June 24, 2010
This mega-aggregate index complements the search environment of the Ex Libris Primo solution, adding to it a wealth of global and regional materials
Jerusalem, Israel—June 24, 2010. Ex Libris® Group is pleased to announce the general release of the Primo Central mega-aggregate index of scholarly materials, a new component of the Primo® discovery and delivery environment. Primo Central enables Primo users to search for global and regional materials as well as materials in their local library collections, and to instantaneously obtain one blended result list, sorted by relevance. The more than 280 institutions, in 30 countries, that are already running Primo will be able to add Primo Central to the search scope of their users. MetaLib® customers will be able to configure Primo Central as a MetaLib search target.
Primo Central indexes data harvested from primary and secondary publishers and aggregators; the indexed materials already amount to hundreds of millions of high-quality articles, e-books, and other scholarly materials, and new items are added daily. Libraries can customize the search scope of their users and fine-tune the display of the materials, the access to full text, and the relevance ranking and blending algorithms to help users focus on the content they need, be it local or global. Ex Libris hosts Primo Central in a cloud computing environment and provides it as a subscription service.
Primo Central has been tested by 14 Primo institutions, located in the United States, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Germany, South Korea, and Australia; some of these institutions are already providing Primo Central to their users. In addition, three institutions running MetaLib, in the United States and New Zealand, have been testing Primo Central as a MetaLib search target.
”Since we implemented Primo, with its intuitive, easy-to-use interface, we have seen an overwhelming increase in the number of searches in our collections and a much higher success rate,” explains Ms. Yongmin Lee, project coordinator at Yonsei University in South Korea. ”Now that Primo Central expands the search scope to include global content and Korean e-collections through the familiar Primo interface, we expect these numbers to grow even more. The implementation was straightforward, and the system works beautifully—hence we opened up this new environment to our users as soon as we could.”
“Until now, our users who were trying to find scholarly materials for teaching, learning, and research had to go to three or four different systems, depending on whether they were looking for print, electronic, or local digital resources,” says Stu Baker, associate university librarian for library technology at Northwestern University. “We are excited to be able to bring together all the materials that we offer our users by adding the extensive coverage of Primo Central to our Primo environment. The breadth of coverage of our subscription resources in Primo Central and the ability to provide instantaneous access to search results will ensure we are providing quality resources and a rich user experience.”
Jorgen Madsen, Primo product manager at Ex Libris, commented: ”Primo Central fits naturally in the Primo architecture and helps libraries best serve their researchers by offering an immense collection in a way that makes sense for today’s users. The search speed and relevance ranking of the Primo search engine, now harnessed for handling global materials as well, have proven to be the key to success for this exciting Ex Libris service. Our customers love it!”
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris is a leading provider of automation solutions for academic, national, and research 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 75 countries on six continents.
Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with customers, Ex Libris enables 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 additional information on Ex Libris Group, see our Web site, visit our Initiatives and Commentary blogs, and follow our Twitter page.
