Mass High Tech Looks at the Life of Library Technology Pioneer, Betty Edison

Chapter closes on a library tech pioneer
Betty Edison, the founder of Inmagic and a role model to many, passed away last month at the age of 78. She will be missed.

“She certainly was a very forward-looking person in library automation, and an innovator,” said Hope Tillman, director of libraries for Babson College… Inmagic co-founder Karen Brothers met Eddison at an MIT conference in the 1970s when Eddison was considering automatic typewriters to print catalogue cards. Brothers proposed a computer program to automate the process. Eddison took the idea and ran with it….”She was unstoppable,” Brothers said. “She wasn’t a technical person herself, but she would get information from others. She was at the forefront of building databases of textual content…Inmagic Chief Executive Phillip Green said Inmagic, which Brothers and Eddison founded without outside investors, now employs 50 workers and lists 5,000 customers.

A memorial service for Edison will be held September 9, 2006 in Lexington, MA. See this page for more about her life and a link to a guest book and how to make a donation in her name.