ST. LOUIS-May 10, 2004-Sirsi Corporation, celebrating 25 years of delivering technology "firsts" to the library community, announced today that the Bemis Public Library (BPL) of Littleton, Colo., has selected the Sirsi suite of products and services to vastly improve library services, to provide greater information access to its user community, and to enjoy better vendor service. "I spoke with a number of Sirsi clients who rave about Unicorn and Sirsi personnel," said BPL director Margery Smith. "We evaluated three major vendors in a very stringent process involving all BPL staff. The only stand out was Sirsi, and the vote was unanimous."
BPL's suite of Sirsi products and services include the Unicorn® Library Management System, iBistro e-Library solution with Sirsi DataStream in English and Spanish, and WorkFlows® staff interface. "The Spanish population has grown from 3% in 1990 to 9% in 2000. iBistro with DataStream in English and Spanish will help our community use the library more productively," said Smith. "Sirsi will make serving the public, accessing the collection, and improving services much simpler. BPL will be better able to serve both our English- and Spanish-speaking communities and improve service with options like online renewals through iBistro."
BPL will operate on Sirsi.net, an ASP hosting system for libraries of all sizes and types, which enables libraries to connect an unlimited number of client PCs to a central integrated library system maintained by Sirsi. "The main reason we chose Sirsi.net is that it allowed library personnel the freedom to concentrate on library service rather than technical issues," said Smith. "There is also the time savings for staff as well as cost savings for the library."
"Sirsi is pleased to have Bemis Public Library the Sirsi family of clients, a growing family around the world," said Patrick Sommers, Sirsi chief executive officer. "The staff at Bemis can be confident that they've made a solid decision for the future of their library system and are better positioned than ever to serve their community."
About Bemis Public Library
The Edwin A. Bemis Public Library (BPL) is committed to providing materials, programs, and services that meet the informational, recreational, and educational needs of the community. The Library staff is committed to providing the highest quality service to all library users.
To fulfill this mission, the library offers a wide variety of traditional and innovative services and programs to the community at no charge. The library has a balanced collection of materials for patrons of all ages - birth to senior citizen - in a variety of formats. Formats include books, magazines, audio and video tapes, compact discs, and puppets. Other services include reference assistance, access to electronic databases, Internet access, meeting room facilities, and space for art shows. The library also offers programs and activities for all ages, home delivery of library materials to shut-ins, outreach services at day care centers, senior housing facilities and schools with a special focus on "at risk" populations; and access to materials in other libraries through interlibrary loan.
BPL has strong reference staff, strong genealogical collections, and materials for all ages in many languages and formats. BPL has an annual circulation of more than 360,000 and holds more than 140,000 items and 122,000 titles.
About Sirsi
In 2004, Sirsi Corporation (www.sirsi.com) celebrates 25 years as the strategic technology partner to more than 10,000 libraries around the world. A strong, growing company, we are dedicated to providing the library community with forward-thinking information technology solutions, including Sirsi Unicorn® Library Management System, the first client/server-based and UNIX-based integrated library system; Sirsi iBistro and iLink, the first e-Library solutions with streaming enriched content; Sirsi Rooms, the first suite of context management solutions; and Sirsi Director's Station, the first information analysis tool for library executives. Sirsi maintains operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Australia, China, and Singapore.
