September 27, 2012
The university’s Library Services division will offer a suite of Ex Libris solutions to staff and users London, UK—September 27, 2012. Ex Libris® Group, a global leader in library automation solutions, is pleased to announce that the University of Birmingham libraries have extended their suite of Ex Libris solutions with the selection of the Primo® discovery and delivery solution—now live for faculty and students—and the Aleph® integrated library system (ILS). The selection of Primo and Aleph was driven by the Library Division’s desire to offer users a robust discovery experience supported by a strong ILS that would be capable of managing the libraries’ extensive collections. The university chose a cloud-based deployment for both solutions to reduce the technical burden on library staff members, thereby giving them more time to support users’ research and learning activities. Furthering the university’s strategic objectives, Primo—and particularly its ranking of search results according to users’ academic level and discipline—substantially increases the visibility of the libraries’ diverse collections. Having witnessed the positive impact of Primo implementations on resource usage at other UK institutions, Birmingham is looking forward to a greater use of electronic resources and a higher return on the libraries’ investment. ”We are very excited about the successful implementation of Primo and welcome the consolidation of our relationship with Ex Libris,” remarked Diane Job, director of the Library Services division. ”The new services will provide numerous benefits to the University of Birmingham, including greater exposure of our extensive collections, improved user experience, greater back-office efficiency, and analytics to measure the true value of the libraries’ collections. Further, all of these services will be delivered through the cloud, a technology that is an important innovation for the university.” Christoph Frech, regional sales director of Ex Libris Europe, commented: ”This is an important milestone for the University of Birmingham. Birmingham joins hundreds of institutions worldwide that are providing integrated services from the Ex Libris cloud data centers in Chicago and Amsterdam. We are delighted to be extending our collaboration with this leading research institution.” About the University of Birmingham The University of Birmingham has been challenging and developing great minds for more than a century. The University grew out of the radical vision of its first chancellor, Joseph Chamberlain. Founded in 1900, Birmingham represented a new model for higher education as England’s first civic university, where students from all religions and backgrounds were accepted on an equal basis. The University of Birmingham has welcomed international students since 1900. Today it has one of the largest international scholarly communities in the UK, with over 4,000 students and 7% of its academic staff members hailing from over 150 countries worldwide, demonstrating that Birmingham attracts the brightest talent to its academic community from around the globe. For more information, see http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/. 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 solutions that serve the needs of libraries today and will facilitate their transition into the future. Ex Libris maintains an impressive customer base consisting of over 5,000 sites in more than 80 countries on six continents. Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with customers, Ex Libris enables academic, national, and research libraries to maximize productivity and efficiency, while at the same time 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 more information about Ex Libris Group, visit our Web site, join us on Facebook, view our videos, and follow our Twitter page.
