Taken as a group, the efforts described above imply a sea change
in the structure of a reuse industry. Instead of an industry
dominated by one or two large government-sponsored libraries, we
can foresee an industry providing niches for many small
entrepreneurs:
- The interoperability efforts provide a basis for a network
of libraries as opposed to the previous concept of one or
two large, all-inclusive libraries.
- The LID demonstration shows that libraries of the future need not be as
monolithic as the libraries of the past. In fact, it seems that the storage
of assets, the cataloguing of assets, and the presentation to the user may all
be distinct businesses.
- The ongoing efforts for standardization reduce risk in
entering the business. Previously, any entrepreneur who
might try to add value to an existing monolithic library was
deterred by the simple fact that the library might change
its external interfaces at any time.
- The NSRD is both a first step toward the specialization of
library roles and a first step toward an infrastructure
promoting commerce in services as well as components. Both
steps are radically different from prior models where users
dealt solely with a centralized library providing all services itself.