a) Cambridge University signs with Endeavor
Endeavor Information Systems have announced that the University of Cambridge has purchased the Voyager integrated library management system for its 97 university and college libraries. The University of Cambridge Libraries will employ Voyager to manage over seven million holdings.
Cambridge also selected Endeavor's Universal Catalog for a de-duplicated database of bibliographic records, detailed holdings and item information from the databases of the local libraries.
"Voyager is a long way ahead of other library systems," stated Patricia Killiard, Head of Information Technology Service for Cambridge University Library. "I don't think any of the other systems we reviewed has the fully developed client-server architecture that we saw with Endeavor."
"Voyager has a strong system administration client," Killiard said. "With a small support team, we like to devote as much as possible to supporting individual libraries, so we need a good systems administration module."
Other features in Voyager also outweighed the competition, including the integration of print, manuscript and electronic materials, essential for managing the range of collections in Cambridge's libraries; support of non-MARC standards including Encoded Archival Data (EAD), and Endeavor's published timetable for Unicode and non-Roman scripts, important for handling Cambridge's large collections of Far East and Near East materials in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew.
"There are over 100,000 serial titles, including 36,000 live titles within the University of Cambridge system, so checking in serials is a major issue.
Voyager stood out with very sophisticated functionality in this area," explained Killiard.
"With 97 member libraries, ranging from the very small to the University Library itself with six million holdings, it is extremely important for us to have the Universal Catalog. Some libraries have major historic, collections and all have collections of modern material. College, faculty and departmental libraries operate independently, but the library system is managed on their behalf by Cambridge University Library," Killiard explained. "In our current union catalogue, to which all 97 libraries contribute, the records are not de-duplicated as in the Endeavor Universal Catalog, and all of our sites are protective of the ownership of their records. Endeavor's hierarchy of records allows them to all use the system, yet continue to operate independently."
"Cambridge currently has an online stack request system, similar to a call slip system, so it was very important that the system we chose had call slip and short-loan capabilities," Killiard explained. "The OPAC's range of search options, particularly the keyword anywhere search, will enhance the facilities we can offer to our users, as will the extensive patron self-service functions."
"One thing very important to us was the overall feel of the company," Killiard explained. "We're a small team taking a big step - we had confidence that the company could handle the implementation. Endeavor has a strong project management history. We spoke to other Endeavor customers who were happy about how their implementation was handled."
"We feel that Endeavor has a vision of where they want to go," Killiard stated. "The people at Endeavor are still excited about developing the product and working with existing customers on developing specific modules like Acquisitions."
"We're also very comfortable with the customer base," she continued.
"We're joining a international group of research and legal deposit libraries with similar interests."
b) State Library of Victoria in Australia selects Voyager Software to enhance access<
The State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, will install Voyager as its new integrated library management system, to provide improved customer access to the library's catalogue and indexes.
The State Library of Victoria is the state's major research institution and service 1.7 million users onsite and 5.4 million users via its website. It holds over 2.5 million collection items and over 5,300 linear metres (5.3kms) of manuscripts and ephemera.
Anne Beaumont, Application Support Manager at the library described Voyager as "a complete digital library solution." She said "it provides a user-friendly interface with buttons, pull-down menus and point-and-click facility."
"It will also allow current users to search the State Library collections, onsite and online, while enabling them to carry out searches of local, national and international library networks simultaneously. Users will be able to save and re-use their searches."
"They will also be able to access our local indexes, bibliographic and full-text databases, images, video and audio files and other Internet resources."
"One of the major advantages of the product is its superior handling of a range of digital file formats, particularly images. The State Library of Victoria has an extensive multimedia catalogue with over 160,000 digitised images which will be integrated immediately into the new system which will provide thumbnail displays alongside catalogue entries."
The library will introduce a range of categories of user registration categories providing a range of benefits such as access to free online full-text periodicals (via EBSCO host), a streamlined facility for copying, delivery, interlibrary loans and eventually e-commerce.
