Survey of Library Services Platforms in U.S. Academic Law Libraries

Having just participated in a demo of a fairly new library services platform, I wanted to identify other ABA-accredited U.S. academic law libraries that are using the system and to see what other systems academic law libraries are using. Having been in the academic law library world for a while, I recall the days when Innovative Interfaces, now part of Clarivate, dominated the academic law library integrated library system landscape. However, there are newer systems and vendors in the landscape.

Our demo was timely because November marks the month that Marshall Breeding, founder of Library Technology Guides, sends out the annual International Library Automation Survey.

Judging by the data found in Library Technology Guides, searches of catalogs of about 35 libraries not included in Library Technology Guides, and a few questions to some individual libraries, it appears that Innovative is still a contender with about 34% of U.S. academic law library users using Sierra (or Millennium) but Ex Libris, also a part of Clarivate, has taken the lead with about 39% of academic law libraries using Alma. OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS) has about 9% of the market and SirsiDynix has about 7% of the market with Symphony. Other contenders are the open source Folio with about 4% of the market; EOS.Web (a SirsiDynix product), the open source Koha, and Voyager (an Ex Libris product) each comprise about 2% of the market; and Aleph (an Ex Libris product) and Tind, each have about 1% of the market.

There are about 43 U.S. academic law libraries with English language catalogs that are not listed in Library Technology Guides. To see if your library is included, check the directory of U.S. academic law libraries. You can also check out the market share listed in Library Technology Guides, but keep in mind that not all academic law libraries are included.