[Wactclc-alma] FW: Ex Libris Signs Agreement to Acquire Innovative

[Thomas, Kirsti]

IIRC, III founder Jerry Kline created SkyRiver so he would have legal standing to bring an anti-trust lawsuit against OCLC.

To be fair, early in 2009, OCLC announced a particularly boneheaded policy that more or less said they owned the rights to the contents of the WorldCat database.  They backpedaled after a huge uproar by OCLC member libraries (several of whom pointed out that much of the metadata record creation was performed by state and federal government employees and, as such, counted as work-for-hire, meaning those records belonged to govt. agencies and were therefore uncopyrightable). This was not the first time OCLC had done something like that.

Kline founded SkyRiver in Oct. 2009, and then, in mid-2010, SkyRiver and III (both under Kline) filed a joint suit against OCLC.

In 2012, Kline sold off his interests in both companies.  In 2013, the new president of III announced that they were dropping the lawsuit against OCLC and integrating all SkyRiver functions into III.

I never got the sense that they had a particularly large database with enough metadata to make it worthwhile for most libraries too use instead of WorldCat.


Kirsti S. Thomas
Library Technical Services Manager
Seattle Colleges
kirsti.thomas at seattlecolleges.edu



From: Wactclc-alma <wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Guidry, Wade
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2019 14:38
To: 'WACTCLC Alma Discussion' <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] FW: Ex Libris Signs Agreement to Acquire Innovative

Another interesting twist on this acquisition that has occurred to… and relates to my “why do libraries need OCLC?” rhetorical question last week.

Innovative Interfaces offers SkyRiver, a bibliographic record tool available to Millennium / Sierra users (maybe at additional cost), and maybe to Polaris users (not sure on that one).

Maybe SkyRiver will one day become part of the Alma CZ. That would be interesting…

https://www.iii.com/products/skyriver/<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.iii.com%2Fproducts%2Fskyriver%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C241625f5712a45754d4608d77cf87894%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C1%7C637115278935713675&sdata=GQVii%2FHoFlhDoYHtwZb1%2BCkMtYOMsp8aM%2FhCgwjNK7g%3D&reserved=0>




Wade Guidry
WACTCLC
Library Consortium Services Manager
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
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509.760.4474


From: Wactclc-alma [mailto:wactclc-alma-bounces at lists.ctc.edu] On Behalf Of Charly Eaton
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2019 7:43 AM
To: WACTCLC Alma Discussion <wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu<mailto:wactclc-alma at lists.ctc.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Wactclc-alma] FW: Ex Libris Signs Agreement to Acquire Innovative

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Very interesting. Here's a graphic on library software ownership I just happened to be looking at the other day. I believe George shared this with me from a couple Elunas ago.

On Thu, Dec 5, 2019 at 2:54 PM Guidry, Wade <WadeG at bigbend.edu<mailto:WadeG at bigbend.edu>> wrote:
Big vendor news… ExLibris is acquiring Innovative Interfaces, the vendor behind Millennium, Sierra, and more recently (through its own acquisition activity) Polaris.

(Funny, I asked Nate from ExL at the workshop on Tuesday whether he had any significant vendor news to share. He may have known about this, but I’m sure would have been under strict instructions not to pre-announce to anyone ☺)

The big for-profit LSP vendors left standing are, I believe:

ProQuest (several different platforms at this point)
OCLC (WMS)
SirsiDynix (Horizon, Symphony)
EBSCO (with its promotion of FOLIO)

As libraries, we probably need to come up with our own version of the FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google) acronym, to reflect the consolidation.

POSE?

ProQuest, OCLC and EBSCO all offer value-added metadata-at-scale within their respective products and services. SirsiDynix, which I don’t believe does, could be another potential acquisitions target.

