2016 Charleston Library Conference

Recently, libraries learned of FOLIO - a new community collaboration to develop an open source library services platform (LSP). The collaboration of vendors and libraries is working to bring an LSP to market that includes traditional ILS functionality but also promises to innovate in dramatically new ways. The community - comprised of librarians and technologists, designers, service providers and vendors - has the potential to reshape the library technology space in ways we haven't seen before.

There's enormous possibility in this initiative, and as libraries it behooves us to explore further. What are our needs and wants when it comes to an open source LSP? How and when does open source become an option that allows for mass adoption? How should we as libraries innovate and how can we help shape the direction of the systems we rely on? And how, as a discipline, do we embrace change as we look towards the future of our technology space?

This panel will explore the new LSP initiative. We will look at our resource management needs, our need to align more closely with the broader academic institution, and the need for real innovation in library technology.