DOVER, Del., August 30, 2007 -- SirsiDynix, the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries, announced today that the Delaware Division of Libraries will extend its pilot SchoolRooms, an online exploration, discovery and learning portal for K-12 students, teachers and parents, throughout the state of Delaware. After successfully testing SchoolRooms at Sussex Technical High School in Georgetown, Del., during the 2006-07 school year, Delaware will now pilot the technology at all school and public libraries statewide.
SchoolRooms provides a single, student-friendly interface to high-quality content from the school library's catalog, other public library catalogs, online databases, e-content from publishers, popular Internet search engine results and teacher-selected Web sites. Designed to meet both U.S. and state education standards, SchoolRooms promotes exploration, discovery and learning to supplement any curriculum. Content is presented in virtual rooms that help students discover information, provide educators with access to quality materials and enable parents to find appropriate resources for improving their children's education.
"Whether students are working from a computer in their school library, at home, or at the public library, they can tap into the SchoolRooms web portal to search for information that is relevant to what they're learning in the classroom. They don't have to figure out where to begin searching, they just open the SchoolRooms portal, name the topic they want, and the interface does the rest," said Annie E. Norman, director of the Delaware Division of Libraries.
"Libraries get their strength from working together and sharing resources. With this technology, we can all come together in a more seamless way. It's all part of a paradigm shift to provide access to broader collections and to benefit from economy of scale savings," added Norman.
Gary Rautenstrauch, SirsiDynix CEO, said, "A year ago, SirsiDynix and visionary customers like the Delaware Division of Libraries were excited about the potential of SchoolRooms. With a successful pilot project completed, the SirsiDynix-Delaware team has discovered how effective SchoolRooms is in assisting librarians and educators in meeting the needs of students and parents." Rautenstrauch added, "Now, as we kick off the statewide SchoolRooms initiative, we look forward to seeing these important benefits enjoyed by communities throughout Delaware."
About SirsiDynix
SirsiDynix is the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries -- vital institutions whose primary mission is to make sense of the vast world of information for people and communities. This is an exciting role as libraries assist people in discovering and using knowledge, resources and other valuable content for their educations, jobs and entertainment. In concert with key industry partners, SirsiDynix supports this strategic role for libraries by offering a comprehensive integrated suite of technology solutions for improving the internal productivity of libraries and enhancing their capabilities for meeting the needs of people and communities. SirsiDynix has approximately 4,000 library and consortia clients, serving more than 300 million people through more than 20,000 library outlets in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific. For more information, please see http://www.sirsidynix.com.
About Delaware Division of Libraries
The mission of the Delaware Division of Libraries is to provide leadership and support for the timely development of Delaware's libraries, to ensure convenient access to, and encourage use of current information resources and reading material by all Delawareans. The members of the Delaware library community are unified in the values of service, access and excellence, and are committed to the vision of progressive libraries and the transformational impact they have on the people who use them. For more information about Delaware Division of Libraries / State Library, please see http://state.lib.de.us/index.shtml.
