Vendors

What would it look like if OCLC was broken up?

Blake — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 06:59:51 -0500

Terry's Worklog wodners.... What would it look like if OCLC was broken up?
So if it was up to Terry, how would we resolve this situation? Well, there's at least two possible scenarios.
1. Open up WorldCat.
2. Split OCLC’s membership services from OCLC’s vendor services.

Kindle competitor starting in Europe

StephenK — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 01:45:33 -0400

James Sherwood wrote at The Register's hardware section about a "Book on Mobile" plan by Vodafone. While The Register is a tech publication based in Europe, it may be possible that reading books on your own smartphone under this plan may not be too far off for the United States. Vodafone is, after all, a minority owner of Verizon Wireless so there is some potential leverage to bring such to the United States eventually.

Booksellers, wholesalers vying for Ontario school library funding

Blake — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 14:53:31 -0400

The Ontario government has finally gotten around to disbursing some of the $80-million it promised earlier this year for the purchase of books for school libraries, but some booksellers are complaining that the tendering process is proving unnecessarily burdensome.

Correction: Highsmith is relocating, not closing

Blake — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:23:20 -0400

Highsmith, a distributor of school and library supplies headquartered in Fort Atkinson, is closing its facility and will move operations to the Lab Safety Supply facility in Janesville after Lab Safety Supply bought the 52-year-old firm in July.

A Sept. 5 Capital Times story reported the Highsmith company in Fort Atkinson was closing, putting 86 employees out of work. Company officials said Highsmith is not closing Nov. 1 but is relocating, and a majority of the 200 employees at the Fort Atkinson facility are being offered positions in the Janesville facility.

Highsmith Closing Ft. Atkinson Headquarters

birdie — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 21:31:27 -0400

The headquarters of the Highsmith Inc., a leading distributor of supplies, furniture and equipment to public, academic and school libraries is closing down on November 1. The property was purchased by Lab Safety Supply of Janesville, who is also laying off 86 Highsmith workers.

According to The Capital Times, the company "was founded in 1956 by Hugh Highsmith and sold overruns of children's books to schools. Highsmith has grown from its small beginning to marketing 25,000 products through its various catalogs, including a 754-page Library and School Products catalog. The company does some $50 million annually in sales, and employs a total of 200 employees."

Shelfari, The Social Network For Book Lovers, Acquired By Amazon

Blake — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:55:34 -0400

Mashable Says Shelfari has been acquired by Amazon; probably not because it has a huge community, but because Amazon needed a book-oriented social network and acquiring Shelfari was the easiest, fastest, or least cash intensive way to do it.

Will the Next Generation of Library Systems be Customer Generated?

Blake — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 09:15:12 -0400

Eric Schnell Wonders Will the Next Generation of Library Systems be Customer Generated?

It's no wonder that library systems of tomorrow are really just library systems of yesterday. It seems to me that as a profession we are stuck in a bad relationship with our systems and vendors. We just can't figure out a way to get out of it. Are we happy that III will not give us APIs? Are we so insecure with our relationship with them that we are content to take what they give us? Do we feel we are that powerless?

LexisNexis Moves Into the Public Library Market

Blake — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:56:13 -0400

Paula J. Hane at Info Today Newsbreaks Notes In what has to be viewed as a surprisingly low-key launch for a product in a brand new market, LexisNexis (www.lexisnexis.com ) rather quietly announced its new Library Express service. This is the company’s first product for public libraries. No advance notice on the news was given to the library press or industry analysts, and there’s been almost no mention of it in the blogosphere. It will be officially available as of today, June 30, and is being shown at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference this week in Anaheim, Calif. It is very similar in features and functions to the company’s Academic library product though it offers slightly less content.

Thomson Reuters to sell Dialog to ProQuest

Blake — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 07:12:32 -0400

ProQuest, a Cambridge Information Group company, has signed an agreement under which ProQuest would acquire the Thomson Reuters Dialog® business. The transaction is expected to close pending a successful completion of the formal consultation period and other customary closing conditions. Financial terms of the transaction are not disclosed.

The acquisition of Dialog would allow ProQuest to deepen its penetration in the corporate library and professional research markets with a valued brand, authoritative content and precision search tools.

"Dialog is a highly respected source of information and a trusted brand for libraries, so it is an exceptionally good fit in the ProQuest family," said ProQuest CEO Marty Kahn. "The companies' content and market strengths complement each other and just as important is the match with our values -- we share a deep understanding of the library community and commitment to serving it with high-quality information tools."

Dialog would continue to be an important distribution channel for Thomson Reuters content after the transaction. Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI), Investext, TrademarkScan, SciSearch® and BIOSIS are among the many business-critical databases that will remain available through the Dialog services.

"Both ProQuest and Thomson Reuters understand the valuable role of Dialog in the information industry," said Mr. Kahn. "During this interim period, we feel absolutely confident that Thomson Reuters will continue to provide customers with the high level of support and service they have come to expect."

Founded 40 years ago by Roger Summit, Dialog was the world's first online information retrieval system to be used globally with commercially important databases. Dialog online-based information services help organizations across the globe to seek competitive advantages in such fields as business, science, engineering, finance and law. The Dialog portfolio of products and services, including Dialog® and DataStar®, offers organizations the ability to precisely retrieve data from more than 1.4 billion unique records of key information, accessible via the Internet.

With direct operations in 27 countries, Dialog products and services are a combination of highly accurate online research tools offering access to unique and relevant databases designed to meet the specific needs of its wide range of users. Information professionals and end-users within business, professional and government organizations in more than 100 countries value Dialog services to meet their searching needs.

ProQuest plans for the Dialog business include refreshing its platforms, evolving them to meet the needs of today's information professional, as well as exploring new products and renovating existing products. For more information about the ProQuest family of information brands and products, visit www.proquest.com.

Publishers consider dropping old standby: the paper catalog

Blake — Tue, 13 May 2008 09:20:12 -0400

A publishing institution, faithfully mailed at least twice a year to thousands of stores and libraries for about as long as the industry has existed, may be on its way out: The paper catalog.

HarperCollins announced Monday that it was planning to make their listings of upcoming releases available only online, calling the current system both economically and environmentally indefensible.

"I think we are overdue. We produce thousands and thousands of catalogs, many of which go right into the wastebaskets," HarperCollins President Jane Friedman, who said the switch would likely begin by summer 2009, told The Associated Press. "It's such a waste of paper and so inefficient."