ILSR FYI

by Mary K. Dzurinko, Co-Editor, ILSR

There’s been a lot of action in the IOLS vendor arena the past few months. It’s difficult to keep up with the goings on and even more difficult to understand what impact they’ll have on the IOLS industry. Here are some highlights:

• Inmagic, Inc. acquired Comstow Information Services, Inc.’s (ILS) BiblioTech PRO. According to Inmagic President and CEO Phillip Green, the acquisition will " … add depth to the Inmagic product line with BiblioTech PRO for those requiring its rigorous ILS capabilities" and make Inmagic a "a ‘one-source’ company with a cross-platform product line" providing applications from Windows desktop to a high end IOLS. (8/2/99 press release)

• Nicols Advanced Technologies, the vendor of the Athena IOLS, joined Sagebrush Technologies. Sagebrush Technologies will provide the Athena IOLS and information management and Internet products. Sagebrush Library Services will provide cataloging and processing services for publishers and distributors. Sagebrush Learning Resources will provide educational materials and collection development services. (8/30/99 press release).

• Open Text introduced their Livelink Cataloged Library at the Minneapolis SLA Conference in June 1999. The Livelink Cataloged Library module integrates Open Text’s BASIS Techlib (a fully Web-based IOLS) with its Livelink product, a collaborative knowledge management system which "[extends] the reach of the corporate library by making it a vital part of a company’s enterprise knowledge architecture." (6/8/99 press release)

• SIRS Mandarin's new M3 Core Package was also exhibited at the Minneapolis SLA Conference in June 1999. The Package is a fully integrated application providing network software with unlimited site licensing, Windows functionality, multilingual interface, OPAC, circulation, MARC utility, inventory, report generator, and a data import/export utility. I had a short demonstration of the M3 Core Package at SLA and came away with impressions of a user friendly, very functional IOLS.

• SIRSI Corporation announced its strategic business alliance with CEA Capital Partners, a private equity firm that invests in media, communications, and information services companies. According to SIRSI CEO Jim Young, " The partnership will enable SIRSI to pursue more aggressively new business opportunities, as well as to make strategic investments in and acquisitions of other synergistic companies and technologies. As a result of the alliance and the continued wide acceptance of its popular Unicorn™ Library Management System, SIRSI expects to assume a dominant role in the library technology market." (10/1/9 press release)

• In 1998 MnLINK, Minnesota Library Information Network, announced the selection of DRA as the IOLS vendor for its statewide system. An independent study recently completed by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP reports on DRA and its ability to "deliver the library product proposed in their response to the MnLINK RFP." See http://www.mnlink.org/System%20X/PWC/DRA-Report.PDF for the complete report.

Check out Project URL, developed by students at the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies (SISLT) at the University of Missouri-Columbia led by professor Dr. Thomas R. Kochtanek and GTA/Team Coordinator Karen K. Hein. Presented in a paper at IOLS 99 at National Online, "the purpose of this project is to systematically identify, classify and evaluate electronic information related to the area of Library Information Systems (LIS)". While you are there you may want to check out Project DL as well. Project DL, created by Karen K. Hein, is a "Project" in process at the school. It's purpose is to provide "a learning tool to explore the research and development of DLs (digital libraries).

 

Current Issue
September 1999

ILSR FYI

SIRSI Unicorn

Maree Millard's Tips and Hints on Library Automation and Automated Library Systems

Current News

1999 Vendor Survey

Home Page