News from Sirsi

News from Sirsi

Tianjin universities choose Sirsi's UnicornConsortia

Sirsi Corporation has announced that all 20 universities and colleges in the city of Tianjin, China will install Sirsi's UnicornConsortia Library Management System in their libraries. According to Chengbai Feng, Director of the Coordinative Center for Tianjin Higher Education Digital Library Initiatives,the new system will provide state-of-the-art services and easy online access to resources for the universities' combined enrolment of more than 120,000 students in around 200 academic disciplines. Feng commented: "The search committee made Sirsi its top choice after spending more than a year carefully evaluating integrated library systems. Not only does UnicornConsortia provide a mature,dependable system with powerful functionality, we were thoroughly impressed by the honesty and helpfulness of Sirsi's representatives."

Libraries participating in the Tianjin Consortium include the Nankai University, Tianjin University of Technology, and 15 other institutions. The libraries' combined collections total approximately 1.5 million titles,including special collections in music, fine arts, medicine and engineering.

The largest coastal city in Northern China with a history of more than 600 years, Tianjin has been a centre of industry, commerce and shipping since the end of the nineteenth century. Approximately 20,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students graduate each year from the city's 20 universities. Feng remarked: "UnicornConsortia will directly benefit the large number of students the libraries serve by making it easier for us to share resources and efficiently meet the heavy user demand we experience every day."

Andrew Morrice, Sirsi's Vice President of Sales and Marketing and International Operations, said: "Sirsi is honoured to be the top choice of this very distinguished group of Chinese university libraries. We are proud to meet the high standards of quality that China expects from its technology partners."

Sirsi and EnvisionWare partner to provide easy public-access management

Sirsi Corporation has announced its partnership with EnvisionWare, an industry leader in providing software for managing and monitoring public-access workstations. According to Lamar Jackson Jr, Sirsi's Director of Global Business Alliances, and Eric J. Hicks, Manager of Sales for EnvisionWare, the Sirsi-EnvisionWare partnership will provide Sirsi libraries with seamless access to EnvisionWare's LPT:One print cost management and PC Reservation workstation access and session control software through their Sirsi public interface.

EnvisionWare's LPT: One and PC Reservation are among the company's suite of powerful and scalable products to serve the needs of single PC installations and library networks. LPT: One enables libraries to control public-access PC printing by displaying the number of pages that will be printed, cost of printing, and printer location. With PC Reservation, libraries can control access to public-access PCs and manage session time. The Sirsi-EnvisionWare partnership will give Sirsi libraries fully integrated access to an easy-to-use public-access PC management solution.

Jackson commented: "Through this alliance, Sirsi shows its continuing commitment to delivering technologies that empower libraries and their users. By providing access to EnvisionWare solutions through the Sirsi public interface,Sirsi enables libraries to save money and staff time, while still delivering excellent customer service."

Hicks added: "We at EnvisionWare are excited to provide our state-of-the-art PC management solutions through one of the most mature,complete integrated library management systems in the industry. We look forward to a long and productive collaborative relationship that will enhance both companies' products and services."

Sirsi to provide library users with integrated virtual reference

Sirsi Corporation has announced a partnership with Library Systems and Services (LSSI) to provide Sirsi libraries and their users with state-of-the-art virtual library reference services. Sirsi will integrate LSSI's Virtual Reference Toolkit (VRT) 2.0 software with its iBistro and iLink e-Library solutions for library users and staff, providing the capabilities for one-on-one virtual reference sessions and access to related electronic content. As a result, library staff and users will be able to find and interact with the references they need faster and more easily than ever before. The new Sirsi-LSSI partnership was announced at the 68th IFLA General Conference and Council in Glasgow, Scotland.

Lamar Jackson Jr, Sirsi's Director of Global Business Alliances, said: "Sirsi is dedicated first and foremost to delivering solutions that assist libraries in serving their users better than ever before. The integration of LSSI's VRT software with Sirsi's e-Library products will offer powerful online reference capabilities to the users of our customers' libraries. This is an important next step in the continuing evolution of e-Library technologies, and we are very pleased to be working closely with a respected partner like LSSI to bring these benefits to the market."

Steve Coffman, Vice President of Product Development for LSSI's Reference Division, said: "The goal of virtual reference is to provide library users– no matter who they are or where they are – with the specific reference help they need when they need it. By integrating LSSI's virtual reference capabilities into Sirsi's iBistro and iLink solutions, library staff and users will enjoy all the benefits of today's premier virtual reference technology and do so within the powerful Sirsi public interface environment."

For 20 years – and for the benefit of nearly 2,000 libraries of all types and sizes – LSSI (www.lssi.com) has been finding and delivering new tools and technologies. Now, LSSI's Reference Division team is taking this unique ability to identify and adapt technologies for libraries – and bundling them with superior training and support – to provide new tools and new ways for reference librarians to meet the changing nature of library usage.

ebrary announces strategic partnership with Sirsi

ebrary, a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval services, has announced that Sirsi Corporation will become a value-added reseller of its ebrarian for Libraries database. ebrarian for Libraries provides simultaneous, multi-user access to ebrary's growing, searchable database of more than 10,000 books from over 130 leading academic, professional and trade publishers, the majority of which were published within the last two years.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sirsi will resell the ebrarian for libraries database as part of its Unicorn Library Management System and iBistro Electronic Library products. Sirsi is currently building the necessary interface to its Unicorn system, which will make electronic copies of ebrarian for Libraries resources directly accessible to library users via iBistro. These expanded electronic resources will be available to the more than 10,000 individual libraries served by Sirsi throughout the world, as well as to new Sirsi customers.

Lamar Jackson Jr, Sirsi's Director of Global Business Alliances, said: "ebrary offers a unique, highly flexible service that will greatly enhance our offerings to libraries by allowing any number of library users to simultaneously access books from leading publishers online – at any time, from anywhere. Additionally, ebrary's database of full-text books is exceptionally strong in important subject areas including business and economics, computers and technology, and humanities. We are very pleased to work with ebrary and to be the first integrated library system vendor to offer its customers this type of access to electronic resources. And we are excited that this is just the beginning of Sirsi's partnership with ebrary."

Christopher Warnock, CEO of ebrary, said: "Sirsi has more than 25 years of experience in providing libraries with software and services that allow people to connect with the information they need. Through our partnership, both of our organisations can more quickly and effectively reach our mutual goal of facilitating information sharing world-wide."

ebrary (www.ebrary.com) is a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval services. The company's customisable ebrarian solution combines powerful software with copyright-protected books, journals, periodicals and other online documents provided by more than 130 of the world's leading publishers. The ebrarian solution enables libraries, institutions and other organisations to give their users access to authoritative materials and customisable research tools that allow them to access automatically additional materials, biographical information, maps, translations, definitions and more when words or phrases are selected. ebrary's publishing partners benefit from new sales and marketing opportunities on the Internet. ebrary is privately held and is funded from Random House Venture LLC, Pearson plc and the McGraw-Hill Companies.

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 in breaking down walls,thereby promoting learning, empowerment and opportunity for divers 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 a full complement of services.

Library Systems Newsletter, March 2002, named Sirsi the leader in new sales of integrated library systems for 2001. Sirsi held the same distinction in 1999 and 2000.

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