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The UK Public Library marketplace looks as if it is set for some interesting
changes after years of a somewhat cosy carve-up between the most established companies of Talis, Geac, DS and Epixtech.
There are several changes afoot. Several companies believe that they can be successful in UK public libraries. Innovative are hiring specifically for this market, Ex-Libris see it as a natural extension to their success in the academic market, and are pleased with their breakthrough in the US publics last month. No doubt Sirsi UK would like some of the action too - and again they have a long corporate experience in the public library field in the USA and so feel well qualified. Add to these new players the interesting rumour of Best-Seller buying ALSi and you have a recipe for interesting times.
Not that the incumbent suppliers are standing still.
DS have just announced their distributorship for AMLIB - an Australian public library system that may well suit some of the smaller rural and distributed UK counties. Epixtech have reorganised and are now more focussed - and ahead in the ASP / FM deals that they pioneered in the UK . Geac with PLUS, still run some of the largest systems like Essex County.
For newcomers to the UK scene, it comes as a shock to realise that the library systems are as big and as busy as they are.
Some think “small country - small libraries” but in reality, British public libraries are demanding in terms of traffic and service levels. The biggest systems like Essex issue about 14 million items per year through a single system. Unlike the USA there are very few really small public library systems with just a few branches. So any supplier in the UK has to be ready for big demanding customers and be able to prove their capablility.
The New Library: the people’s network project is a demanding roadmap for the development of digital services in the UK. Any company wishing to be successful must be ready to support such demands and be able to integrate with other services within national standards. The battle will be fought on the sales front where incomers will need to be keen on pricing and convince the conservative British library authorities of their capability and also at a technical level where those systems which have advanced features for integration of digital services - possibly where the incoming global companies are stronger - will be at an advantage.
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