Slaven Zivkovic

Founder & CEO Springshare

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Slaven Zivkovic founded Springshare in January 2007 and launched LibGuides that April; nineteen years later the platform holds close to a million research guides written by more than 324,000 librarians, and the sector still marks 30 April as LibGuides Day. What makes the company unusual is not the product but the shape of the business. Springshare has never taken outside investment — Zivkovic remains its sole private owner — it competes explicitly on affordability against far larger library vendors, and more than 80 per cent of its staff are librarians rather than career software people. It has grown from one tool to sixteen, spanning research guides, reference, room booking, event scheduling, data collection, staff scheduling and library marketing, serving upwards of 8,000 institutions in over 100 countries and around 250,000 librarian users. This is also his second company in the same market: he co-founded Docutek in 1995 with Philip Kesten, built ERes, the first electronic reserves management system, and sold it to Sirsi Corporation in January 2005 before starting again from scratch.

Career Highlights

• Worked as a library student assistant during his undergraduate years at Santa Clara University, the origin of his whole career.
• Co-founded Docutek Information Systems in 1995 with Philip Kesten, developing ERes, the electronic reserves management system.
• Sold Docutek to Sirsi Corporation, later SirsiDynix, in January 2005; ERes ran until version 5.6.1 in August 2009.
• Founded Springshare in January 2007 and launched LibGuides on 30 April 2007.
• Grew Springshare from a single product into a suite of 16 tools across resource and service delivery, marketing and engagement, and internal productivity.
• Built the platform to more than 8,000 institutions across over 100 countries and roughly 250,000 librarian users.
• Acquired QuestionPoint, OCLC’s 24/7 virtual reference cooperative, in an agreement announced 31 May 2019, taking on personnel, subscribers, revenue and content.
• Acquired CareerShift in October 2024 and the assets of Pathrise in October 2025, extending the company into career services.
• Retains sole private ownership of Springshare with no outside investors.
• Staffed the company so that more than 80 per cent of employees are librarians.
• Held SOC 2 Type II compliance for a fourth consecutive year through 2025.
• Patron Point, Springshare’s library marketing automation platform, won a Platinum Award in LibraryWorks’ 12th Annual Modern Library Awards in January 2026.
• Announced a strategic partnership with SirsiDynix in March 2026.

Professional Journey

Zivkovic’s career began where his products are now used. As an undergraduate at Santa Clara University he worked as a library student assistant, which is where the problems he has spent thirty years solving first presented themselves.

In 1995 he co-founded Docutek Information Systems with Philip Kesten. Its product, ERes, was an electronic reserves management system — software to take the course readings that academic libraries had traditionally kept behind the desk in physical folders and put them online with the necessary access controls and copyright handling. It was widely regarded as the first system of its kind, and it defined a category. Sirsi Corporation, which later became SirsiDynix, acquired Docutek in January 2005. ERes continued under new ownership until it was discontinued after the release of version 5.6.1 in August 2009.

Rather than staying with the acquirer, Zivkovic started again. Springshare was founded in January 2007 to build library software on a software-as-a-service platform, and its first product, LibGuides, launched on 30 April that year. LibGuides gave librarians a straightforward way to build subject and course guides themselves, without waiting for a web team — a small capability that turned out to matter enormously, because it let the people who knew the collections publish directly. Adoption spread through academic libraries by word of mouth and through the shared LibGuides community, which now holds close to 953,000 guides created by over 324,000 librarians at 5,724 institutions in 104 countries.

The company expanded product by product rather than through a platform rewrite: LibCal for event scheduling and room booking, LibAnswers for reference, LibWizard for forms and tutorials, LibStaffer for staff scheduling, LibInsight for data collection and assessment, LibMaps, LibConnect Pro and Patron Point for library marketing — sixteen tools in all. Throughout, the positioning stayed the same: affordable SaaS for libraries, heavy investment in free training and the annual SpringyCamp community conferences, and explicit commitments on privacy and accessibility compliance.

Acquisitions came later and were carefully chosen. In May 2019 Springshare agreed to take over QuestionPoint, the 24/7 virtual reference cooperative that OCLC was divesting, absorbing its personnel, subscribers, revenue and content. Zivkovic framed the logic in terms that explain the company’s broader direction: he does not see the category as virtual reference but as customer service and user engagement, with libraries needing to answer users on chat, email, social platforms, SMS or whatever channel they arrive on. In October 2024 Springshare bought CareerShift, and in October 2025 the assets of Pathrise, pushing the company beyond the library into higher-education career services.

The business has remained privately held by Zivkovic throughout, operating from 801 Brickell Avenue in Miami. In January 2026 Patron Point took a Platinum Award in LibraryWorks’ Modern Library Awards, and in March 2026 Springshare announced a strategic partnership with SirsiDynix — the company that had acquired his first business twenty-one years earlier.

Education

Santa Clara University

Zivkovic attended Santa Clara University as an undergraduate and worked there as a library student assistant. No degree, field of study or graduation year is stated in any available source.