Endings and Beginnings
Posted On Oct 4 2006I got an e-mail today from the RedLightGreen team at RLG. RedLightGreen provided inspiration and set the bar in many respects long before anyone had uttered the words “next generation catalog.” The much-lauded interface to the research union catalog is fading away in the wake of the OCLC RLG merger. Fortunately, this is not as much a deprecation as it is a passing of the baton to WorldCat.org, which launched in beta status last month. WorldCat includes both the faceted navigation and “Editions” feature (tying like titles together into a single record display) made popular by RedLightGreen. The second mouse …
OCLC: Soup to Nuts?
Posted On Aug 16 2006OCLC has announced another important acquisition in a long series of wins that have kept libraries, members, and industry pundits busy guessing what’s next. Following a distribution partnership that dates back to 2002, OCLC has acquired DiMeMa (Digital Media Management), the creator of CONTENTdm digital management software. Greg Zick, the former University of Washington professor who founded the company in 2001, will become vice president of OCLC Digital Services. DiMeMa staff (11 employees) will remain in Seattle. A busy year at OCLC: 2006-Aug: OCLC acquires DiMeMa / CONTENTdm 2006-Aug: OCLC launches Worldcat.org 2006-Jun: RLG membership approves merger with OCLC 2006-Apr: …
Follett Acquires Sagebrush Software
Posted On Aug 2 2006Like dying celebrities, mergers and acquisitions seem to come in threes, so we’ll call this one number two after Ex Libris (I predict that number three will happen before the end of the calendar year). Sagebrush Corporation announced last week that it has sold its library automation division to Follett Software Company, a subsidiary of Follett Corporation. Two of the biggest players in the K-12 library automation market, this is a consolidation of importance to that market, and a more focused direction for Sagebrush Books, Sagebrush Library Services, and Sagebrush Viewpoint, which has rebranded and renamed itself Savia, LLC. Bob …