Sirsi sued by Queens Library
Queens Borough Public Library has filed a huge lawsuit against Sirsi (technically the Dynxi Corporation they bought out). They complain that they put out an RFP and chose the Horizon Library automation system (from, at the time, Dynix) which was then bought out by Sirsi. Sirsi then, according to the complaint, did not fulfill the contract. You can read the full complaint here. Two excerpts follow to give you an idea:
1. This case involves a fraudulent bait and switch scheme by Defendants against not only the Queens Borough Public Library, the highest circulating library in the nation, but other libraries as well.
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7. After two years and spent millions of the Library’s dollars, Defendants announced that Dynix would not provide the promised software (in fact, no software was ever provided) and attempted to foist Sirsi Corp.’s previously rejected and technologically inferior software on the Library.
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9. Upon learning that Dynix and Sirsi Holdings would not, as they repeatedly promised, deliver the software the Library contracted for, the Library demanded that Dynix and Sirsi Holdings perform in accordance with the agreements. Dynix and Sirsi Holdings declined to do so.
I am very interested to hear how the negotiations go, but expect to see some courtroom drama. As this affects other libraries, not just Queens, and as Sirsi is a huge company with a reach into many library services, one can expect to see many Sirsi customers watching this very carefully.
For more info, see a Library Journal article by Josh Hadro.
found via Marshall Breeding’s LibraryTechnology.org
October 6th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
This is definitely something I’d like to follow. Thanks for sharing.
October 6th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Jeremy Goldstein. Jeremy Goldstein said: The Queens library sues Sirsi Dynix! http://bit.ly/pGtou [...]
October 7th, 2009 at 6:58 am
It’s this sort of corporate proprietary crap that is making us look long & hard at the open-source guys — Evergreen by Equinox Software and the Koha project.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
My own library had an experience with Horizon much like this one. I’m right there with you, Jim, on the open-source front. Koha FTW.
October 8th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I don’t blame Queesn for their lawsuit, but let’s dream for a minute….. what if Queens had reached the same conclusion that the libraries of Georgia reached way back in 2004/05? What if they’d decided that there wasn’t a commercial ILS that fit their needs?? Think of where the open source movement would be now if all that time, and now all the money going towards a lawsuit could have been put towards one of the current open-source solutions. Sigh.
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 am
Amen Jim. We went from Horizon 7 to Evergreen Open Source after the Vaporware Horizon 8 failed to actually exist … love the open source solutions!
Can’t say that a small evil part of me thinks that SD deserves this. And if anyone’s going to stand up to them, it’s QBPL!
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:31 am
*edit : MUST say that a small evil part ….
December 2nd, 2009 at 6:03 am
I found this very interesting and look forward to hearing the outcome. I find Sirsi an absolute nightmare to deal with, and their software is definitely inferior. It’s a right pain in the you-know-what to use. I’m going to try to convince my supervisor to switch to open source in the new year!