Library computer systems tend to fall into two offerings: software to be purchased on a perpetual licence or purchased as a subcription service. With distributed software the customer installscan choose to self install or have the applicationsystem installed by the vendor on their own hardware and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the application and the data or can choose to be supported by the vendor with an annual maintenance contract. Some vendors charge for upgrades to the software, and some do not. Customers who subscribe to a servicehosted merelyservice upload data to the vendor's remote server via the internet and may pay a periodic fee to access their data.
