Carl Grant returns to Ex Libris

Library open source solution vendor, LibLime, announced yesterday that they and CARE Affiliates

“have entered into a definitive agreement to sell select assets of CARE Affiliates to LibLime. The sale will include select products, related services and domain names along with associated service contracts. Final closing is scheduled for August 2008.”

Like CARE Affiliates, LibLime provides open source solutions to libraries, and the acquisition should, according to the press release, “ensure the continuation of [CARE's] products/services well into the future.”

See Carl Grant’s blog article of this morning for his thoughts on the move.

Library Journal had some more information to report on the acquisition:

The sale, said LibLime, includes “select products, related services and domain names along with associated service contracts.” … “What people need to understand about my move is that I’ve experienced the power of collaboration and community through my company, CARE Affiliates. When Ex Libris announced their Open Platform Strategy and asked me to return and bring that understanding to bear on their new strategy, it was a perfect fit. I obviously know a lot about the company, its products, and a good number of its customers. I’m excited to see Ex Libris moving in this direction and believe they are, once again, setting the example others will follow in North America. I’m very pleased to be part of it.”

Furthermore, the press release stated that “Carl Grant, President of CARE Affiliates will be taking a new position as president of Ex Libris, North America, effective immediately.” Carl Grant is not new to Ex Libris nor to being its president. Grant states the following in his Linked in profile:

I joined Ex Libris (USA) as President in December of 1998. In a period of four years I spearheaded a number of initiatives that led to Ex Libris becoming a leading vendor of ILS academic systems in North America.

The CARE Affiliates web-site summarizes Grant’s illustrious career in the library community, including his work with standards and his role as speaker:

Carl Grant, President. Carl is a librarian and business person who has worked in libraries, or companies automating libraries, for over 30 years. He holds a Bachelors in Education and an Masters in Library and Information Science from the University of Missouri. He has worked for a number of library automation companies including: Data Research Associates, Inc. (DRA now part of SIRSI/Dynix), where he was the Vice President of International Business; Innovative Interfaces as their Vice President of Sales and Marketing; Ameritech Library Services (now part of SIRSI/DYNIX) where he was Vice President of Marketing, Product Management and International Business; Ex Libris (USA) as President, during which time Ex Libris became a leading vendor of automation systems in North America; VTLS as President and COO where he was responsible for the Australian Research Repositories Online to the World (ARROW) project using VITAL and Fedora . In 2007, he co-founded and serves as President of CARE Affiliates, Inc. This company specializes in open source software and provides consulting, selection, implementation, maintenance, support and development services around selected open source solutions including Fedora-based repositories. He has been the Chair and Immediate Past Chair of the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and serves on the Fedora Advisory Board. He speaks and publishes about libraries, repositories and automation to audiences around the world.

Library Journal had this to say, a little over a year ago, when Grant co-founded CARE:

Carl Grant, a seasoned automation veteran most recently serving as president of VTLS, has launched CARe Affiliates, Inc., a new service company for libraries. Grant said the company was formed “in response to concerns librarians have expressed over needing lower costs, more interoperability, control, and flexibility in their automation solutions.” The company will use open source software “as the basis for total solutions offered and supported.” Grant said he and partner Lou Leuzzi will work with libraries “to jointly develop great ideas, provide needed solutions in an open environment, and do it in an affordable and caring way. The company name is a deliberate reflection of the approach we will follow in working with libraries.”

On a personal note, I have enjoyed a number of conversations with Carl since the inception of this blog. Carl has always been generous with his time and attention, freely sharing his insights with myself and with Federated Search blog readers. Carl is serving as a judge in the Federated Search Blog writing contest, and he has written three reviews of essays in Christopher Cox’s book on federated search, two of which I’ve already published: Review: SRU, Open Data and the Future of Metasearch, and Review: Developing the right RFP for selecting your federated search product. In May, Carl and I had a conversation about the RFP process and I wrote a two-part series on RFPs: Part I, Part II. And, one must not forget the post that started a dialog with Carl: OpenTranslators announcement raises questions, and the followup: Response to OpenTranslators post.

For those who want to know a bit more about Carl Grant, here are some links:

• An audio interview from when Mr. Grant was COO of VTLS.
• Thoughts from Carl Grant, his CARE Affiliates Blog
• Carl Grant Gives Us the Scoop on Open Source, from the Sept. 2007 ILS Symposium
• The podcast from the Sept. 2007 ILS Symposium discussion with Carl Grant

Carl, I wish you the best at Ex Libris. I’m expecting to hear of your new experiences.

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Tags: CARE Affiliates, carl grant, Ex Libris, federated search, LibLime