The presentation argues that we need a new perspective on ‘open’ in the light of changing technology and the needs of academic libraries. Perceptions differ about what constitutes ‘open’ in terms of the wide variety of systems and solutions deployed by libraries.

With the rise of cloud computing, software ‘platforms’ are on the rise. The value of a platform. as opposed to a software ‘product’ comes not only from its own features, but from its ability to connect to external solutions, data, and processes. To do this it needs to be ‘open’ in terms of data and the ability to integrate, via (typically open) application programming Interfaces (APIs), with other products which may be developed by customers or provided by other independent software vendors (ISVs). The result is that we see open source library system platforms such as Folio integrating with proprietary software solutions such as reading lists. Equally we see proprietary library system platforms making use of open source software and enabling third parties to integrate to add functionality and re-use data and services provides by the platform.