Ex Libris Group

Ex Libris Group Ltd.
Private
Industry Library automation software
Founded 1986
Headquarters Jerusalem, Israel
Number of locations
 11
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people

Matti Shem Tov (CEO)

Eric Hines (President of North America)
Products Alma: Unified Resource Management
Primo: Discovery and Delivery
Rosetta: Digital Preservation System
Voyager: ILS
Aleph: ILS
SFX Link Resolver
and others
Owner Golden Gate Capital
Number of employees
 500+
Website www.exlibrisgroup.com
Ex Libris development centre in the Jerusalem Technology Park

Ex Libris Group is a leading provider of library automation solutions, offering the only comprehensive product suite for the discovery, management, and distribution of all materials—print, electronic, and digital. Ex Libris designs and builds products for libraries to discovery, management, and distribution of all materials—print, electronic, and digital.

History

Ex Libris started as an internal project at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1980 to develop a new library management system, as no system at the time was able to handle both Hebrew and Latin character sets as required by the University. The software was called Automated Library Expandable Program or ALEPH-100 (Aleph is also the first letter of many Semitic alphabets).[1]

In 1983, Yissum (the technology transfer company of the Hebrew University) founded Aleph-Yissum Ltd. a new company to commercializes the software. Yohanan Spruch the original developer of ALEPH became the company's Chief Technology Officer. Between 1983 and 1988, all of the eight universities in Israel bought the program and linked up in a network.[1]

In 1986 Ex Libris, Ltd. was founded by technology entrepreneur Azriel Morag to market the software overseas. In 1993 ALEPH was deployed by the seventeen libraries of the Vatican[2] and by 1995 200 libraries in 27 countries had bought it.[1]

In 1995 Aleph-Yissum merged with Ex Libris Ltd. and reorgainzed as Ex Libris group, headed by Azriel Morag as the group's CEO.[3]

In July 1997, Ex Libris acquired Dabis, a leading vendor of automated library systems in the German speaking countries.[4]

In 1999, Venture capital funds Walden Israel and Tamar Ventures invest $4m in Ex Libris.[3]

In February 2000, Ex Libris acquired the rights to SFX, an OpenURL link server software, from the University of Gent.[5]

In July 2000, Ex Libris launched MetaLib, a federated search system that conducts simultaneous searches in multiple information resources such as library catalogs, journal articles, newspapers.[6]

In 2004, Ex Libris launched Verde an Electronic Resource Management System that manages the acquisition and licensing of electronic resources.[7]

Organization

Ex Libris has approximately 520 employees in 11 countries. Ex Libris operates an extensive network of eleven wholly owned subsidiaries and 13 distributors, many of which are exclusive. It has offices in Australia, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Singapore, South Korea, the UK, and the US.[8] Ex Libris clients include the Library of Congress, the British Library, and the National Library of China.[9] In 2012, the company reached an agreement with the Orbis Cascade Alliance to supply its 37 academic institutions with a shared ILS.[10]

Products

Ex Libris Alma supports the entire suite of library operations—selection, acquisition, metadata management, digitization, and fulfillment—for the full spectrum of library materials, regardless of format or location.
Primo® is a one-stop solution for the discovery and delivery of local and remote resources, such as books, journal articles, and digital objects.
Ex Libris Rosetta enables institutions to preserve and provide access to the collections in their care, now and in the future.

Legacy Integrated library systems sold by Ex Libris included:

Other Ex Libris products:

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Instant access, distant library, Helena Flusfeder, Times Higher Education; 13 November 1995
  2. ↑ Aleph computerizes the Vatican, Israel Business Today; October 22, 1993
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Walden Israel Venture Capital portfolio
  4. ↑ Ex Libris purchases Dabis, Library Systems Newsletter [July 1997]
  5. ↑ Ex Libris Acquires SFX Linking Software, Computers in Libraries;Apr2000, Vol. 20 Issue 4, p12
  6. ↑ Implementing cross-search tools: challenges and opportunities Margaret Flett, UCL Library Services
  7. ↑ Developing an Electronic Resource Management System: Verde from Ex Libris, Tamar Sadeh, LIBER Quarterly Vol 14, No 3/4 (2004)
  8. ↑ "Ex Libris around the world". Ex Libris Group. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  9. ↑ Breeding, Marshall (16 November 2012). "Ex Libris Group under new ownership: Leeds Equity sells company to Golden Gate Capital". ALA TechSource. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  10. ↑ Ennis, Matt (9 October 2012). "Orbis Cascade Alliance Signs Agreement With Ex Libris". The Digital Shift. Retrieved 19 December 2012.

External links