Béla Hatvany is a pioneer in the automation of libraries and the information industry. Companies founded by him have been responsible for the first Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC), the first CD-ROMs, the first networked CD-ROM, the first client-server library databases, and some of the earliest internet library database retrieval engines. In addition, he was a key investor in the first streaming music databases for libraries (Classical.com), and online ready references for libraries (Credo Reference). He is recognized as a visionary in library information.