January 7, 2011
The SFX customer base reaches a major milestone as its comprehensive knowledge base and advanced features continue to attract libraries from across the globe
Jerusalem, Israel—January 7, 2011. Ex Libris® Group, a world leader in the provision of library automation technology, is pleased to announce that the number of institutions that are using the SFX® OpenURL link resolver now exceeds 2000, spanning 60 countries. Some recent newcomers to the worldwide SFX community include the following institutions:
- New South Wales Police College (Australia)
- Shanghai University (China)
- Bauhaus-Universitat Weimar (Germany)
- University of Hildesheim (Germany)
- University of Vechta (Germany)
- Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (Germany)
- University Iuav of Venice (Italy)
- J.F. Oberlin University (Japan)
- Chungbuk National University (Korea)
- Dong-A University (Korea)
- Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Korea)
- National and University Library (Slovenia)
- Gonzaga University (United States)
- Hodges University (United States)
- Midwestern State University (United States)
- United States Department of State
- United States Naval Medical Logistics Command University of Montana (United States)
- Utah Education Network (United States)
The most popular OpenURL link resolver in the world, SFX offers a wealth of features that go far beyond the basic link-resolver functionality of generating context-sensitive links to the full text of scholarly materials and library-defined services. Additional features include the A-Z e-journal title list and the CitationLinker search form—interfaces that enable end users to access the library’s e-collections—and administrative tools for collection management and statistics analyses, including the UStat service for analyzing COUNTER reports. Libraries have an option to also provide the bX article recommender service, which leverages SFX usage logs to generate recommendations for scholarly materials related to the researcher’s interests.
For Shanghai University, the international reputation and regional familiarity of Ex Libris were major factors in the library’s decision to select SFX and the unique bX article recommender service. ”We carried out an intensive evaluation of numerous link resolvers and found that SFX was the only solution to provide a comprehensive knowledge base combined with rich core functionality and article recommendations,” commented Shuhuai Ren, deputy library director of Shanghai University. ”In addition, SFX provides the most comprehensive coverage of regional Chinese resources, which, together with the advanced SFX collection tool and citation linker, facilitate our users’ extensive research needs. The Ex Libris China office has been extremely responsive, and we are pleased to be working with a company that is attentive to the specific needs of the Chinese research community.”
Dong-A University in Korea, which has now gone live with SFX, selected the Ex Libris link resolver to maximize the usage of electronic resources by library users. ”We found that SFX provided a very impressive coverage of electronic resources, including local Korean collections,” explained Ms. Jung Hee Choi, library manager at Dong-A University. ”The system’s statistics service, which provides reports on resource usage, is extremely valuable and is key to our electronic collection development.”
”I am delighted to welcome these diverse research institutions to the international SFX community,” commented Nancy Dushkin, vice president of discovery and delivery solutions at Ex Libris. ”With the recent release of version 4.0, SFX—which is now entering its tenth anniversary year—enables us to provide an enhanced service and an extensive knowledge base for library staff and researchers.”
About Shanghai University
Shanghai University is a comprehensive university with a rich diversity of disciplines, consisting of 20 colleges and schools as well as departments of civil engineering, advertising, and physical education. The university has 5,484 faculty members and more than 30,000 full-time students, of whom 4,400 are pursuing graduate degrees. Shanghai University is the largest institution of higher education run by the city of Shanghai. For more information about Shanghai University, see http://www.shu.edu.cn/en/indexEn.htm.
About Dong-A University
Since its establishment in 1946 under the slogan of ”Freedom, Truth, and Justice,” Dong-A University has built a reputation as a prestigious private university. Consisting of 11 colleges and 10 graduate schools, it has produced more than 150,000 graduates, many of whom have played pivotal roles in Korean political, economic, legal, journalistic, cultural, and sports circles. For more information about Dong-A University, see http://english.donga.ac.kr/.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris is a leading provider of automation solutions for academic libraries. Offering the only comprehensive product suite for electronic, digital, and print materials, Ex Libris provides efficient, user-friendly products that serve the needs of libraries today and will facilitate their transition into the future. Ex Libris maintains an impressive customer base consisting of thousands of sites in more than 80 countries on six continents.
Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with customers, Ex Libris enables academic, national, and research libraries to maximize productivity and efficiency and, at the same time, greatly enhance the user experience. By empowering users to discover and obtain the information they need, libraries ensure their position as the bridge to knowledge. For more information about Ex Libris Group, visit our Web site, join us on Facebook, see our Initiatives and Commentary blogs, and follow our Twitter page.
