About Andrew K. Pace
A New CEO and a New Company
Posted On Jun 19 2007SirsiDynix gets a CEO I am speeding off to D.C. for ALA, but I would be remiss to not get this announcement out first, since I have been clamoring for it both on- and offline. SirsiDynix has named a new CEO (pdf). Interesting news is that it will be a name that some librarians will recognize—Gary M. Rautenstrauch. Rautenstrauch recently held several executive positions at Baker & Taylor, including CIO, VP of Operations, and CEO. Rautenstrauch was replaced by Richard Willis when the company was sold to Willis Stein & Partners back in 2003. He followed B&T with short stints …
Shameless Self-Promotion
Posted On Jun 13 2007I will make no apologies, for what is a blog if not self-promotion? Innovate or die? Many of you might have already heard that I am moderating a debate at ALA Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., titled “The Ultimate Debate.” For the record, I didn’t give it that name. In fact, I am a even a substitute moderator for the event, doing a good turn for my overbooked and much more unflappable colleague Roy Tennant. I don’t particularly like superlatives (it comes from reading a lot of press releases)—where does one go from “Ultimate”? Oh well. But I do like …
What Next? Part 3: Challenge
Posted On Jun 6 2007This is the third and final instalment of “What’s Next” for the library automation marketplace. Time to review: Major consolidation of the library automation market, the emergence of viable open source software solutions and new business models for supporting them, and a somewhat rancorous and impatient customer base that fears that profit and efficiency have out-gunned innovation and service. This is the making for a dangerous cocktail. What’s a vendor to do? What’s a library to do? The Prod IMHO, I suspect that most libraries are going to sit tight. As have been mentioned many times, the pain and expense …