Last week about 45 employees from Endeavor lost their jobs as a result of the merger with Ex Libris. Among them are friends and former co-workers. I am not surprised that some were laid off; what surprises me is why some were laid off and others kept their jobs. Some who kept their jobs don’t deserve it, in my opinion.

What else is clear from the merger is that not much aside from Voyager will be retained in terms of products from the Endeavor side of the equation. It appears that for example, Meridian customers will be migrated to Verde; Discovery: Resolver customers will be migrated to SFX; and Discovery: Search customers will be migrated to MetaLib. At least that is my understanding at this stage. Oh, I forgot: There is one other Endeavor product that appears to have staying power: Journals Onsite. I suppose the installed user community for that product as well as for Voyager was just too strong to ignore or alienate.

It is a weird situation. I’m still getting used to saying ‘Ex Libris’ instead of ‘Endeavor.’ I wonder how many customer libraries will actually migrate to new products at a time when many are already overstretched in terms of time and resources devoted to complex information management systems. I wonder about those employees from Endeavor who remain and how they will manage the transition and uncertainty, and the same thing from the Ex Libris side. Time will tell.

Selfishly I am thankful I was able to leave Endeavor when I did, and I am thankful to have a job, period.