Personalised Library Portals and Organisational Change

Abstract

Top Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) experts, during a January 1999 American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter meeting, identified a number of important future trends for technologies in libraries1. Trend1 ”library users who use the Web, expect customisation, interactivity and customer support” deals directly with issues related to library portals. The group emphasised the user-focused approach as the trend of the future. They mentioned the Univerity of Washington My Gateway and NCSU’s MyLibrary@NCState(http://my.lib.ncsu.edu) as examples of customized library portals. Other library technology trends identified are also related to the possible impacts of library portal implementations focused use of digital resources, interactive help, identifying ”human” libraries for support, co-operative support among libraries and more.