January 19, 2009
Ex Libris will collaborate with preservation-focused institutions to define the future evolution and enhancement of its digital preservation system
Jerusalem, Israel — January 19, 2009. Ex Libris™ Group is pleased to announce the launch of a Charter Program, which will foster strategic collaboration between Ex Libris and its customers on the ongoing design of Ex Libris Rosetta, the Company’s digital preservation system. Having gone live at the National Library of New Zealand in November 2008, Ex Libris Rosetta is now in general release. The Charter Program was announced at the SUN Microsystems’ Preservation and Archiving Special Interest Group (PASIG) meeting, which took place in Baltimore, Maryland during November 2008.
The Ex Libris Rosetta Charter Program will allow members to share knowledge and collaborate with other preservation-focused institutions to advance preservation concepts, develop expertise, and help to define the solutions that will be created for, and incorporated into Ex Libris Rosetta. Libraries participating in the Charter Program will benefit from priority access to this first-of-its-kind digital preservation system.
Just as the Rosetta Stone held the key to enabling early 19th century scholars to understand Egyptian hieroglyphic script which died out in the fourth century AD, Ex Libris Rosetta provides today’s libraries with the infrastructure and technology needed to preserve and facilitate access to and understanding of the digital collections under their guardianship–in perpetuity. Built on a scalable, distributed architecture, the system can support multiple, flexible server configurations. Long-term sustainability is ensured by providing access to preserved digital entities via viewers that are compatible with constantly evolving format types, and are supplied as part of the system.
Inspired by the very successful Primo Charter Group model, the Ex Libris Rosetta Charter Program will span two years, during which time this strategic, collaborative community will work together to further enhance current market-leading digital preservation system functionality, including workflows and processes for collecting, securing, and preserving digital collections of all types. The group will consider ways to enhance the preservation-related services provided by the system, such as reference architectures, large data sets, rich media, e-mail/Wiki/Blog archives, and migration of digital objects; and preservation issues specific to consortia. Charter Program libraries will work in collaboration with Ex Libris to test and provide feedback on new functionality before product versions are released to market.
”SUN Microsystems will be pleased to offer technology discounts on SUN hardware to the first six organizations to join the Ex Libris Rosetta Charter Program,” commented Art Pasquinelli, SUN education market strategist. ”We are committed to actively developing reference architectures to support digital preservation systems. Together with Ex Libris, we believe that we will be able to offer a premier platform for a preservation solution that will serve all types of libraries and organizations.”
”We look forward to working in partnership with users to realize our joint vision for the preservation of digital objects,” Yaniv Levi, Ex Libris Rosetta product manager, commented. ”Ex Libris Rosetta will transform the way libraries preserve and share their invaluable digital collections. We are confident that the significant contribution that the Charter Program members will make to the development of this long-awaited and much needed solution will benefit Ex Libris users and the broader library community.”
Institutions interested in becoming Ex Libris Rosetta charter members are welcome to contact Ex Libris at rosettachartergroup@exlibrisgroup.com.
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 not only serve the needs of libraries today, but will also 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 customers, Ex Libris enables libraries to maximize productivity and efficiency while greatly enhancing 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/.
