图书馆自动化系统是图书馆业务管理的核心信息系统，亦为图书馆维持馆务运作与提供读者服务的系统。因此，图书馆每年投资于购置/更换图书馆自动化系统或系统与服务的维护费用占了图书馆信息系统经费运作之绝大部分，成为图书馆投资最多的信息管理系统。自2007年开始，知名国际图书馆信息科技与应用专家Marshall Breeding 即开始针对全球图书馆进行整合图书馆系统 (Integrated Library System , ILS)问卷调查，透过信息系统用户使用的角度进行图书馆自动化系统的评估，透过系统功能、系统处理纸本资源与电子资源的支持程度、对产品厂商/代理商的客户服务满意度等分析全球图书馆自动化系统的使用。图书馆亦可透过填写问卷的过程查看使用相同系统图书馆的系统使用情形并思考与反馈如何进行图书馆自动化系统的策略规划，面对网络化、数字化、web 2.0 化与行动化等多重趋势下，善用与加值图书信息系统，以前瞻、开创并整合的精神迎头赶上全球化信息系统趋势。会思考的图书馆自动化系统，激发用户进行系统思考(Systems Thinking)。

另一方面，Marshall 也希望透过问卷调查探索图书馆对开放性原始码图书馆自动化系统的用户意见与亚洲地区图书馆界的回馈。图书馆自动化系统建置与导入使用情形因应国情、语言处理方式不同会有不同面向的思考与评估。透过以【用户满意】为经，【系统使用】为纬两个角度发现全球图书馆自动化的系统评估报告。图书馆可透过 libraries.org 查询国别或图书馆名称后即可在该图书馆的信息页面填写问卷。

An International Survey of Library Automation

Libraries make major investments in strategic automation products, both during the initial implementation period and in annual fees paid for support, software maintenance, and other services. They depend on these products for efficient management of their daily operations and to provide access to their collections and services. Marshall Breeding, through his Library Technology Guides site, is conducting a survey to gather data regarding the experiences that libraries have with their strategic automation product. The report produced from the analysis of the responses serves as a resource to assist libraries in understanding the acceptance of the products available and the satisfaction levels of the organizations that develop and support those products. Libraries benefit from the perceptions of their peers regarding the quality of automation systems and of the performance of those organizations as they consider their own automation strategies.

Libraries in immediate need of replacing their current system, or in the process of making longer term technology strategies, appreciate having information from a variety of sources as they assess options. Technical documentation, marketing materials, product demonstrations, product vision statements and functionality checklists represent some sources of information to help libraries evaluate automation products. The vendor community naturally provides information and materials that presents their products in positive terms.

Another important avenue of investigation involves data from libraries with first-hand experience of the products and vendors. The International Survey of Library Automation aims to measure the perceptions libraries hold regarding their current automation products, the companies that support them and to capture their intentions about future migration options. It also explores interest in open source library automation systems, a key issue for the industry. This survey has been conducted every year since 2007. As libraries consider a product, they can examine both recent and historic data.

The results of each annual survey are published on Library Technology Guides. (http://librarytechnology.org/web/breeding/AutomationSurvey/) The reports provide statistical summaries of the responses to each of the questions. Since libraries of different sizes and types face unique challenges, the survey results are reported in many different categories. The report for each year’s survey also provides an interactive tool that allows readers to view responses by their own selections of library size, type, and product.

In recent years the survey has received responses from over 3,000 individuals. Each survey response is tied to a library profile entry in the libraries.org directory. This link enables the survey to benefit from additional information about each library, such as its type, collection size, geographic area, and other details. In order to ensure that no library or individual can skew the results, only one response per library is allowed. Given this high response rate, the survey is able to aggregate the subjective experience of many libraries to produce meaningful results, which can be considered as reasonably informative about the collective experience of libraries in regard to any given product or company.

Libraries in Asia have not been well represented in previous editions of the survey. Since the survey is international in scope, we are interested in better representation of the region this year. In 2013, the survey received 3,003 responses from libraries in 53 different countries. It is important to understand how well each of the automation products performs relative to the language, automation practices, and other factors that vary in each country. Please consider taking a few minutes to respond to this year’s library automation survey.

原文连接：http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_eb9fbb0e0102vdku.html