Integrated Library Management Systems (ILMS) - Open Source and Commercial Software : An Assessment of the Merits and Demerits

An Integrated Library Management System is a computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. It performs library automation and collection development tasks broken down into different modules that are focused on simplifying tasks such as acquisition, cataloguing, and circulation commonly done in any library. It is built on a centralized database and normally utilizes a common computing platform and consolidates all library operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system. The purpose of this paper is to compare the merits and demerits of open source and commercial library management systems widely in use. Some of the compared LMS systems include Koha, Evergreen, NewGenLib, Libsys, Voyager and SOUL. The paper suggests, on the basis of the pros & cons the best suited system that could be implemented in the University environment