Irishman bringing libraries up to date

Way back in the early days of the Internet - about five years ago - a lot of talk surrounded the possible extinction of universal paperbased library systems. With all the information anyone could ever want sitting a mouse click away on the personal computer, the dusty structures traditionally used to house books were consigned to graceful obsolescence.

As it transpires, the demand for information seems to have increased in direct proportion to its availability. The problem now is sourcing the right information, and avoiding lengthy wild goose chases to unrelated websites.

One Irishman has been working to refine library search services over the last seven years, through the development of powerful search software. His company's software has been adopted by the National Library of Australia, the British Library, the National Library of Canada and the National Szechenyi Library of Hungary.

In the past year Mr Brendan McKittrick has returned to Ireland, and located the research and development, sales, marketing and training arms of his company ELIAS near his home in Swords. Mr McKittrick now has ambitious plans to make his search software the most effective and widely used in the world.

His company, ELIAS (Extended Library Access Solutions), was founded in Belgium in 1992, after IBM sought to replace its DobisLibis system for large libraries with a more useful alternative. At the time, Mr McKittrick was doing work for IBM in his capacity as a consultant with Irish company, Vision Consulting. The following year he left Vision to join ELIAS, and his first project was to install a national library network throughout Saudi Arabia.

It was while working for the National Library of Canada that Mr McKittrick became involved in the development of the company's flagship software product, AMICUS. Soon afterwards ELIAS bought the rights to the software which allows librarians to manage and administer their library services.

It features a range of searchable indexes allowing tailored search results. But probably its strongest feature is its cataloguing facility which draws from a bibliographic database adhering to a range of international library standards.

In 1996, Mr McKittrick became head of development at ELIAS, which remains 25 per cent owned by IBM. He was instrumental in the installation of a £1 million system in Australia involving the cataloguing of 13 million bibliographic records.

Last year, Mr McKittrick saw a chance to return with his family to the Republic when it became clear it would make more sense to outsource a lot of the work of ELIAS. He incorporated his own private company Columba Internet, which now holds a 10 per cent stake in ELIAS. With 15 people currently employed in Swords, including three librarians, he expects this figure to double over the next 18 months, and this year's revenues of £1.5 million to increase by at least 50 per cent next year.

The company's latest "bread-and-butter" project will involve cataloguing 30 million records for the British Library in a contract valued at around £1.5 million.

However, Mr McKittrick has further plans for his business, and his next major project centres around another ELIAS product, LibriVision. Designed for the library user, it accesses the many applications available through AMICUS via the Web.

ELIAS is in the process of applying to Enterprise Ireland for £800,000 in EU funding to further develop the LibriVision system.

As the end information sought on library systems is of some value to the searcher, there is a need for an automated or standardised means of purchasing it online once it is sourced.

Now ELIAS, under the guidance of its technology editor, Mr Joe Zeeman, is planning to develop a "best-bid" system where library systems can talk to each other and seek out the best price for requested information.

Mr McKittrick is confident ELIAS Ireland's short-term growth will be fuelled by a number of cash injections from Pythagoras, a large EU venture capital fund which currently holds a 20 per cent stake in ELIAS.

Mr McKittrick says the end goal is to become the dominant library software system in medium to large sized libraries worldwide. At the moment ELIAS's biggest competitors are the Mormon-owned Ameritech, and ALEPH. ELIAS will move premises to Kinsealy shortly, and Mr McKittrick has high hopes it will soon get involved at a local level as it is currently talking to the National Library of Ireland.

There are plans under way for a complete overhaul of the National Library system, involving considerable investment to make it the electronic gateway to all Irish interest information.

In returning to Ireland, Mr McKittrick is confident he has struck on the ideal location for ELIAS's future: "Belgium is very structured but it lacks creative flair and empathy with the library business. I have found the people here excellent, they strike very good relationships with clients and always manage to keep an optimistic perspective."