Blacksburg, VA – The Mortenson Center at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will sponsor a month-long trip to the United States for eleven individuals from Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. VTLS and the Mortenson Center are collaborating on a training and information session to allow the delegation to acquire the necessary skills to effectively utilize the Virtua ILS in their home university libraries. One member of the delegation is VTLS Project Manager Olayinka Fatoki, based in Nigeria, who will visit VTLS Inc. for a week-long training program (September 22-26) that will consist of various Virtua ILS components, systems training, and project management.
In addition, VTLS is coordinating an on-site visit for the delegation to Upper Arlington Public Library to see VTLS’ ILS, Virtua, "in action" on October 15 and 16. Upper Arlington Public Library is located in the suburb of Columbus, Ohio and has been a VTLS customer since the company began 27 years ago. Upper Arlington started with the VTLS Classic software in 1980 and switched to Virtua in 2002. They are excited about hosting the African delegation for an information session and training program. The training program will include lectures and hands-on experiences with Virtua with an official VTLS trainer.
"We are delighted that Upper Arlington has agreed to host the group," said Susan Schnuer, associate director of the Mortenson Center. "The librarians from West Africa have not yet seen Virtua up and running in a library, so this visit will be a thrill for them. VTLS has done a great job in planning a training program that will meet the needs of the librarians. I know that everyone will benefit from the experience and, more importantly, will take their newly acquired knowledge home to share with their colleagues."
The Mortenson Center seeks to strengthen international ties among libraries and librarians, regardless of geographic location or access to technology. Over 700 librarians from 89 countries have already taken advantage of programming through the Mortenson Center - the only one of its kind in the world.
About VTLS Inc.
VTLS Inc. (www.vtls.com), a leading library automation company in business for over 30 years, provides visionary technology in library solutions to a diverse customer base of more than 900 libraries in over 32 countries. Virtua is our premier ILS solution, Visualizer is our facet-based data discovery tool, Fastrac is our RFID technology, and we also provide cutting edge software and services for Digital Libraries with Digital Imaging and VITAL, our Repository Services solution. VTLS is one of the few ISO 9001:2000 quality certified companies within the library industry.
