June 30, 2008
Multilingual support, management of large and diverse collections, and international experience are just a few of the characteristics that continue to draw libraries to Aleph
Jerusalem, Israel – June 30, 2008. Ex Libris Group is pleased to announce that sales of the Aleph® integrated library system (ILS) continue to thrive around the world. Some of the key institutions that have recently joined the Aleph community are Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, both in China; the Universite du Quebec a Montreal, in Canada; the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale, in France; Southampton Solent University, in the UK; the Garrigues legal partnership, in Spain; and the Biblioteca Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena (National Library of the Dominican Republic).
“Full Unicode support and the skills to manage large and diverse collections were central considerations in the choice of Aleph for Fudan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, among the top 10 universities in China,[1]” explained Oded Scharfstein, VP Asia Pacific at Ex Libris. ”These are just two of the many features that make Aleph a popular choice for institutions in Asia,” he added. Fudan University, an established Ex Libris customer, has already implemented the MetaLib® gateway and metasearch portal and the SFX® OpenURL link resolver, while Shanghai Jiao Tong University is a newcomer to the Ex Libris customer community. Both institutions migrated to Aleph from SirsiDynix’s Horizon ILS.
”We have worked closely with Ex Libris over the past few years to realize our library automation strategy,” commented Professor Yixin Xu, acting director of Fudan University Library. ”The openness and flexibility of the Aleph system will assist Fudan Library staff in the efficient management of our rapidly growing print and electronic collection, which includes 400,000 thread-bound books of Chinese classics. We look forward to continuing our successful cooperation with Ex Libris.”
The National Library of the Dominican Republic is the 35th national library to choose one or more Ex Libris solutions. Features such as flexible, open architecture and support for large, sophisticated consortial models are among the requirements that national libraries worldwide are seeking and that Aleph can deliver. Mr. Nelson Muniz, advisor to the director of the National Library of the Dominican Republic, noted, ”We carried out a very thorough selection process for choosing a new ILS for the National Library, and Aleph was best suited to our needs. We hold books in several languages, but of course our OPAC needs to be in Spanish, and Aleph provides us with perfect multilingual support.”
Aleph continues to flourish in Europe, with the recent sales to Southampton Solent University, the Garrigues law firm, and the Universite de Bretagne Occidentale—another institution migrating to Aleph from Horizon.
Jo Richardson, Aleph product manager at Ex Libris, remarked that ”joint work with customers in the Aleph product working group is aimed at ensuring that Aleph will continue to meet the evolving needs of our users. In addition to its enduring strengths, such as full Unicode support and the flexibility to deal with especially large and sophisticated collections, Aleph is constantly being enhanced with cutting-edge functionalities that today’s users expect. Plans are already being made for integrating customer enhancement requests in Aleph versions 20 and 21, as well as in future product versions.”
[1] For a ranking of Chinese universities, see http://edu.qq.com/a/20080102/000263.htm (in Chinese ) or http://cnreviews.com/min_guo/2008_china_university_ranking_by_china_academy_of_
management_science_20080604.html (in English).
About Ex Libris:
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 enable them to transition into the future. Ex Libris maintains an impressive customer base consisting of thousands of sites in more than 70 countries on six continents.
Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with its 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 additional information on Ex Libris Group, see http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/
