Last Friday, I visited YorkU to attend a vendor presentation on their development of a next generation ILS. One that has been built from the bottom up to be a next generation ILS. I’ve written up some of the notes I took, which will hopefully give people a general idea of what Intota is about.
The Background
The nature of the collection has changed: 50% of collection electronic with 60+% of materials budget.
The Problem: managing today’s collection with yesterday’s tools.
The Pain
- workflows (split between electronic & print, metadata from multiple vendors)
- system maintenance (costly and time consuming, hardware + ILS + OPAC + discovery)
- assessment (need more than circulation statistics)
Imagine a Better Way
- Systems
- open system with published APIs
- modern technology, completely SaaS
- incorporation of standards
- Processes
- data and information just flows
- automation via profiles and scheduled jobs
- system changes do not require local rewrite
- People
- focus on what matters – serving patrons
- apply expertise where it belongs
The New Service
Selection -> Acquisitions -> Description -> Summon/Discovery -> Fulfillment around Knowledge Base
complete functionality reconceptualized
KnowledgeWorks = new, expanded KnowledgeBase based on linked data, FRBR with more types of data that are more accessible
Data
- foundational
- continuously updated and verified
- adding value: improving and harmonizing information from multiple sources
- enriched metadata to properly identify, evaluate…
Catalog Architecture
- can draw from various sources (KB, OCLC, LOC, etc.)
- can make local changes
- choose to share with other libraries (e.g. consortia) and/or KB
- separate Staff and Discovery Indexes for different approaches to searching records
Networked Authority Control
- cross-ref involving new ontologies in Summon index
- standardized terms in staff index
Resource sharing
- much greater level and flexibility in resource sharing
Availability
- Phase 1 – 2012: Data management (resource manage/cataloging), overlap analysis, acquisitions print & electronic
- Phase 2 – 2012/2013: selection, external system integration
- Phase 3 – Fulfillment – 2013: full circulation, network authority control, data harvesting by campus warehousing service
Unique Solution
- linked data model
- inherent interoperability
- lower total cost of ownership
- built and delivered by SerialsSolutions
Our Commitment: Benefits to Your Library
- single workflow – increase efficiency
- better decision making
- budget savings
- greater focus on users
Since Intota will not be ‘done’ until the end of 2013, it will be interesting to see what other ‘next generation’ ILSs pop up in the mean time and how they compare.
Posted with the permission of Jane Burke
Learning (Lib)Tech 
Thanks for sharing! Any mention about whether Intota would replace 360 Resource Manager? We’re still in early stages of implementing ERM…
Don’t quote me on this, but if I understand correctly, 360 Link would still be separate and 360 Resource Manager would be integrated into the ILS. Not entirely sure though. If you really need to know, I’d contact your SerialSolutions contact.
I’m at COSUGI at the moment and SirsiDynix’s strategy to compete with next-gen ILSs is to add another product to their software stack: eResource Central. So customers are expected to have Symphony (ILS) + Enterprise (Discovery) + eRC (electronic content). Seems like a missed opportunity to integrate those three products into a single next-gen ILS.
Yeah… I think the idea behind Intota was to avoid stacking and to have a fully integrated system instead.