January 10, 2006
Newton, MA
Ex Libris is pleased to announce that GALILEO, an initiative of the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia, has chosen SFX and MetaLib as part of its new electronic library model. GALILEO, which stands for Georgia Library Learning Online, is a community of more than 2,000 educational institutions that include the University System of Georgia, 180 academic colleges and universities, public libraries, adult education institutes as well as all of the K-12 schools. Their goal is to provide an improved library experience for all patrons through statewide collaboration and the sharing of resources.
Emory University, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, and Georgia Institute of Technology are GALILEO members that were early adopters of SFX. It was their experience that led to a state-wide implementation of SFX and MetaLib across the entire consortium. GALILEO spent close to three years in the evaluation process and considers its selection of SFX and MetaLib fundamental components of their new infrastructure. The organization represents all of the library constituents in the state of Georgia and the chosen vendor had to satisfy the varied needs of all of its equally diverse participants. There were several objectives to be met in order to provide equal access to all of the citizens of Georgia and to realize GALILEOs vision for a Virtual Library. The technology needed to support the sharing of approximately 10,000 research journals, and ensure that universal access would support instruction and research as well as provide a valuable public service.
Dan Trajman, President of Ex Libris (USA) Inc., said, GALILEOs selection of SFX and MetaLib is a new landmark for Ex Libris. The sheer size and diversity of the GALILEO consortium presented us with a unique opportunity. Their selection of SFX and MetaLib, not just for the academic libraries, but also for their K-12 schools and public libraries, proves once again that when it comes to meeting the needs of a consortium, Ex Libris is the only vendor that can rise to that challenge, regardless of the specificity of each members requirements.
Ex Libris offers a wide range of flexible consortium models that address the full spectrum of consortial needs. These include shared versus local resources for consortia that share multiple resources in common, and central administration versus local control depending on the desired workflow of the consortium. Ex Libris provides consortia with the flexibility to customize the MetaLib interface, control authentication, and manage the presentation of resources according to need.
GALILEO is Ex Libris largest consortium customer to date. Institutions that are members of a consortium presently constitute over 80% of Ex Libris installed customer base in North America.
To measure the results of the program, GALILEO has put in place a usage statistics model that provides an objective measurement of the success of the initiative by gathering detailed statistics for each vendor. GALILEOs Vendor Performance Assessment Committee (VPAC) has implemented a comprehensive statistics generator that enables the ability to gather, archive, and report local GALILEO and vendor-provided statistics.
About Ex Libris:
Ex Libris is a leading worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centers, and researchers. ALEPH™, the Ex Libris integrated library solution has been installed at over 1500 sites in 62 countries. MetaLib the information portal for library collections and SFX, the context-sensitive linking solution for heterogeneous electronic resources in the scholarly information environment, have collectively been purchased by more than 900 institutions in 36 countries. DigiTool, a solution for the construction of digital collections, and Verde, the new electronic resource management (ERM) system, complete the Ex Libris product suite.
