LITA Blog » Blog Archive » Library services and in-house software development

Ah, you say, I don’t need to know about these things because I have vendors supply this for me. Yes, that might be true, but such an approach to the situation is expensive in terms of time. It is not possible for third party commercial institutions to create solutions quickly enough for librarians to be seen as leaders in the field and to expediently satisfy local needs. On the other hand, if libraries posses the skills to write computer programs — control their computer environment — then they will be empowered to create solutions more immediately and more specifically. How comfortable are you outsourcing your collection, reference, or cataloging operations? In today’s environment computing services are no different.

As fast as technologies are being created and changing right now, a programmer who works for the library is the fastest and can be the most cost-effective way of keeping up.