History
Beginnings
Innovative Interfaces was born in the spare bedroom of Chairman and CEO Jerry Kline's El Cerrito home, with the creation of an interface that allowed libraries to download bibliographic records into the third-party circulation system without re-keying—at the time a revolutionary, time-saving service. With the first installations of the OCLC/CLSI interface at CSU Sacramento and UC Riverside, Jerry and his partners knew they were onto something.
Demand for the device grew with about 75 libraries purchasing the product. On the heels of this success, Innovative moved to a new office (Jerry's wife, Julie, was expecting their first child, and they needed that bedroom back!) and launched INNOVACQ in 1982. INNOVACQ offered the most sophisticated acquisitions and serials control automation of its time. Then, in 1985, Innovative created INNOPAC for public access to library catalogs, as well as cataloging, circulation, and serials and acquisitions modules.
It was during the eighties that several "early pioneers" joined Innovative. Many continue with the company as part of the management team. These include: Sandy Westall, Senior Vice President of Library Service; Betsy Graham, Vice President of Product Management; Neil Block, Vice President of Worldwide Sales; and Martha McEvoy, Senior Vice President of Product Development.
1990s
The 1990s saw dramatic changes for Innovative. In 1992, the first INN-Reach system was launched, dramatically increasing the speed and cost-effectiveness of resource sharing. The late nineties saw the development and launch of the Millennium project, which has grown to become today's market leader in integrated library systems (ILS). Over the next 10 years, Innovative continued to expand the system with web services functionality, full-reporting functionality, and integrated tools such as Ecommerce, Express Lane (self-check), and Campus Computing products. By integrating functions that surpassed expectations of the traditional ILS, Innovative kept libraries up-to-date as they expanded services to become more efficient and provide in-demand web-based services.
Since its earliest days, Innovative has continually strived to provide excellent customer service. In 1997, Innovative launched CSDirect, its customer service site. CSDirect supports libraries with web-based call initiation and reporting and a wealth of information, training, and product tutorials. Best yet, Innovative's Help Desk stands behind its customers 24/7/365.
Constant Evolution
In the current decade, Innovative met the need for sophisticated administration and presentation of e-journals and other digital content with the first-to-market Electronic Resource Management. And to bring it all together with a modern interface for the web, the company began Encore development in 2006.
Year after year, Innovative has been coming through for libraries. No other company in the industry can claim a higher retention rate of customers: 98%, with over 1200 Millennium systems installed and 20 INN-Reach systems moving tens of millions of items each year. Millennium is also the #1 ILS at libraries that belong to the Association for Research Libraries or the Urban Library Council.
Innovative's worldwide headquarters can be found between Berkeley and San Francisco in Emeryville, California. A modern, three-story office building houses the majority of the company's 300-plus staff members. And, while a far cry from those early days in that spare bedroom of the Kline family home, Innovative remains focused on working side-by-side with librarians, helping them to meet their most pressing technology challenges.
