A small, private academic library took the risk of moving from a traditional integrated library system to adopting a system "in the cloud." This case study presents the setting, history, and local needs of the library, including staffing challenges, and explains the decision-making rationale and process. A description of the library's transition…

Discusses the processes involved in migrating a library's automation system. Highlights include getting information from vendor demonstrations, setting up an evaluation database to analyze RFPs (requests for proposals), making a spreadsheet that compares costs of packages, making recommendations once the data are analyzed, and implementation…

Compares three system models (closed, open, dissipative) with traditional models for adoption of new technology and library operations. Argues that information-provider organizations (libraries) must be able to adapt to radical changes in their environments in order to remain viable economic entities. (Author/AEF)

The Library of Congress asked the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board (CSTB) of the National Academies to conduct a study to provide strategic advice concerning the information technology path that the Library of Congress should traverse over the coming decade. The Committee on an Information Technology Strategy for the Library of…

Building joint-use libraries to foster new types of learning and collaboration is a growing phenomenon that is of great interest to academic library planners around the world. Noteworthy among these efforts, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, California, is a collaboration of a metropolitan university library and a major public…