A lot of the public library systems in this state use Polaris, so we’ll now be sharing a vendor, if not a platform, with those organizations. I just emailed a close friend of mine at the Kitsap system to tease him that I’d see him at the next vendor conference… )

There won’t be any real impact for us or other Alma / Primo customers in this. But the Polaris customers are probably getting unsettled. In general, a lot of libraries were very happy with Polaris and its company of origin. Polaris won some significant public library business from Millennium in the NW. Then, Polaris got bought out by III, and now III by ExLibris.






Wade Guidry
WACTCLC
Library Consortium Services Manager
wadeg at bigbend.edu<mailto:wadeg at bigbend.edu>
http://www.wactclc.org<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wactclc.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7C%7C241625f5712a45754d4608d77cf87894%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C1%7C637115278935733660&sdata=RSnLX2ZkbtMe1W7Y8GYFzZud1CL2%2Fq5EVRhaz6zWPvM%3D&reserved=0>
509.760.4474


From: Alma [mailto:alma-bounces at exlibrisusers.org<mailto:alma-bounces at exlibrisusers.org>] On Behalf Of Barbara Rad-El via Alma
Sent: Thursday, December 5, 2019 1:10 PM
To: Alma at exlibrisusers.org<mailto:Alma at exlibrisusers.org>
Cc: Barbara Rad-El <barbara.radel at exlibrisgroup.com<mailto:barbara.radel at exlibrisgroup.com>>
Subject: [ALMA-L] Ex Libris Signs Agreement to Acquire Innovative

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Dear All,
I am happy to announce that Ex Libris has signed an agreement to acquire Innovative.
Founded in 1978, Innovative is a highly respected company with over 40 years of experience in serving public and academic libraries. The company’s complementary software portfolio includes integrated library systems and solutions in the areas of resource sharing, library discovery, digital asset management, and metadata management. As part of the acquisition, Innovative will become a business unit within Ex Libris, reporting to me. Innovative’s products, which customers have been using and relying on for many years, will continue to be supported and enhanced.
This exciting acquisition aligns with emerging trends in our industry, whereby libraries of all types are looking for new ways in which they can increase their value to their immediate and extended environments. We have been hearing from many of you how important it is for your institution to collaborate more closely with your community and the public for the common good. Innovative’s investment in the public library sector will enable us to proactively drive new forms of partnerships and collaboration, helping you expand your contribution to your community.
With the addition of Innovative, we will expand our global teams, including Customer Support, Implementation, and Training Services. Our combined expertise will help us accelerate existing initiatives related to library management, discovery, teaching and learning, and research solutions, as well as introduce new ones. For example, together we will be better positioned to serve consortia that have a mix of academic, research, special, and public libraries and advance our recently announced resource sharing initiative.
At the same time, our strategic mission of supporting academic institutions remains in force, and we will continue to execute our product roadmap as planned. We will keep on investing in library services and connecting libraries to teaching, learning, and research through our broad range of higher-ed cloud solutions.
Working together with the Ex Libris community has always been a key part of our culture. We value our close partnership with you and look forward to receiving your input and guidance as we move along this exciting path.
The acquisition is expected to close in early 2020. For more information about this announcement, please see the Frequently Asked Questions document<https://nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.exlibrisgroup.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2FFAQ-Ex-Libris-Acquires-Innovative.pdf&data=02%7C01%7C%7C241625f5712a45754d4608d77cf87894%7C02d8ff38d7114e31a9156cb5cff788df%7C0%7C1%7C637115278935733660&sdata=a3z7%2FMyc2W4yuwHzCdunV78rz4XV4T3BKxi%2Fu3MF1EI%3D&reserved=0>.
As a reminder, until the acquisition closes, the companies remain separate and will conduct business as usual.
I would like to thank each and every one of you for your ongoing partnership with us, and I wish you and your families a happy holiday season.
Sincerely,
Bar Veinstein
President, Ex Libris Group




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Charly Eaton
Circulation Services Manager
Learning Resources/Library
425.640.1447
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