An Early Pioneer in Technical Processing Automation

Leading law schools worldwide have chosen the Millennium system. Part of the reason for Millennium's dominance of this marketplace is that Innovative can trace its roots back to meeting the technology challenges of law libraries. In 1982, the Law Library at the University of California at Berkeley faced the same problems of serials and acquisitions control that plagued every U.S. law library at the time. Law libraries were (and still are) comprised largely of serials and, at that time, only primitive systems existed to handle serial titles.

Bob Berring, now Walter Perry Johnson Professor of Law and Law Librarian, knew that his library needed a better solution than those available through the University. Berring got in touch with local entrepreneur Jerry Kline who had left the U.C. Berkeley Systems Office to form a company called Innovative Interfaces. Soon after, the Law Library became one of the first implementers of Innovative's acquisitions and serials applications. Over twenty years later, Millennium provides the technology backbone of the library while Jerry Kline continues to lead Innovative as Chairman and CEO.

“Innovative offers far more than an acquisitions and serials system now,” says Berring. “Millennium is the standard of quality in full service to every sort of library and Innovative employs legions of the best staff in the world. But for me, it all comes down to a time in 1982 when I was privileged to meet with a real innovator and to see a great set of ideas when they were just being born.”

Innovative was tested early in its history by creating tools for the exacting needs of law libraries. Later, the company leveraged this experience to build the Millennium library management system from the ground up. Over twenty years of being tested by the law library community has made Innovative the company that meets their needs like none other.