Why Gary Gibson Mattered to Libraries…

April 16, 2021

A remembrance by John Teskey, Librarian Emeritus at University of New Brunswick
March, 2021

Gary Gibson / Facebook

Following the sudden death of Gary Gibson in February 2021, I’m moved to write some memories—motivated by the realization that many younger librarians haven’t been around long enough to appreciate his importance in context of the history of electronic publishing in Canada.

Gary Gibson played a number of roles within the Canadian library community. He’s best known as a vendor—but of what?

Gary first became involved in publishing as he partnered with his brother Bob Gibson, founder of Micromedia, which produced Microlog. Gary managed the Russell/Ottawa Micromedia office. During his ten years in Ottawa, he represented a number of other publishers including, SilverPlatter and Chadwyck-Healey.

I got to know Gary well during the early to mid-1990s, as Atlantic Canada built a SilverPlatter-based consortium. This was a completely new approach to providing access to subject database information.

For you young librarians, SilverPlatter was a company that published a range of subject databases using a common interface. When CD-ROM reference databases became available in the late 1980s, they were presented to users as standalone products. To access a single database, a library might have needed several individual furniture pieces—to hold a PC with a monitor, a CD player, and a dedicated workstation chair sitting in the reference area. It’s hard to believe today.

To their credit, SilverPlatter released a piece of software called SilverLinker that allowed the sharing of multiple SilverPlatter databases over a network to many workstations. Their marketing plan was to sell this product to each individual library to make the various SilverPlatter databases accessible within that institution.

At University of New Brunswick, and with Gary’s help, we took this capability and extended it. Now able to mount various databases, couldn’t we share with many universities and colleges? This wasn’t SilverPlatter’s pricing plan, but Gary went to bat for us and made it happen. The program started with UNB Fredericton and Saint John, Université de Moncton, and Mount Allison. The federation of libraries grew to include University of Prince Edward Island and Holland College and eventually added Acadia and St Francis Xavier.

With Gary’s assistance, we were able to stop paying as individual institutions; we didn’t need all the multiple user licenses that was required in the SilverPlatter model and instead moved to a joint license based on the number of users allowed. I can only imagine the trials and tribulations that Gary had to work through to convince SilverPlatter to modify their pricing policies, but he succeeded. It was one of the first business model changes to benefit our community—a major milestone!

What I didn’t know at the time was that our “Atlantic Consortium” was the second largest SilverPlatter customer in Canada, right after the University of Toronto. I don’t know the other relationships that Gary built in other areas of Canada. I’m hoping that when you read this, you’ll want to add your experience, which will be very welcome, in order to round out the Gary Gibson story.

This is the problem as I begin writing my reflections. I know that there are thousands of other similar stories, because Gary enjoyed people and building relationships. He didn’t try to one-up others; he was always looking for ways to raise the tide for everyone.

In 2000, Gary moved to Australia with his wife, Joanne, to take up the position of Regional Manager, Australia and New Zealand for SilverPlatter, a position he held for some eighteen months, during which SilverPlatter was absorbed by Ovid. As it happened, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries travelled to Australia for a study tour in 2000. When in Sydney, the whole group of us were invited by Gary for lunch in Manly Breach. What a pleasant afternoon respite from visiting multiple libraries. Gary was the consummate host, and a great time was had by all.

Upon his return to Canada, Gary established Gibson Library Connections. He represented a variety of publishers—the list changed over the years, but the most recent list included 1science, Coherent Digital, Informit, InteLex, and Paratext.

He also created the Canadian Electronic Library, digitizing a collection of Canadian academic publishers’ monographs—one of the first collections of digital Canadian books. He was the owner and president from 2005 to 2014, after which he sold the CEL to his brother, Bob Gibson.

In addition to his business enterprises, Gary understood the role of library associations and the importance they play in the life of the community. He regularly became the first company to book a table for the annual Atlantic Provinces Library Association Conference, which he attended faithfully. Not only did he support the exhibits, he would get his ticket to the banquet and stay for the party. He knew he was not likely to sell very much at the conference, but he valued the connections and networking that were part of the regional conferences. I’m sure that the networking led to many sales during the year.

Gary was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer late in 2020. His treatments were working to keep the tumor in check, and he expected to keep working for several years. Working with libraries was the focus of his life. His sudden death from cardiac arrest in February 2021 was a shock to all.

