November 25, 2009
The Primo customer community continues its rapid expansion as libraries across six continents select the Ex Libris discovery and delivery solution
Jerusalem, Israel – November 25, 2009. Ex Libris® Group is pleased to announce that the number of academic, national, and research libraries around the world that have opted for the Primo® discovery and delivery solution now exceeds 200.
Recent newcomers to the worldwide Primo community include the following institutions:
- American Libraries in India (U.S. Embassy and U.S. Consulates General in India)
- Texas Tech University (United States)
- United States Centers for Disease Control
- United States Department of Transportation
- Utah Academic Library Consortium (United States)
- Research Libraries Consortium (South Africa)
- Cardiff University (United Kingdom)
- National Academic Library Information System (Bulgaria)
- University of Westminster (United Kingdom)
- Ngee Ann Polytechnic (Singapore)
Pat Busby, project manager of the Research Libraries Consortium in South Africa—which consists of the Universities of Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, the Witwatersrand, and Pretoria; and Rhodes and Stellenbosch Universities—commented on the Consortium’s recent selection of Primo: ”We carried out a very thorough review of the discovery solutions available today and found that Primo best met our users’ need for a unified search interface with sophisticated search and Web 2.0 capabilities. The power of the Primo publishing platform was also critical to our decision, as it will enable us to integrate a wide variety of data sources, such as DSpace and Eprints, as well as Aleph, into the system.”
Suzanne Enright, director of information systems and library services at the University of Westminster—which runs the Aleph® integrated library system together with the SFX® OpenURL link resolver, the MetaLib® gateway and metasearch solution, and the Verde® e-resource management system—commented: ”We wanted to create a unified gateway for all of our library collections. Primo was the only solution to combine a single interface with the sophisticated search technology and Web 2.0 functionalities demanded by our users, and which—in version 3.0—will fully integrate OPAC functionality.
”We are looking forward to the upcoming release of Primo Central,” Ms. Enright added. ”This index of scholarly e-content will enable our users to search locally managed collections and global scholarly e-content simultaneously and to instantly receive a single relevance-ranked result list.”
With Primo, libraries provide users with a superior one-stop discovery and delivery solution that combines the richness of library collections, the unique value added by library cataloging services, and an Internet-age user experience:
- Primo enables libraries to expose the full scope of their collections, and their special collections in particular, and enables users to discover library resources that they were not aware of. Up-to-date availability information and delivery options are displayed for every discoverable item.
- The Primo Central index of scholarly materials makes it possible for users to simultaneously search a wide range of global and local information resources and receive a single, blended, relevance-ranked list of results, instantaneously. Librarians control the ranking and blending of the different sources, including crawled Web pages.
- Primo services can be embedded in commonly used Web pages, such as an institution’s Web site, learning management systems, and social networking sites, to increase the accessibility of library services. The Primo support for the OpenSearch standard enables institutions to offer Primo as an optional search engine from the browser’s search box.
- Designed with library staff in mind, all Primo functionality can be easily configured through point-and-click Web pages, without the assistance of technical IT staff. Out-of-the-box features enable library staff to modify the metadata that Primo uses in searches and in the presentation of results. Librarians can also configure the attributes (such as author and availability status) that Primo uses for faceted categorization.
- Consortia can choose configuration options ranging from complete centralized control to total independence, allowing each member library to select its own settings for the search options, user interface, calculation of item availability, and delivery options.
- With the upcoming launch of Primo version 3, users will benefit from a newly designed user interface, which will enable them to perform the full spectrum of OPAC operations, such as item requests, directly from the Primo interface.
”We are delighted to welcome all of the newcomers to the international Primo customer community,” commented Nancy Dushkin, corporate vice president of discovery and delivery solutions at Ex Libris. ”We are also thrilled that more and more institutions worldwide are now going live with Primo and providing their users with a whole new standard of library user experience.”
Primo sites that have recently gone live include the National Library of New Zealand; the State Library of Victoria, in Australia; the TriUniversity Group of Libraries and the University of Quebec, in Canada; the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, in the United States; the University of Strathclyde and the University of East London, in the United Kingdom; Haifa University, in Israel; and Yonsei University, in Korea.
About the University of Westminster
With sites in central and northwest London, the University of Westminster teaches more than 22,000 students, enrolled in undergraduate and master’s degrees, professional programs, and conducting research. Since its foundation in 1838 as Britain’s first polytechnic, the university has been closely involved in the business, professional, and academic life of London. The mission of the University of Westminster is to provide high quality higher education and research in both national and international contexts for the intellectual, social, and professional development of the individual and for the economic and cultural enrichment of London and wider communities.
For more information about the University of Westminster, see http://www.westminster.ac.uk/.
About the Research Libraries Consortium
The Universities of Cape Town, KwaZulu-Natal, the Witwatersrand, and Pretoria, and Rhodes and Stellenbosch Universities have joined together to form the Research Libraries Consortium, which will provide sophisticated information discovery and access for graduate students and faculty via Primo and other Ex Libris solutions, including Aleph, MetaLib, and SFX.
For more information about the member institutions, see the following Web sites:
University of Cape Town, http://www.uct.ac.za/
University of KwaZulu-Natal, http://www.ukzn.ac.za/
University of the Witwatersrand, http://web.wits.ac.za/
University of Pretoria, http://www.up.ac.za/
Rhodes University, http://www.ru.ac.za/
Stellenbosch University, http://www.sun.ac.za/
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.
