Integrated Library Systems are not new, but the technology that powers them is also not static. Recent decades have borne dramatic advancements in Integrated Library System software and capabilities. These improvements are not one-sided; some have made the lives of librarians and administrators far easier, while others have greatly improved end user experiences.
Modern Integrated Library Systems:
- Enable librarians to accomplish more with fewer workers and labor hours
- Reduce costs and waste
- Offer all the same (or improved) functionality while requiring less effort on the researcher’s part
- Allow different types of institutions to meet accreditation requirements
- Allow institutions to diversify their offerings with the inclusion of all types of digital media
There are a variety of tools librarians require regardless of whether a library is completely digital, entirely physical or a combination of both digital and physical resources. These tools include things like:
- The ability to facilitate loans
- Ordering
- Fund accounting
- Serials check in and claims
- Stock checks
- Inter library loans
The Soutron ILS offers enhanced versions of all the traditional librarian tools in addition to a variety of cutting-edge features that improve overall utility and performance.
Barcodes / RFID
Soutron’s Integrated Library System can generate and store barcodes to aid with tracking and circulations. Libraries can offer researchers all the benefits of a metadata-rich index enhanced by logical hierarchical relationships between entries (a massive value-add for patrons) without sacrificing any of the vital tools librarians still rely upon to perform their job duties. Our application is ready to work with leading RFID suppliers too to help automate the tracking and movements of physical assets.
Better Reporting
Analog collection of management reports can be a massively labor-intensive task. The level of automation and thoughtful design put into Soutron’s Integrated Library System platform enables administrators to generate management reports themselves based on a variety of customizable parameters.
Soutron admin users have access to more than 180 established management report formats, ready to use and run at any time..
Reduce Internal IT Demands
Institutions, businesses and organizations that continue to rely on legacy ILS platforms frequently struggle with maintaining their hardware, applying updates and troubleshooting problems with their system.
The anywhere-anytime access offered by a cloud-hosted Integrated Library System is frequently cited as a major benefit for many institutional users, but improved accessibility isn’t the only benefit of the cloud. Having your ILS in the cloud saves businesses and organizations from needing in-house hardware and IT expertise to manage it.
Soutron clients also benefit from convenient, easy-to-use Help Desk features that are supplemented with thorough community pages and a comprehensive knowledge base. These tools are great for both administrators who want to make the most of their ILS and users with questions about functionality.
Costs and Waste
Who knows how many trees have been saved by the transition to paperless inventory management and reporting? An argument can also be made that the adoption of eBooks and digital libraries that facilitate their use has had a similar positive impact on waste.
The efficiency improvements afforded by the adoption of Integrated Library Systems are also undeniable. A task like inventory checking a library’s worth of books could take staff hundreds of hours to complete. Digitization and barcodes have made those tedious hand-powered processes so much more efficient. Those labor savings have led to lower costs, allowing institutions, organizations and municipalities to put those dollars to better use, like improving inventory or service offerings.
Convenience and Satisfaction of End Users
Libraries of all types, whether they’re legal libraries at law firms and county attorney’s offices or institutes and public libraries, are designed to meet the specific needs of end users. Any advancements that help users find what they’re seeking more quickly or better identify relevant results should be lauded.
One of the uniquely valuable achievements in modern Integrated Library Systems has been the inclusion of hierarchical structures and the ability to create relationships between records. Relevant resources that may have been easily overlooked by researchers in the not-so-distant past are now rationally grouped and delivered to search result feeds with easy to use facet search filters and date sliders to help narrow down results on screen.
The benefits of improved research are difficult to quantify. Researchers, students and professionals have access to more relevant information, enabling them to excel and succeed at whatever task they aspire to achieve.
Learn More About Soutron’s ILS
Are you ready to see Soutron’s Integrated Library System in action? Request a demonstration and speak with our team about the many benefits of our digitized database solutions.