Talis Group

Infobox_Company
company_name = Talis Group Ltd.
company_type = Private
company_slogan = Shared Innovation
foundation = 1969
location = Solihull, England
key_people = Dave Errington, CEO
Justin Leavesley, CSO
Ian Davis, CTO
Charles Flint, Non-Executive Chairman
Dr Peter Knight, Non-Executive Director

num_employees = ~90 world-wide (Mar 2008)
industry = Computer software
homepage = [http://www.talis.com/ www.talis.com]

Talis Group Ltd. is a software company based in Solihull near Birmingham, England that develops a Semantic Web application platform and a suite of applications for the education, research and library sectors. In 2005 Talis was voted one of the top ICT Employers in the United Kingdom. [cite web | url=http://www.computingcareers.co.uk/top-it-employers/talis| title=Computing Careers | accessdate = 2008-03-13]

History

In 1969 a number of libraries founded a small co-operative project, based in Birmingham to provide services that would help the libraries become more efficient. The project was known as the Birmingham Libraries Cooperative Mechanisation Project, or BLCMP. At this time the concept of automation was so new that the term "mechanisation" was often used in its place.

BLCMP built a co-operative catalogue of bibliographic data at the start of its work, a database that now contains many millions of records. BLCMP moved into using microfiche and later IBM mainframes with dedicated terminals at libraries in the mid-seventies and was one of the first library automation vendors to provide a GUI on top of Microsoft Windows to provide a better interface for end-users. The Integrated Library System was first called Talis. Talis became the name of the company during re-structuring [cite journal | year = 1999 | title = BLCMP To Become Talis Information Ltd. | journal = Library Systems | volume = 19 | issue = 1 | pages = 4 | issn = 0277-0288 | oclc = 94137446] and the ILS became known as Alto. In 1995 Talis was the first library systems vendor to produce a web enabled public access catalogue.

Much of Talis' work now focusses on the transition of information to the web, specifically the Semantic Web and Talis have lead much of the debate about how Web 2.0 attitudes affect traditional libraries [cite journal | last = Miller | first = Paul | year = 2005 | month = October | title = Web 2.0: Building the New Library | journal = Ariadne | issue = 19 | url = http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue45/miller/ | accessdate = 2008-03-13]

ee also

* Web 3.0 & Library 2.0
* Semantic Web
* Stubley, P. (1988). BLCMP: a guide for librarians and systems managers. Aldershot, Hants, England: Gower. ISBN 9780566055126
* Birmingham, Buckle, D., & BLCMP. (1974). Birmingham libraries co-operative mechanisation project: research and development programme, January 1969 to March 1975 : a background paper.
* Birmingham Libraries Co-operative Mechanisation Project, & Buckle, D. G. R. (1976). Birmingham Libraries Co-operative Mechanisation Project final report. Birmingham: BLCMP.

References

External links

* [http://www.talis.com/ Talis Group Ltd.] -- company homepage