Integrated Library Systems

A Brief Description
An integrated library system, or ILS (sometimes also Library Management System), is a system that libraries can utilize to monitor pieces of their respective collections, orders they have submitted for acquisition, bills that have been paid, and patrons who have borrowed, or currently have borrowed materials.An ILS houses a relational database, software to interact with the database, and two GUIs (one for patrons, one for staff). ILSes have modules which isolate different functions of the system's software. These are amalgamated into a unified interface. They include things like acquisitions, cataloging, serials and, of course, the OPAC (see post above). Each patron and item has a distinct ID in the database that allows the ILS to monitor its activity.

How it is Used in a Library
As Emily Gallup Fayen states (2004), "Integrated Library Systems have revolutionized library operations. they have led to tremendous advances in ease of use and producivity, both for the library staff members and for library users" (p. 1). As stated above, the ILS is used for most, if not all, of a library's technological functions--core modules like catalogs, OPACs, and circulation system. Other modues, such as authority control, acquisitions, serials, holdings support, materials booking, course reserves, inventory, binding and even a community bulletin board, among others are also possibly (likely) included. It is the ILS that keeps the library running and functioning properly. As with the OPAC, which is part of it, the ILS can help librarians to make decisions about acquisitions and weeding, new services needed and obsolete offerings. Librarians no longer have to spend time tablulating reports and gathering statistics. This is done for them automatically through the ILS.

Expected Social Impact
The expected social impact of the ILS is much like that of the OPAC, since the two are so closely intertwined, and since the public GUI of the OPAC is the part of the system that patrons are likely to interact with. The ILS gives patrons the opportunity to interact with all the library's collections. They also can allow for interatction, in an indirect way, with library staff, by letting the system's statistics tell the staff what is popular, what is obsolete and what is needed for patrons to fulfill their information goals. It is the ILS modules that keep records of various library transactions for that moduleso can be a significant and instrumental part in the library's collection status as well as the library's CSCW (see entry above).