"Remote users will eventually have the ability to carry out research remotely online, identify resources within a global network, order copies of articles for direct delivery or request interlibrary loans for specific dates and times."
Voyager will supercede the library's Dynix system, which is at the end of its life cycle. Ms Beaumont said that Voyager "is a mature product that is being continuously developed."
"It has multi-tiered client/server architecture which is flexible because each of the systems components are quite separate and the elements are scaleable, allowing us to manage growth," Ms Beaumont added.
"It is built on an Oracle relational database which is the preferred platform for the Library's existing human resource and finance systems. Standardising the operating system (Solaris) and DBMS (Oracle) makes the most efficient use of expensive support resources."<BR>
Ms Beaumont said that it is an advantage that Endeavor has extensive experience in migrating Dynix sites across to the new system "making the transition process technically low-risk. We expect the transition process to take only six-months, so users will see vast improvements in a very short time."
"Endeavor is very excited to be working with the renowned collections and strong history of the State Library of Victoria," explained Jane Burke, Endeavor's President and CEO. "The State Library of Victoria has a forward-looking vision in selecting the Voyager system to provide users true access to information, regardless of location or format."
Voyager has already been selected by the Open University, UK, the renowned distance learning institution servicing over 43 countries, and the Library of Congress in the US, the world's largest library. It is currently used by a number of Australia's largest libraries including Monash University and its range of campuses, the Australian Defense Force Academy library and the CSIRO.
c) Endeavor announces commercial release of ENCompass
Endeavor Information Systems has announced the first commercial shipments of the ENCompass digital library management system. Already in place at three development partner sites, ENCompass now provides even more academic and research libraries around the world integrated access to their print, electronic and digital collections, including local and remote electronic databases and local digital collections.
Designed for unified access to the varied collections of any library, ENCompass empowers libraries to design master architectures of print, electronic and digital collections and provides users a single search across all formats with relevance ranked results sets. The only product of its kind on the market today, ENCompass provides the creation of metadata, organisation of collections of metadata, and an overarching layer of navigation to assist researchers in discovering previously underused digital collections.
ENCompass continues to evolve with the assistance of three development partner sites: Cornell University, the Getty Research Institute and Kansas State University. Each site is unique, with private and public collections integrated into ENCompass at the institutions. Unmatched by any other product, ENCompass allows each institution to organise digital collections in manners that make sense to the resources and needs of each institution. Cross-institution collection development can also be a reality with the integration of Z39.50 in ENCompass. For staff, ENCompass provides a simple Windows-based drag and drop collection building feature with reduced data entry organising digital collections. For navigation, ENCompass includes a powerful search engine that grasps all metadata forms, regardless of digital format.
"Just as Voyager was the springboard into client server technology, ENCompass is the launchpad for integrated access to all of a library's collections - digital or print." said Jane Burke, Endeavor's President and CEO.
"In 1995, the early Voyager 3.0 sites worked diligently with Endeavor to bring out a change in the library automation marketplace. In the same way that the Voyager system set our customers on a technological path to greatness, ENCompass is opening doors for the integration of valuable research collections and greater resource discovery through an expanse of linking technologies."
ENCompass applies new technology standards like XML, EAD and Dublin Core to organise and access electronic resources. ENCompass provides seamless searching across digital object collections while managing and controlling links for separate repositories. ENCompass ties together resources, creating a more effective research base.
Endeavor Information Systems, based in Des Plaines, Illinois, USA, was founded in September of 1994. Over 800 academic and research libraries of every size have chosen Endeavor's Voyager integrated library management system. Endeavor offers a complete line of library solutions for traditional and digital collections.
For further information please contact: Endeavor Information Systems Inc, 84 Theobald's Road, London WC1X 8RR, UK. Tel: (0) 20 7611 4500. Fax: (0) 20 7611 4501. E-mail: info@endinfosys.com URL: www.endinfosys.com