A major contract was signed today in the Latvian capital between Ex Libris and the Library Information Network Consortium of Latvia, LINC. Under this agreement, the latest version of ALEPH 500 will be installed at:
- The National Library of Latvia
- The Latvian University Library
- The libraries of the Riga Technical University
- Medical Academy of Latvia
- University of Agriculture
- The Research Medical
- Patent and Technology Libraries of Latvia
The installation is expected to go into production by November 1999. The network will comprise 265 concurrent users, to start, with full ALEPH functionality, including WWW OPAC connections and a National Union Catalogue.
This major project was made feasible thanks to a generous grant by the A.W. Mellon Foundation and the devoted efforts of its Senior Advisor, Prof. Richard Quandt. Additional financial and strategic support is being contributed by the State Investment program of the Latvian government.
Commenting the selection of ALEPH, Aldis Abele, Executive Director of LINC said: " We are pleased to be working with Ex Libris and look forward to a fruitful and pleasant cooperation. Our consortium is open to other Latvian libraries and I am confident that additional institutions will join us. In choosing ALEPH 500 as the library automation and management system, we are sure to accommodate the needs of our reader and researcher communities with the kind of service and modern facilities they will expect as we move into the next millennium."
Riga, the largest city in the Baltics, is a picturesque, 800-year old Hanseatic port, gateway to Eastern and Western Europe. It is the vibrant capital of the now independent Latvia, which, in its agitated history, has suffered repeated foreign domination at the hands of Germans, Poles, Swedes and Russians.
