Ex Libris's Grant Moves to Chief Librarian Role; Triest Named New President of North American Unit
By David Rapp Sep 17, 2010Library automation company Ex Libris Group announced that Carl Grant, Ex Libris North America's president since 2008, has been appointed to the newly created global position of chief librarian.
Mark Triest, who has a background in educational technology, has been named as Ex Libris North America's new president.
"With the creation of the prestigious new position of chief librarian, Ex Libris once again demonstrates its deep commitment to the profession of librarianship," Matti Shem Tov, Ex Libris Group's president and CEO, said in a press release. "We are very pleased to appoint an executive with Carl's extensive experience and track record to this influential new role."
Focus on "listening to the profession"
Grant told LJ that the new position of chief librarian arose out of Ex Libris's desire to create a role to interact even more directly with the library profession—to write papers, participate in conferences, webinars, and standards forums, and otherwise engage in discussion in the library community.
"We want to be listening to the profession, and where they're trying to go," Grant said, with an aim to focus Ex Libris products on its concerns.
Ex Libris's creation of a chief librarian position may indicate a growing focus on customer relations at library tech companies. In July, SirsiDynix named longtime employee Berit Nelson to the newly created position of VP of Library Relations and appointed eight additional library relations managers.
Grant, who holds a master's degree in information and library science from the University of Missouri-Columbia, became Ex Libris North America's president two years ago; he had previously been president of Ex Libris (USA) from 1998 to 2003. From 2003 to 2007, Grant was president of library tech company VTLS.
Triest has more than 20 years of experience in the educational technology field, and became president of educational social-networking company Inigral last year; previously, he had been senior vice president of sales at SunGard Higher Education.
