The CARL and Uncover companies were sold in late January to Ward Shaw, CARL founder and chairman of the board. Financing was handled by a Denver bank with which the companies have had a working relationship for several years. Shaw plans no changes in the immediate future except to introduce a profit-sharing plan or employee stock options.
Dialog@CARL, the use of the CARL user interface with the Dialog databases, will continue.
The two companies have revenues of over $15 million per year, well over half from CARL, the vendor of automated library systems for large libraries and consortia. Typically, CARL responds to eight to ten RFPs a year.
CARL has launched an NT development effort that will run under Guardian just like the present product, as NT by itself cannot support the throughput that the size of CARL libraries requires. Circulation will be available first, followed by acquisitions and serials control. The system will look the same to users as the present Guardian-based systems.
[Contact: CARL, 3801 E. Florida Avenue #300, Denver, CO 80210; telephone 888-439-CARL; URL www.carl.org].
