August 3, 2011
Six more institutions opt for Primo to optimize exposure of their extensive collections of electronic, print, and digital resources Bologna, Italy—August 3, 2011. Ex Libris® Group, a world leader in the provision of library automation solutions, is pleased to announce that the Italian Primo community is continuing its expansion, with the addition of six institutions that have opted for locally hosted or cloud-based implementations of the Primo® discovery and delivery solution. Italian institutions that recently selected Primo and the Primo Central Index include: As part of a collaborative effort that includes the acquisition of electronic resources and the sharing of information-technology systems, the universities of Camerino and Macerata chose Primo to provide a single, intuitive search interface to their collections. ”Primo fully addresses the discovery needs of our university,” commented Tiziana Onofri, technical director of library services at the University of Macerata. ”The speed of searching and the ability to explore our extensive collections in a single result list without switching to the native interfaces of the various resources were key to our decision. Also, having control over the ranking of results enables us to make our local resources prominent in users’ result lists.” Known as UniVerSe, Verona University’s discovery platform is based on the TotalCare cloud service, which includes Primo, with the Primo Central Index; the SFX® Open URL link resolver; and the bX article recommender service. ”The ability to monitor the use of our electronic resources by means of statistical reports was a major consideration in our decision,” explained Daniela Brunelli, director of the Central Library. ”We are also impressed by the comprehensive coverage of the Primo Central Index and its truly content-neutral character.” The only entirely digital library in Italy, the European Library of Information and Culture (BEIC) chose a local implementation of Primo as the front end for its digital collections, which are managed with the Ex Libris DigiTool® digital asset management system. Pierfranco Minsenti, project manager for Ca’ Foscari University’s library system, noted: ”The flexibility of the Primo user interface will allow us to combine Google-style ease of use with advanced filtering by both collection and type of material. Because Primo Central covers 97% of the peer-reviewed journals to which Ca’ Foscari subscribes, users will enjoy immediate access to vast numbers of journal articles. Primo helps users discover the richness and diversity of the library’s collections and promotes the library system as the main provider of scholarly information.” University Iuav opted for a cloud-based Primo implementation. Pierre Piccotti, project and information manager at University Iuav, explained: ”As we have a small library with limited resources, the cloud-based Primo Direct service is a perfect solution for us. It enables us to reduce the cost of hardware maintenance and use the expertise of technical specialists at Ex Libris for round-the-clock technical support. At the same time, our library staff maintains control over the delivery of information to users.” ”I am delighted to welcome these distinguished institutions to the expanding Italian Primo community,” remarked Liliana Morotti, general manager of Ex Libris Italy. ”These libraries have taken a leadership role in recognizing that a superior discovery and delivery solution is central to a rewarding research experience for library users. We are looking forward to working closely with these institutions.” About Ca’ Foscari University of Venice Founded in 1868, the academic program at Ca’ Foscari University includes degree courses organized across four faculties, with an enrollment of about 20,000 students. Ca’ Foscari is renowned for its oriental language courses, which attract students from all over Italy. The university library system holds about one million physical items, 20,000 e-journals, 3,000 e-books, and 40 bibliographic databases. For further information, see www.unive.it. About the European Library of Information and Culture (BEIC) Established in 2004, the BEIC foundation promotes, develops, and spreads expressions of culture and art, pursuing the aims of instruction and education by creating and managing the European Library of Information and Culture (BEIC). The foundation intends to promote and foster relationships with local, regional, national, and international institutions and with important figures, artists, and Italian and foreign cultural institutions. For further information, see http://www.beic.it/ About the University of Camerino The long, rich history of the University of Camerino spans almost 700 years, making it one of the oldest universities in the Italy. Today the university has five faculties: Architecture, Pharmacy, Jurisprudence, Veterinary Medicine, and Science and Technology. For further information, see www.unicam.it. About Iuav University of Venice: Founded in 1926, Iuav now specializes in high-level courses in the planning and design of everything related to the spaces and environments in which we live. Iuav has three faculties: Architecture, Regional Planning, and Arts and Design. In recent years, Iuav has implemented an experiment in project-based learning, the first of its kind in Italy. For further information, see www.iuav.it. About the University of Macerata The faculties, departments, and schools of the University of Macerata are characterized by a focus on the humanities, with courses covering law, literature and philosophy, cultural heritage, political science, economics, education, and communication. For further information, see www.unimc.it. About Verona University Verona University, founded in 1982, offers many degree courses organized in eight faculties: Economics; Law; Humanities and Philosophy; Foreign Languages and Literatures; Medicine and Surgery; Education Science; Mathematical, Physical and Natural Sciences; and Motor and Sport Science. For further information, see www.univr.it. About Ex Libris 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, see our Web site, join us on Facebook, visit our Commentary blog, and follow our Twitter page.
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.
