A library computer system is the software used to catalog, track circulation (where appropriate) and inventory a library's assets. It is intended for home, church, private enterprise or other small to medium sized collections. Larger libraries will typically use an integrated library system

Integrated library system

An integrated library system , also known as a library management system ,is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed....

 to manage the more complex activities such as acquisitions, interlibrary loan, and the licensing of online resources.

Distributed software vs. web service

Library computer systems tend to fall into two offerings: software to be purchased on a perpetual license or purchased as a subscription service. With distributed software the customer can choose to self install or have the system installed by the vendor on their own hardware and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the application and the data or can choose to be supported by the vendor with an annual maintenance contract. Some vendors charge for upgrades to the software, and some do not. Customers who subscribe to a web (hosted) service upload data to the vendor's remote server via the Internet and may pay a periodic fee to access their data.

Data entry assistance based on ISBN

Many applications can reduce a major portion of manual data entry by populating data fields based upon the entered ISBN using MARC standards

MARC standards

MARC, MAchine-Readable Cataloging, is a data format and set of related standards used by libraries to encode and share information about books and other material they collect...

 technology via the Internet.

Barcode scanning and printing

With most software, users can eliminate some manual entry by using a barcode scanner. But some software is designed, or can be extended with an additional module, to integrate scanner functionality. While most software vendors provide some type of scanner integration, not all will print labels with barcodes.

See also

• OPAC
  OPAC
  An Online Public Access Catalog is an online database of materials held by a library or group of libraries...
  
  
• Integrated library system
  Integrated library system
  An integrated library system , also known as a library management system ,is an enterprise resource planning system for a library, used to track items owned, orders made, bills paid, and patrons who have borrowed....
  
  
• List of next-generation catalogs
• Database management system
  Database management system
  A database management system is a software package with computer programs that control the creation, maintenance, and use of a database. It allows organizations to conveniently develop databases for various applications by database administrators and other specialists. A database is an integrated...
  
  
• Public library ratings
  Public library ratings
  There are several national systems for rating the quality of public libraries.-United States:The basic public library statistics are published by the National Center for Educational Statistics; the most recent version was published in July 2006, using data from fiscal year 2005...