News from Sirsi

News from Sirsi

Sirsi leads industry sales for fourth consecutive year

Sirsi Corporation has been named the library technology industry's sales leader for the fourth year in a row, with 207 new contracts signed for the company's Unicorn Library Management System in 2002. These 207 new Unicorn customers include 72 contracts with new-name customers and 135 contracts with former users of the DRA Classic, Taos, MultiLIS, and Inlex systems. The January 2003 edition of Information Systems Reports reported Sirsi's sales leadership, plus the following: Sirsi maintains a 1:8 customer service ratio,which is higher than the industry average; a total installed base of 1,739 systems; and the highest number of staff dedicated to software maintenance and development.

"We are proud to now provide the Unicorn system and other industry-leading solutions such as the iBistro and iLink e-Libraries to more libraries and consortia around the world", said Sirsi CEO Patrick C. Sommers. "We are honoured to serve these institutions, as we know they are on an important mission to serve their users better than ever before."

"Our adding 207 new Unicorn customers to the Sirsi family in a single year is strong testimony to the strength of Sirsi's product suite and our company as a whole", said Sommers.

Sirsi announces successful interoperability tests with FirstSearch

Sirsi Corporation has announced successful interoperability tests ensuring state-of-the-art communication to benefit Sirsi and OCLC users. This collaboration will allow Sirsi customers to use their local Unicorn Library Management System user databases to authenticate access into the OCLC FirstSearch service.

This represents one of the earliest successful interoperability tests between two service providers using the NISO (National Information Standards Organisation) circulation interchange protocol (NCIP). NCIP is the recently approved ANSI/NISO US National Standard Z39.83-2003 that promotes interoperability of circulation systems and similar applications from different vendors by providing a standardised mechanism for information exchange and communication.

"We are very excited about having successfully completed an initial round of NCIP interoperability testing with OCLC", said Berit Nelson, Sirsi Vice President of Product Management. "We now can provide increased functionality to our customers who use the OCLC FirstSearch system."

OCLC FirstSearch is a comprehensive reference service that offers a rich collection of databases, links to the World Wide Web, over ten million online full-text articles, full-image articles from over 4,000 electronic journals,library holdings and interlibrary loan.

"OCLC FirstSearch offers several authentication mechanisms like IP address recognition, ATHENS authentication, and now NCIP", said Chip Nilges,Director of OCLC WorldCat Services. "NCIP gives a library control over patron access into the service. Libraries can rely on the local system patron database for this and no longer need to maintain duplicate patron files or commit scarce resources to proxy servers."

"It also demonstrates the ability of NCIP to help increase interoperability between systems, and gives the library industry a solid base of NCIP support that Sirsi will build upon", said Nelson. "As we move forward with NCIP development efforts, we will use this protocol in other applications. This will provide additional functionality and interoperability with other systems upon which our customers depend to build their ideal library solutions using best-of-breed products and technologies."

Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, OCLC Online Computer Library Center (www.oclc.org) is a non-profit organisation that provides computer-based cataloguing, reference, resource sharing and preservation services to 43,000 libraries in 86 countries and territories.

Sirsi recognises that today's librarians are on a mission to break down walls– barriers that limit the knowledge and resources accessible to library users. A partner with leading libraries around the globe since 1979, Sirsi provides software and services that assist libraries by promoting learning,empowerment, and opportunity for diverse user communities. Sirsi's portfolio of products and services includes the iBistro and iLink e-Library solutions, the Unicorn Library Management System, the Hyperion Digital Media Archive and other services.

For further information please contact: Sirsi, Unicorn House, Station Close,Potters Bar, Hertfordshire EN6 3JW, UK. Tel: +44(0) 1707 858000; Fax: +44(0)1707 858111; E-mail: nick@sirsi.co.uk;URL: www.sirsi.co.uk