PROVO, Utah – June 17, 2004 – Dynix, the world's leading provider of automation technologies, solutions, and services for libraries, reported today that three more Canadian public libraries have migrated to Horizon 7.3, citing standards compliance and the ability to operate in a Windows-based environment as key upgrades. Halifax Public Libraries (Halifax, Nova Scotia), Fort McMurray Public Library (Fort McMurray, Alberta), and Orangeville Public Library (Orangeville, Ontario) have all been valued Dynix customers since the early 1990s.
Halifax Public Libraries was created in 1996 from a merger of the Halifax City, Halifax County, and Dartmouth Regional Libraries. As part of the merger, a new amalgamated automated catalogue was launched, giving patrons access to the collections of all three former library systems. Dynix has been the preferred vendor for automation solutions since Dartmouth Regional Library deployed Dynix ILS in 1989. Halifax Regional followed suit in 1993, and Dynix was selected again in 1995 to power the combined catalogue of the newly created Halifax Public Libraries. Now, Halifax is looking to replace its aged hardware and offer its staff more sophisticated back-end functionality.
“We carefully evaluated each of Horizon's features to ensure that a new system would meet our needs and that our staff would find it intuitive and easy to use,” said Debbie Nicholson, Director of Technical Services and Systems. “We expect our staff to master Horizon quickly because of the familiar Windows environment. Another key benefit is that with Horizon, our staff is going to be able to produce more detailed activity reports.”
The Halifax Public Libraries system is comprised of 14 branch libraries, two mobile libraries, Books-by-Mail and Home Delivery services, and an e-branch. The collection includes more than 1.2 million items.
A Dynix ILS customer since June 1990, Fort McMurray Public Library has a collection of more than 79,000 items and circulates over 200,000 items annually. To make itself current with changes that have occurred in library technology over the past 15 years, Fort McMurray needed a system that was in line with current standards in the field of automation. By deploying Horizon 7.3, both patrons and staff will witness significant performance improvements.
“The list of improvements we'll see with Horizon 7.3 is really impressive. On the patron side, the Horizon Information Portal will be the biggest difference—the catalogue loads faster, there's better enriched content, and patrons will be able to email search results to their personal accounts,” said Carol Cooley, Director of Fort McMurray Public Library. “Internally, Horizon provides many more customization options and enables staff members to change indexes and views on our own, without the assistance of Dynix support staff.”
A Dynix customer since 1995, Orangeville Public Library serves a population of 35,000 people. The library chose to continue its long-standing relationship with Dynix in order to offer both patrons and staff a sense of continuity, while at the same time improving the scope of its offerings.
“We're really excited about the upgrade,” said Mark Gagnon, CEO/Chief Librarian of Orangeville Public Library. “When we previewed the Horizon product and the Horizon Information Portal, we found that both were superior products.”
Orangeville Public Library was founded in 1895 and today has a collection of approximately 60,000 bibliographic records.
“We're very pleased and excited that Halifax Public Libraries, Fort McMurray Public Library, and Orangeville Public Library—all outstanding Canadian libraries—have chosen to implement Horizon and maintain their relationships with Dynix,” said Bill Davison, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Dynix. “We look forward to working closely with each of these libraries to ensure that their needs are met and their expectations are exceeded.”
About Dynix
Dynix is the global leader in new-name sales of library management systems and has the largest installed customer base of any library technology vendor. As a committed advocate of the library community, Dynix serves academic, special, school, public, and consortium libraries in over 40 countries. Dynix has more than 100 professional librarians on staff and proven experience in software leadership. Since 1983, Dynix has provided customers visionary technology solutions that support the latest industry standards and offer intuitive functionality. For complete corporate information and a guide to Dynix products and services, visit www.dynix.com.
