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Surpass Software
Building Library Intelligence with Librarians
Danny Humphress, Founder and President“Librarians know the value they bring to their communities, but they’re increasingly being asked to demonstrate that value to administrators, boards, funders and other decision-makers,” says Danny Humphress, founder and president.
Since Humphress founded Surpass in 1985, it has evolved from locally installed library systems to cloud-based software. Its guiding principle has remained consistent: technology should make librarians’ work easier, not introduce another complicated system to manage. Four decades later, Surpass remains independently owned by Humphress, who still leads the design of the software himself.
“It’s easy for mature software to become more difficult to use as more features accumulate,” he says. “We work hard to avoid that.”
Combining Practical Design with Librarian Insight
Surpass Cloud supports the daily foundations of library operations, including circulation, cataloging and patron management. Its configurable policies, permissions and workflows accommodate schools, public libraries and specialized institutions without making any library navigate features designed for someone else’s. Cloud delivery removes the burden of maintaining servers, upgrades and backups, and Surpass makes switching from other systems easy, guiding libraries through each step.
Surpass’s online public access catalog (OPAC) helps patrons find materials naturally, including young students who may not know exactly what they are looking for.
“Good software should expose its capabilities without exposing its complexity,” says Humphress.
Traditional reports present circulation figures and patron counts but do not always explain their significance. Surpass’s Insight Reports, covering areas such as community impact, education and collection effectiveness, help librarians identify patterns and make informed decisions. For school librarians, they offer evidence of student engagement to share with principals and school boards. One school librarian was moved to tears because the insights arrived at exactly the right time.
“The goal isn’t to give librarians more data. They already have plenty of data,” says Humphress. “The goal is to give them insight.”
Humphress calls customers Surpass’s “most important teachers.” Surpass actively seeks their suggestions and responds quickly, solving the problem behind each request.
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Technology itself is never really the point. The librarian is the point.
Humphress calls customers Surpass’s “most important teachers.” Surpass actively seeks their suggestions and responds quickly, solving the problem behind each request.
“We build Surpass for librarians, but more importantly, we build it with librarians,” he says.
Every Surpass Library Automation Advisor is a librarian with a degree in library science, so prospective customers talk with peers who understand library work firsthand. After the sale, customers keep working with the same advisors rather than being handed off between departments. Many libraries have stayed with Surpass for two decades or more, moving with it from Windows software to the cloud.
“The personal relationships we’ve built with our customers aren’t a consequence of our company size,” says Humphress. “They’re part of the culture we’ve intentionally built.”
Keeping Innovation Grounded in Need
Surpass is moving beyond library automation toward library intelligence. It already uses AI behind the scenes to help analyze the data in Insight Reports, making complex information more useful.
“Putting an AI button on a screen doesn’t automatically make a product better,” says Humphress. “In many cases, the best use of AI may be one the librarian never has to think about.”
Surpass is also building a richer OPAC discovery experience, with ways to browse new materials, recommendations, awardwinning works and popular titles. As Humphress puts it, “Technology itself is never really the point. The librarian is the point. We want Surpass not only to help librarians operate their libraries, but increasingly to help them understand them.”
This combination of practical technology, analytical insight and librarian expertise underpins Surpass’s recognition as the Top Library Management System 2027.
Library Software Procurement Starts at the Service Desk
A standard checkout demo rarely reveals how many screens staff must open to correct a patron record while someone waits at the desk. A policy change for a distinct borrower group can expose more work that was invisible during the demonstration. The interruptions accumulate during public service hours. Procurement teams should examine work remaining after each transaction. Every manual lookup or policy workaround consumes time, especially where one person handles both circulation and collection upkeep.
An ISBN lookup can save keystrokes and still leave catalogers correcting imported metadata by hand. Record imports should reduce duplicate entry without surrendering control over local classification rules. Buyers should test revisions, not just the speed of importing records. A fast workflow offers little relief if corrections require specialized knowledge. The same applies to patron records. Staff should handle renewals and exceptions without memorizing a sequence of screens. Training time belongs in the cost comparison, not as an afterthought during contract negotiations.
A school library and a congregational collection may share checkout mechanics without sharing lending rules. Administrators should adjust permissions and patron policies without maintaining separate systems or exposing staff to functions they never use. Configuration also affects handoffs when personnel change. A documented setting is easier to maintain than a workaround understood by only one librarian. The purchasing team should see a real lending policy configured during the demonstration. Flexibility should not depend on custom development whenever a rule changes.
Online catalogs built for known-title searches can hide useful holdings from people browsing by subject. Search results should encourage exploration and offer enough detail for patrons to judge relevance; younger users may require a different route than experienced researchers. The demonstration should include an unsuccessful search and show whether the interface helps the visitor recover. Self-check routines also vary by lending policy. A station that handles standard loans but sends common exceptions straight back to the desk does less to release staff time. Accessibility should be tested with actual patrons rather than inferred from an attractive screen.
“Surpass Software's Library Automation Advisors are librarians who often remain accessible after purchase, linking product evaluation with ongoing support.”
Board packets assembled from raw circulation totals may not explain whether recent acquisitions are meeting demand. Evaluators should ask how clearly collection patterns inform weeding and purchasing, and whether boards can receive meaningful reports without outside technical help. The system should make trends understandable to librarians who cannot dedicate hours to analyzing exports. Cloud hosting shifts responsibility for upgrades and backups, but it does not settle service questions. Libraries should establish who resolves workflow problems after launch and whether people advising on configuration remain available after the contract is signed.
Surpass Software offers Surpass Cloud for circulation, cataloging, patron records and collection management, with configurable policies that let different institutions retain their established procedures. Cloud delivery reduces the library's responsibility for server maintenance and upgrades. Its Insight Reports extend reporting into collection effectiveness and patron engagement, helping staff interpret data already recorded in the system.
Surpass Software's Library Automation Advisors are librarians who often remain accessible after purchase, linking product evaluation with ongoing support. That continuity matters when training or a policy exception calls for someone who understands the original setup. Libraries running lean technical teams while facing regular demands to justify collection spending have a clear use for both the reports and librarian-led assistance.
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Company
Surpass Software
Management
Danny Humphress, Founder and President
Description
Surpass Software develops library management solutions that support circulation, cataloging, patron management and collection analysis. Its cloud-based platform combines flexible workflows, librarian-informed design and analytical tools to help schools, public libraries and specialized institutions manage operations and better understand resource use and community impact.