Everyone who knew Gary personally felt his zest for life and his love of people. Those who worked with him professionally admired his vast knowledge of libraries and publishing and how he evolved over the years, as he kept up with the changing technology.  Below are just a few of the testimonials and memories that have flooded in from vendors and librarians, and I invite others to share their memories as this message is circulated.

— John Teskey, Fredericton, New Brunswick, March 2021

Stephen Rhind-Tutt / Eileen Lawrence, President / VP of Sales at Coherent Digital (previously at Alexander Street and Chadwyck-Healey):

Gary played a critical role in the evolution of libraries and the information industry. As the technology changed—microform and print migrating to CD-ROM, then networked CD-ROM, hard disks, local servers, and the internet, A&I databases into full-text journals, books, then audio, video, data and now virtual reality—Gary kept up and became more enthusiastic and engaged with each step. He championed the needs of Canada and Canadian libraries as we developed products.  In the 1990s he helped broker the creation of the Chadwyck-Healey Canadian Poetry database, one of the first databases dedicated to Canadian literature. At Alexander Street, we worked together with him on the first CRKN offer, which gave Canadian libraries access to millions of pages of humanities and social science resources. He was generous and made others behave generously; he’d gently twist vendors’ arms to contribute sponsorships to various organizations, including setting up an annual scholarship with CARL and supporting the Northern Exposure mentoring program. At our customer events at every American Library Association conference, Gary would set aside a table right at the front for Canadians—emblematic of his role in making sure the Canadian story was part of our collections, insisting not just that our collections were badged “North American” rather than “American,” but that they contained significant Canadian content. When we founded Coherent Digital, we of course approached Gary again to continue to be our Canadian distributor. He agreed, working even after cancer grabbed him—remaining upbeat and optimistic, scheduling around his treatments, making the most of the days when he felt well. He wanted to keep working, because that’s what made him happy; he loved work because librarians were his community, the people he loved.

Aaron Wood, Head of Product and Content Management, APA Publishing:

Gary was instrumental in my career and a wonderful fellow to be with and work with. His professionalism, kindness, and support were like no other’s. I will miss him dearly.

Eric Calaluca, President, Paratext:

Gary and I worked together since 2005, and he was consistently positive, professional and direct. Best memory was his acting as guide and counsel on my first trip to Australia, where he helped us secure relationships with many clients there, as he’d done so well for us in Canada.  It was a great trip, with plenty of laughs. Recalling shared laughter is arguably the best way to remember.

Clare Appavoo, Executive Director at CRKN:

As others have said, I remember Gary’s kind and gregarious nature.  I was new to my career on the vendor side when my mother first introduced me to Gary and over the years we had many a friendly chat about my mother and my Uncle Baird who Gary knew from his time in Russell.  I could always count on Gary for a smile and warm welcome at every conference and he was always willing to share information with us newbie vendors.  I am glad to have had the pleasure of working with him over many years.

Daniel Boivin, Executive Director, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean at OCLC:

What a sad news. Like many others posting here, I can say that he had been coaching me in various occasions over the years. He was always willing to share information, to introduce you to one of the many librarians or individuals in the industry he had built relationships with if this could help. I will miss him, especially the next time will be at a library conference!  Salut Gary!

Janine Schmidt, Trenholme Director of Libraries Emerita, McGill University:

I first met Gary in Australia where he always demonstrated total professionalism and added interest in libraries and their service improvement.   It was a partnership between the product provider and the service deliverer. When I moved to McGill in Montreal, he and his wife generously opened their home to us and we became friends. He was a gracious gentleman and thoughtful always for and about others. He made his mark.

Shelagh Paterson, Executive Director at Ontario Library Association:

Am so very sorry for this loss. Gary is someone I met many, many years ago as a newly minted librarian. He was a welcome presence at library association exhibit halls and I always enjoyed chatting with him. In my role at OLA I very much appreciated his support of our association. He also supported Northern Exposure Leadership Institute.

Denise LaFitte Koufogiannakis, Associate University Librarian at University of Alberta:

I’m very sorry to hear of Gary’s passing. He was great to work with and really listened to the needs of Canadian customers. He always had a smile for everyone, and he knew practically everyone in the Canadian library community!