July 19, 2005
London, UK
Ex Libris (UK) and the Universities of Salford, Staffordshire, Strathclyde and the University of the West of England announced today that, following detailed market evaluations, the libraries of these institutions have decided to integrate Ex Libris SFX and MetaLib solutions with their existing library management systems by Talis, Dynix, Endeavor and Sirsi. The sites will also be integrating SFX and MetaLib with other services such as institutional portals and VLE software.
Gurdish Sandhu, Collections Development Manager at the University of Salford commented; We look forward to a partnership with Ex Libris. Our decision was not only based on the recent decisions of other Talis sites to choose Ex Libris products for integration with their library management systems, but also the culture of partnership and user community that characterizes Ex Libris and its customer base.
David Parkes, Head of Learning Support at the University of Staffordshire noted; “We are delighted to be working with Ex Libris. A key driver in our decision was that Ex Libris’ products contain facilities for ensuring interoperability with other systems and workflows at the University, including plans for the University portal and VLE developments which put the learner at the centre of our activities. We are excited to be implementing the market-leading technology in this regard”.
Jean Shaw, Head of the Library Systems Division at the University of Strathclyde said; Ex Libris commitment to working with us to integrate our current and planned services with SFX was the key driving factor in our decision. Not only will we be able to deliver a new service rapidly to our students and researchers, we also now have more options available for future development of our existing services.
Jacqueline Chelin, Deputy Librarian at the University of the West of England noted, We have been discussing the advantages of implementing linking and cross searching tools for some time, now, as this fits with one of our key strategic objectives – to expand and facilitate easy access to library materials for our users. We look forward to fruitful working relationships with Ex Libris to integrate their high quality products into our existing systems in order to maximize our investment in electronic resources.
Julie Booth, Managing Director of Ex Libris (UK) Ltd, said: We are pleased that the Universities of Salford, Staffordshire, Strathclyde and the University of the West of England have decided to capitalize on the proven interoperability of our SFX and MetaLib services with library management systems of all kinds as well as with institutional portals and VLEs. We look forward to working with these institutions in further developing research, teaching and learning services for their end users, and welcome them to the large worldwide Ex Libris user community.
About the University of Salford:
Salford is internationally recognized as an enterprising university, closely attuned to the needs of business, industry and the community. Salford was the first university to establish Academic Enterprise as an integrated third strand of the Universitys activities, or equal importance to teaching and research. Academic Enterprise seeks to harness the Universitys creative strengths to foster wealth creation and generate social well-being.
In the Teaching Quality Assessments carried out on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, the University scored an average of 21 points from a possible 24 points. In research, Salford focuses on innovation to solve real world problems. This was recognized by outstanding results in the 2001 Research Assessment Exercise.
For additional information on the University of Salford, please see http://www.salford.ac.uk/
About the University of Staffordshire:
Staffordshire University is a large university with approximately 9,000 full-time and 5,200 part-time students and some 5,000 students studying overseas on Staffordshire University awards.
Staffordshire University has a long and proud history of providing vocational courses to its local communities as well as to regional, national and international students.
The University has a demonstrable track record of successfully recruiting and retaining a diverse student population.
For additional information on the University of Staffordshire, please see http://www.staffs.ac.uk/
About the University of Strathclyde:
The University of Strathclyde was founded in Scotland as a place of useful learning , to make higher education available to all, and to combine excellence with relevance. The University fulfills this mission today by contributing to the advancement of the knowledge society, generating – through excellence in research and scholarship – new ideas, knowledge and skills and providing high-quality education to all its students, regardless of background.
For additional information on the University of Strathclyde, please see http://www.strath.ac.uk/
About the University of the West of England:
The University of the West of England is one of the leading new universities, with good research ratings and rapid growth in research income in areas as diverse as Computer Science, Engineering, Humanities and Art & Design.
The University has a lively research culture, with a particular emphasis on interdisciplinary research and an established reputation for carrying out research for and with the business community.
Having enjoyed a period of sustained growth, the University now has over 23,000 FTEs, and is a significant local employer and contributor to the local economy.
For additional information on the University of the West of England, please see http://www.uwe.ac.uk/
About Ex Libris:
Ex Libris is a leading worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centres, and researchers. The ALEPH integrated library solution from Ex Libris has been installed at over 1250 sites in 51 countries. MetaLib, the information portal for library collections, and SFX, the context-sensitive linking server for heterogeneous electronic resources in the scholarly information environment, have been adopted by more than 831 institutions in 36 countries. DigiTool, a solution for constructing digital collections, and the new Verde electronic resource management (ERM) system round out the Ex Libris product suite.
