On the personnel front, EBSCO Information Services has hired three individuals who had previous held senior executive roles in companies involved in library automation. These three hires were announced in April 2014.
Neil Block will serve as Vice President of Discovery Innovation, Academic Libraries. Block has extensive experience in the library automation industry. He joined Innovative Interfaces in 1988 and served in a variety of executive roles, including VP for Worldwide Sales. Block was President of Innovative from August 2010 until October 2012, departing shortly after the company changed ownership. Block joined Polaris in early 2013 as its Vice President of Product Management.
Gar Sydnor was appointed as Vice President of Discovery Innovation, Public Libraries and K-12 Schools. Sydnor previously served as Senior Vice President with responsibilities for sales and marketing for The Library Corporation, a company which provides automation products primarily to public libraries and school districts.
Tamir Borensztajn, will serve as Vice President of Discovery Strategy. Borensztajn comes to EBSCO from Infor, most recently in a position of Executive Director Public Sector Innovation EMEA, and previously with responsibility for global marketing for Infor's library division.
Although EBSCO Information Services does not offer its own integrated library system, it works with almost all of the companies offering those products for the integration of EBSCO Discovery Service. The addition of these three executives will bring significant expertise to the company from a wide cross-section of the library automation industry—spanning public, academic, and K-12 school libraries— helping the company hone and execute its discovery technologies and strategies.
EBSCO Discovery Services holds the lead as in category of index-based discovery service. According to the Library Systems Report published by American Libraries, a total of 5,612 libraries had subscribed to EDS by year-end 2013. This total exceeds the combined number of libraries using competing services, including Ex Libris Primo, ProQuest Summon, and OCLC's WorldCat Local. The allocation of more than 330 personnel reportedly working on its development reflects the strategic importance of EDS to the company. The recruitment of three new executives further expands the resources that EBSCO brings to bear in this sector.
