Page 133 - Journal of Library Science in China 2020 Vol.46

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132 Journal of Library Science in China, Vol.12, 2020

Innovative solution of next generation library service platform: FOLIO

〇a*
ZHOU Gang〇 & SUN Yu
The next generation library service platform needs to meet the new trends in library business,
such as separation of storage and use, theme library, alliance collaboration, external system
integration, intelligent service and so on. The next generation library service platform is no
longer a single software system, but a software service platform with the characteristics of
paper and electricity integrated management, knowledge base management, service-oriented
architecture, open API, cloud technology and multi-tenant platform, as well as the functions of
various existing products. The purpose of this paper is to explore the FOLIO open source library
service platform with its advanced technical architecture and win-win ecological environment,
which will solve the problems in the practice of the next generation library service platform.
This paper first introduces the development overview of commercial software. Since 2011,
some commercial software launched abroad has the characteristics of SaaS multi-tenant, global
knowledge base, API and discovery service. Since 2016, some domestic commercial software
has added micro-services, unified resource management and other features. Domestic libraries
may face a dilemma that the previous generation of integrated library management system
neither adapts to the information technology in the new era, nor meet the innovative business.
The commercial next generation library service platform has not fully solved all problems in
the development of the library business. Secondly, this paper introduces some characteristics of
FOLIO. Micro services can easily form standard functional modules and business processes, and
competing companies can develop different products around the same library service platform.
Micro services may also support the differentiation, and any innovative developer can provide
unique application modules.
Vert.x high-performance asynchronous network library can support large-scale applications.
Codex, a standardization and virtualization layer, integrates metadata about various resources,
regardless of format, encoding, or storage location. Codex solves the problem of micro services
entanglement and serves as a resource hub. Community model will allow products to evolve more
in line with the expectations of libraries, which may become software designers. The development
may be split between the open source community and the software company, and maintenance
split between the professional maintenance company and the library itself. This paper focuses on
how these characteristics can solve some practical problems faced by domestic libraries. FOLIO
can reduce license, training, implementation and support costs, because of its competitiveness,
thereby controlling and reducing the overall operating cost. Both public and private cloud
models are supported in FOLIO. Some libraries can choose private cloud model due to network
reliability limitations and legacy system integration requirements. All FOLIO apps follow the

∗ Correspondence should be addressed to ZHOU Gang, Email: gzhou@ libnet.sh.cn, ORCID: 0000-0001-9158-4774.