ALA Techsource

April 2008

by Marshall Breeding and Tom Peters

In Smart Libraries Newsletter This Month
Just One More to Go...
"The library automation industry has not been a good environment for publicly traded companies," states Marshall Breeding in "BiblioMondo Goes Private," in the April issue of Smart Libraries. "Auto-Graphics stands as the last remaining public company in the industry, [which] minimally qualifies...," Breeding reports.

In this look at the state of some of the companies that make software for libraries, Breeding chronicles the history of BiblioMondo as well as provides perspective on the impact of this company's transition from publicly traded company to a privately owned venture.


New Media Consortium and Sun's Open Virtual Worlds Project by Tom Peters

NMC and Sun believe that an open-source option will offer participating organizations greater security, less fuzziness about the ownership of intellectual property developed and/or presented in a virtual world, and easier portability of assets from one virtual world to another.

Last month, the New Media Consortium (NMC) — a group of about 225 colleges, universities, and research centers — and Sun Microsystems announced a two-year project to develop an open-source platform for virtual world development. Second Life, a popular virtual world, in which many library-related activities have taken place, is owned by a for-profit company, Linden Lab.

Also in April in Smart Libraries

• "OverDrive Explores Retails Borders" by Tom Peters
  Last month, OverDrive announced an agreement with Borders to sell downloadable digital audiobooks directly to end-users using OverDrive's platform and content.
  
• "WebFeat Acquired by ProQuest and Merged with Serial Solutions"
  "A move that consolidates the federated search sector of the library automation market..." — Marshall Breeding
  

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