(1 May 2025) The library technology industry showed its maturity in 2024. Businesses have become increasingly stable and robust products delivered rich functionality. But decades of consolidation have created a narrower slate of competitors, resulting in a smaller number of products available for each type and size of library. The marketplace is seeing more specialized solutions but fewer options.
Companies continue to tailor products to the diverging service needs and collections of public, academic, school, and special libraries. Library services platforms (LSPs) designed for academic libraries, for example, are not well suited for public libraries. This stratification further narrows customers’ choices.
The expectation is that a handful of established players will continue to drive sales and development of library management systems. But we can also expect an uptick in migrations, as many libraries continue to operate legacy systems that will soon need to be replaced. Outdated functionality and security concerns are driving these migrations, as libraries seek to shore up vulnerabilities in a climate of mounting cyberattacks.
While the main players haven’t changed, there is increasing demand for these big companies to develop additional layers of technology that efficiently address collection discovery, resource sharing, digital preservation and management, and community engagement. Companies must meet libraries’ growing expectations that technologies go beyond core systems.
Businesses with consistent ownership can better focus on long-term strategies. Private equity involvement in the library technology industry continues to diminish as more companies fall under permanent financial stewardship. Ex Libris, Innovative, and ProQuest each exited cyclical investment ownership in recent years when they became part of Clarivate, a public company since 2019. EBSCO has a long history as a family-owned business that embraces a buy-and-hold strategy for its acquisitions. Constellation Software, the epitome of a buy-and-hold-forever strategy, acquired SirsiDynix in 2024. OCLC and Equinox Open Library Initiative, both nonprofit organizations, cannot be sold.
That said, expect at least a few mergers and acquisitions over the next year or so. Smaller, founder-owned businesses or those still within the portfolios of private equity investors may seek new arrangements. It’s more likely, however, that mid-sized and larger companies will take an interest in start-ups from outside the library world to fill service gaps or enhance their product suites with artificial intelligence (AI) or analytics.
The report in full can be found here.
