Who We Are
CLCD, LLC reflects the new way work can be done today. By that I mean that the company does not have expensive corporate headquarters or a large staff. Since our product The Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database is Internet based, there is no need for programmers, sales reps, help desk personnel, editors and the like to be in one location or to even be a part of the staff. Each of our business associates has his or her own company/business and together we develop, maintain and provide what we believe is one of the most comprehensive databases of information related to children’s and young adult materials available today.
The following provides a look at the background and qualifications of the principal participants in CLCD.
Dr. Ajay Vijay Gupte, the President of CLCD, LLC, has been working in the Library Automation industry since 1988 starting at The Library Corporation, Inwood, WV. He was intimately involved with the MARC data updates and with library data in the early years. Later, he was responsible for the second generation of the Public Access Catalog and was instrumental in development of the associated production system. Dr. Gupte has diverse computer software industry experience having worked as a senior manager in a number of global organizations such as SAIC, Hughes Aircraft, Raytheon, Convera and MYOB. Even so, Dr. Gupte has directly supported the underlying database at Children's Literature since its inception 1999. For Dr. Gupte, the purchase of CLCD is an exciting opportunity and he will be working dilligently on ways to further enhance the database and its usability for its customers. He has a doctorate in Computer Science from George Washington University and a masters from George Mason University in the same field. He also has a bachelors in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech.
Marilyn Courtot, Vice President of CLCD, is a librarian with an M.S. in Library Science from The Catholic University of America and a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Maryland. Ms. Courtot is the owner of Children’s Literature, a review service formed in 1993 that focusses on books for children and young adults. A decade ago, Ms. Courtot was instrumental in forming a sister organization, The Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database Company (CLCD) which took the reviews from Children’s Literature and augmented them with the reviews of more than 40 additional review media to provide an Internet based acquisition, research, and reference service. Its subscribers include schools, libraries, colleges, publishers and booksellers. In addition, for the last ten years Ms. Courtot has worked with local schools, libraries and conferences to identify authors for speaking engagements and to manage book sales at these events. She has also served on various children’s literature awards committees and is a member of numerous organizations among which are Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, The Children’s Book Guild of Washington DC, American Library Association, and the Women's National Book Association. Recently Ms. Courtot stepped back from from her original role as owner and president of CLCD and passed that on to Dr. Gupte.
Emily Q. Griffin of Emily Q. Griffin & Associates serves as the Publicity and Marketing Director for CLCD. She has a B.A. in English from George Mason University. During college she was the manager at a local independent children's bookstore, A Likely Story, where she realized she could turn her love of children's literature into a career. She studied abroad in London twice; while there she worked at Peter Owen Publishers, creating sales and marketing material, reading submissions, maintaining the website and blog, and attending the London Book Fair. She also did a summer editorial internship program at Candlewick Press in Boston. There she read submissions and proofread material such as proof pages and flap copy. Today, her work at CLCD includes contributing to the monthly e-newsletter, running the social media campaign, attending trade shows, and compiling the awards, best book lists, and curriculum tools information found in the database. Emily is a member of the United States Board on Books for Young People, The Women's National Book Association, and reviews books for Children's Literature. Among her other clients is Children's Literature for whom she also handles publicity and marketing. In this capacity she manages the author/illustrator booking service, processes reviews, represents the company at various conferences and events, and provides monthly website updates.
Charles (Charlie) Wyman of Charles R. Wyman & Associates provides consulting services on technical issues related to the Children's Literature and CLCD databases, print products, and its web sites. His career includes thirty years at the United States Senate much of which was involved with development and maintenance of the Senate legislative information systems. For CLCD he is responsible for the development and maintenance of the software used to convert the myriad formats of data received from 40 plus review sources into the standard format used to provide monthly input to the CLCD database update procedures. In addition, he was instrumental in the design of the CLCD search and help screens and is one of the key individuals with whom we consult regarding new requests from customers to refine or enhance the search capabilities of CLCD. Charlie did his undergraduate work at Carleton College and has a Masters in Physics from the University of Illinois.
Dean Wilder is a library automation consultant specializing in Public Access Catalog applications and search engine design. He recently retired from the Library of Congress after 21 years of project development activities. Dean is the one who makes the search engine do all of the wonderful things it does – such as letting you limit your searches to books published by a specific publisher or during a specific year or by a particular author. One of the clever aspects of his work for CLCD includes the ability to search in American or Canadian/British English and come up with the same results since the system automatically pairs words like color and colour. His current focus is on the refinement of search engines to provide users with a better way to evaluate the relative value of hits.
Peggy Fulton of Fulton Consulting received her MLS from Syracuse University and has been involved with automated library systems and database development for over thirty years. Peggy has worked in libraries as well as for Gaylord Bros. and The Library Corporation. She is responsible for maintaining the Select Books database for CLCD.
Gary Gibson is the founder and President of Gibson Library Connections (GLC), an electronic publisher and sales agency serving the Canadian library market. Since entering the information industry in the early 1980s, Gary has held a number of management positions, with responsibilities in the areas of sales, marketing, product development and client/vendor relations. During the 1980s he developed and managed the Technical Information Centre for Micromedia Limited, bringing new and innovative services to Canadian and International research and library communities. In the 1990s he added the role of Director of Sales for Micromedia, pioneering consortia approaches to database licensing and extending the penetration of both proprietary products and the numerous international vendors they represented. Valuable international experience was added in 2000 as Regional Manager, Australia & New Zealand for SilverPlatter Information, before returning to Canada in 2001 as Regional Director for Ovid Technologies. In 2002 Gary decided to strike out on his own and founded GLC. He has been a frequent speaker at information industry conferences and an active member and supporter of the Canadian Library Association. Gary represents CLCD in Canada, serving college and university clients from coast to coast through site visits, attendance at key library conferences, and targeted electronic communications. For further information visit www.gibsonlibraryconnections.ca.
Richard (Dick) Stine brings many years of experience holding various marketing, sales and management positions in the library/information marketplace. Previously, he held a management position with the 3M Company. He joined Information Design as VP of Sales and became President introducing innovative products to the academic and public library markets. He worked with the U.S. Postal Service in developing and distributing an expanded zip-code database to service centers throughout the United States. Later, Dick joined Contact North America as the Director of Sales for introducing a New Zealand integrated library system to the US market. As a consultant for SIRS, he explored expansion of their services to other markets. Dick has also worked as Director of Sales for Total Security US, a company offering consulting and security products to the Homeland Security Market. Dick has a B.S. degree in Business Management from Elizabethtown College. He has been an area representative for CLCD since 2002 primarily covering the southeast. Dick's philosophy for assisting both prospects and customers is to provide the best possible response and follow up support to meet their needs.
A. J. Boggs and Company, the supplier of the CatSearch Engine used by CLCD, is a systems integration company that provides software development services to business, the medical field, and local and federal government agencies. CatSearch is a sophisticated tool to help find information across large databases. Staff at A. J. Boggs are instrumental in keeping the database running and also currently provide the Help Desk Service for CLCD.
Hodgson Consulting, one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s premiere Web development and interactive technology firms, provides businesses and organizations with Web-based tools and solutions essential to achieving their strategic objectives. Hodgson provides Web design and development, marketing strategy and support, and monthly web administration services to Children’s Literature and CLCD.
