Ploum assisted NBD Biblion with the takeover of Bookarang

Ploum has assisted NBD Biblion with the takeover of Bookarang, a technological specialist in the field of literature analysis and content-based book recommendations.

NBD Biblion is the service organisation for public libraries and media libraries in the Netherlands. In addition to selecting, reviewing and describing media, NBD Biblion provides millions of copies ready for lending to public libraries and school media centres each year. This acquisition brings NBD Biblion technology with which it can help libraries and the entire book trade to speed up and optimise processes and to create more and better opportunities to make the right match between reader and book.

The Ploum team consisted of a new generation of employees and thus proved to be a fine and successful result of the previously implemented strategy of growth, renewal and rejuvenation at Ploum. The team was led by Geert de Nijs (Corporate M&A) and further consisted of Nina Witt (IE/IT/Privacy), Anamika Wilbrink (IT/IT/Privacy), Bo Leeuwestein (HR/Arbjective Law) and Sophie de Clercq (Corporate M&A).

Geert de Nijs "In addition to the fact that it was an enormous pleasure working with all parties, it is also extremely honourable to have been able to contribute a very small part to the future of Dutch libraries. We wish NBD Biblion and Bookarang every success in their continued collaboration."

Nina Nannini, Managing Director of NBD Biblion commented, "The acquisition of Bookarang fits very well with our strategy to accelerate on innovation. Together with these professionals, who share our passion for literature and combine this with in-depth knowledge of artificial intelligence, we can develop beautiful new products and services for the library sector. Take for example the current way of searching through the catalogue, which is no longer used by many of today's library visitors. We can work together with Bookarang on solutions for this. And the project Automatic Metadata, another wonderful example of what is possible. In this project, we have worked successfully for the past two years to automate bibliographic work, so that we can provide libraries with this information more quickly and efficiently. I therefore look forward with great confidence to our renewed cooperation."