Thread by @yo_bj

The amount of technical debt from our reliance on proprietary ILSes to serve as the core of library operations makes the effects of the consolidation of the ILS market that much worse.

https://twitter.com/panoptigoth/status/1354808356674789380

To illustrate how screwed we are in the proprietary ILS marketplace - librarytechnology.org/mergers/

Libraries do not have leverage when there is a near monopoly in the ILS marketplace.

Also libraries never really had leverage given how each proprietary ILS is designed for complete lock in making it extremely difficult to do anything outside of that particular vendor ecosystem.

So what do you do when you are locked into a proprietary system that is the core of library operations?

You invest resources in building a structure around the ILS.

Macros.
Scripts.
Third-party software integrations.

You create a pseudo-ILS on top of your ILS.

This Rube Goldberg-like scaffolding is held together by vast quantities of technical debt.

The technical debt that comes with any ILS migration is huge. The existing technical debt from this pseudo-ILS all but makes it near impossible to switch vendors.

[Ask me how I know.]

A good part of this tech debt lives in Technical Services, which has been the focus of cutbacks & outsourcing in recent decades.

[Gods, has it been decades now?]

You can't pay back technical (and organizational) debt when your organization doesn't allow you to in the 1st place.

I guess this thread is my response to your tweet, @lindsonmars 😅