FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Duluth, Georgia–January 12, 2017

On January 1, 2017, Equinox Software, Inc., the premiere support and service provider for the Evergreen Integrated Library System, became Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc., a nonprofit corporation serving libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions. This change comes after several years of consideration, evaluation of community needs, planning, and preparation. The change allows Equinox to better serve its customers and communities by broadening its mission of bringing more open source technology to a wide array of institutions dedicated to serving the public good.

About the conversion from for-profit to nonprofit, Mike Rylander, president of the new Equinox Open Library Initiative said, "Everyone at Equinox is dedicated to the mission of helping libraries of all types adopt and use open source software. We have been involved in this work for ten years now, and our move to become a nonprofit helps us further that mission. Importantly, this change also matches more closely the cooperative, community-focused ethos of the open source technologies with which we work. We could not be more excited to move forward in this new direction."

Jason Etheridge, an Equinox founder, added, "In 2009, we wrote an open letter to the community called the Equinox Promise, where we pledged to adhere to ideas such as transparency, code sharing, maintaining a single code set, and, in general, working with and within the Evergreen and Koha communities. This built on the original vision of Evergreen as software that should be open source for both philosophical and pragmatic reasons. Equinox becoming a nonprofit is another promise, one with legal teeth, where our charitable purpose is put front and center. I see no better way to participate in the gift culture known as open source, and in our Evergreen and Koha communities."

While daily operations at Equinox will not change, company leaders highlight that going forward there will be new opportunities for service expansion and enhancement, as well as creative funding options for projects that enhance library services. Grace Dunbar, Equinox Vice President, pointed out, "By becoming a nonprofit organization, Equinox will actually be able to do more and grow our service offerings to the library community. I think it's important to note we're not changing our services—we still offer a complete suite of services for seamless migration, support, and development for open source software library software. However, by making the change to nonprofit we will be able to grow in a way that does not require a merger or acquisition with a proprietary software company and will allow us to integrate more resources into our mission."

About Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc.

Equinox Open Library Initiative Inc. is a nonprofit company engaging in literary, charitable, and educational endeavors serving cultural and knowledge institutions. As the successor to Equinox Software, Inc., the Initiative carries forward a decade of service and experience with Evergreen and other open source library software. At Equinox OLI we help you empower your library with open source technologies.

For more information, please visit https://www.equinoxinitiative.org/
Equinox Transitions to NonProfit to Benefit Libraries