21 March 2016 - http://zepheira.com - Zepheira is pleased to announce having transformed and published the catalog of Barrington Area Library, in Barrington, Illinois. Barrington Area Library is the first in Illinois to work with Zepheira to convert its MARC Catalog to Linked Data, and publish those resources to the Web.
Barrington is the largest geographic library district in the state of Illinois, covering 72 square miles. Many potential library users live at quite a distance from either the main library or branch, and taking full advantage of all available technologies is key to reaching potential patrons while also supporting existing customers. The library's collections include thousands of downloadable e-books and audiobooks, as well as streaming movies – library materials customers can borrow without needing to visit in person.
"Even consistent library users may not know the depth of our collections, but through Linked Data, they'll discover those items as they search online for topics of interest," explained Detlev Pansch, Executive Director of Barrington Area Library. "Making our hundreds of thousands of titles searchable through the Web means driving more traffic to our Web site and our resources, which in turn makes a Barrington Area Library card more valuable than ever."
"We also have an extensive, digital local history collection. It is popular with local users, but we know we will reach genealogy researchers worldwide by making that information discoverable through popular search engines like Google," continued Pansch.
"We are delighted to partner with Barrington, as they clearly see the benefits of exposing library catalog data to the Web," explains John (JR) Richardson, Zepheira Vice-President for Library & Vendor Partnerships. "They help us shape the experience for libraries and current patrons, as well as open new possibilities for the regular Web and search engine user."
About Barrington Area Library
The Barrington Public Library District serves 44,157 residents of all or part of 14 different communities. The Library was completely renovated in 2014, and offers state-of-the-art meeting rooms for every size group, a museum-quality interactive children's department, and a wide variety of events, workshops, and experiences that provide fun and enrichment for every age group. For more information, find us online: Web: balibrary.org
About Zepheira
Zepheira is a leading provider of software and services designed to help libraries and related organizations make information available and more prominent on the Web. Founded in 2007, Zepheira has extensive experience creating products and solutions focused on the modernization of library information systems. Zepheira's founders and staff have played key roles in pioneering the next generation of the Web, including the semantic technology underlying most Web applications. For more information find us online:
