Content area
Full Text
Parents of Invention: The Development of Library Automation Systems in the Late 20th Century, Christopher Brown-Syed. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, 2011. 145p. (ISBN 978-1-59158-792-7).
By now librarians take automated library systems for granted, but some of us still remember when they were a big deal both inside and outside libraries and library schools. Few of us, however, know the history of development of the integrated li- brary system (ILS) before the 1990's. There is scarcely any literature written in this area. Parent of Invention: The Development of Library Automation Systems in the Late 20th Century by Christopher Brown-Syed fills this gap. It covers the time period from the 1970s to 1990s, with a focus on 1980s, an era of major innovation and critical develop- ment for library automation systems. The major...