SirsiDynix is a United States company which produces
integrated library system (ILS) software and associated services for libraries.
Origins
The Sirsi Corporation was founded in
Huntsville, Alabama in 1979 by Mike Murdock, Jacky Young, and Jim Young.
The Unicorn library automation system they developed was first installed at Georgia Tech. Sirsi acquired Data Research Associates (DRA) for $51.5 million in 2001.
The Dynix Corporation was founded in 1983. Their major product was the
Dynix Automated Library System.
In January 1992, Dynix Systems was acquired by
Ameritech.
Dynix and NOTIS Systems (maker of
NOTIS NOTIS (Northwestern Online Total Integrated System) was a seminal integrated library system first created at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL USA in 1968. John P. McGowan, University Librarian from 1971 to 1992, recruited Professor James S. Aag ...
), which Ameritech purchased in October 1991, were consolidated into Ameritech Library Services (ALS) in 1994.
In November 1999, Ameritech sold Ameritech Library Systems to a pair of investment companies, the 21st Century Group and Green Leaf Ridge Company, which rebranded ALS as epixtech.
In 2003, epixtech reverted to using the Dynix name.
History
SirsiDynix was formed by the merger of the Dynix Corporation and the Sirsi Corporation in June 2005. The company is based in Lehi, Utah, and employs approximately 400 in offices worldwide.
It was bought out by
Vista Equity Partners in December 2006, a private equity firm based in
San Francisco, CA.
SirsiDynix and
Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
university libraries worked together for over a year to upgrade Stanford's library environment to support Asian and other multi-byte
character sets.
SirsiDynix has also partnered with
3M to provide
radio-frequency identification
Radio-frequency identification (RFID) uses electromagnetic fields to automatically identify and track tags attached to objects. An RFID system consists of a tiny radio transponder, a radio receiver and transmitter. When triggered by an electromag ...
systems for libraries.
On October 29, 2009, the WikiLeaks Project obtained a document from SirsiDynix taking a negative view of open source projects as compared to proprietary products, including risks of instability and insecurity. The document, which its author, Stephen Abrams, claimed was not intended to be secret, set off a debate on open source within the library technology community.
In May 2010, the company performed an upgrade of its systems at the
Ottawa Public Library, involving a scheduled two-day closure of all library branches, accompanied by an 11-day shutdown of online systems. However, the actual upgrade required closure of the library system for an additional two days.
Jan Harder, chair of Ottawa's library board, stated an intention to seek compensation from SirsiDynix for the unexpected additional upgrade work.
Bill Davison was named SirsiDynix CEO in October 2011.
In January 2015 ICV Partners announced their acquisition of SirsiDynix from Vista Equity Partners.
As of 2020, SirsiDynix was competing in both the
academic library
An academic library is a library that is attached to a higher education institution and serves two complementary purposes: to support the curriculum and the research of the university faculty and students. It is unknown how many academic librar ...
realm, where it was well behind the sector leader
Ex Libris Group in terms of marketshare; and in the
public library
A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants.
There are ...
space, where its Symphony product was very popular although its older Horizon and DynixClassic products were fading in use.
Products
Integrated library system software supports various library functions: cataloging, circulation, acquisitions, reserves, outreach, etc. SirsiDynix currently supports two ILS products: Symphony (the successor of Unicorn) and Horizon.
;BLUEcloud LSP
SirsiDynix announced the BLUEcloud Library Services Platform (LSP) at the annual users group conference, COSUGI. It is a browser-based system that will integrate SirsiDynix's "administration, discovery, acquisition, and collection management applications." It can be accessed from a desktop, laptop, tablet or smart phone. BLUEcloud can integrate with both SaaS and locally hosted Horizon and Symphony systems. The BLUEcloud LSP is made up of three major components: BLUEcloud Staff, BLUEcloud Marketplace, and BLUEcloud Discovery.
This approach will stop the duplication of data and will integrate all searches across products. The majority of the new features of BLUEcloud will be included in the annual maintenance fee.
;Other
Other products include Director's Station and Web Reporter
Previous products include Unicorn, DialCat and SchoolRooms.
[Retrieved 2011-4-9][Alt URL]
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References
External links
SirsiDynix website
Profile of SirsiDynix on Library Technology Guides, maintained by Marshall Breeding
The history of mergers and acquisitions in the library automation industry
Created by Marshall Breeding
{{Authority control
Library automation
Library-related organizations
Software companies based in Utah
Software companies established in 1979
1979 establishments in Alabama
Software companies of the United States