News Report #4

Investing in The Future: Pressing onward in an uncertain economy, many industry players are adding staff and expanding development
By Marshall Breeding -- Library Journal, 4/1/2009


Here is an interesting news report that deals with the scholarly communication crisis that has come up so much in class. Libraries of today are constantly striving to stay alive in the struggling economy, as well as improving their technology to appease their clientele. Many libraries are making most of their efforts in the “software” branches. The more up to date the software, the more likely the library will be visited and used as a resource. This software growth is called “Software as a Service” or SaaS. This is a difficult service to maintain due to the high maintenance fees that often exceeds the fees that users contribute, a perfect example of the scholarly communication crisis. The library has suffered in several ways due to the scholarly communication crisis. For example, the number of new customers has seen a significant drop in the past two years. This is affecting the income of the libraries on a very significant level. Libraries rely on annual fees to keep their software updated and their databases open. However there have been several library-related companies that have been able to expand despite the struggling economy. Companies such as The Library Corporation and the Polaris Library Systems have added more staff to deal with the increase in customer support. The new technology and software of these companies is drawing in mew customers and adding the annual revenue of local libraries. Small steps like these are crucial in recovering or avoiding the scholarly communication crisis of today.