I don’t think I can recall ever walking the vendor floor and not running into Elvis. Many people know that he has been a regular fixture at the Checkpoint booth at ALA conferences for several years. But this year, no Elvis.
As it turns out, this year, no Checkpoint Systems. I’m not going to add to any wild speculation on this. Midwinter can sometimes be a lower-traffic expense for a vendor who might just decide not to attend. But you can’t just surprise people who come to Exhibits expecting Elvis and not invite a little conjecture. It is a story I will try to get to the bottom of.
OCLC PICA Scores Again
In other personnel-related news, I learned at ALA that Eric van Lubeek has left the helm of Infor Library Systems to become director of operations and services at OCLC PICA. You might know Infor better as “the former Geac,” which is still marketing and developing the Vubis Smart library system. They were also known as Extensity for a brief period. (Note to Infor: You have a really bad branding problem when your company is called Infor, your website says Extensity, and your URL still has “Geac” in it). The parent company provides many IT services and products. Company veteran Ann Melaerts will take over as managing director for Infor Library Solutions.
As for Eric van Lubeek, he will certainly add a wealth of library automation experience to OCLC. PICA’s portfolio now includes two European ILS vendors, Sisis and Fretwell-Downing. There has not been extensive discussion about the fact that OCLC appears to be firmly back in the ILS business, at least in Europe. It will be interesting to watch.
Tomorrow, I will leave the building and head back to Raleigh. Maybe I’ll pack my jumpsuit for Annual.
[This post originally appeared as part of American Libraries’ Hectic Pace Blog and is archived here.]
