looking interfaces out there, so I wholeheartedly agree," says Penny Bailey of Bailey Solutions. Her company is developing a new Web 2.0 toolkit. "I don't want to give away too many details at this stage," she says. "But yes, we will be borrowing heavily from Amazon and eBay features where appropriate."