POTTERS BAR, England (October 1998) - The libraries at Cranfield University have chosen Sirsi Corporation's Unicorn Library Management System to to replace their existing Libertas library systems.
Unicorn will be installed at three libraries (one at Cranfield University's main library and two at the Royal Military College of Science, Shrivenham) under the Solaris operating system on Sun Enterprise 450 servers. Unicorn will provide access via a Graphical User Interface (Workflows with Z39.50) to Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) services, cataloguing, authority control, circulation, inter-library loans, academic reserves, acquisitions (with EDI) and serials control, together with an information gateway to external services over the Internet. Access to the OPAC will also be available through the World Wide Web via WebCat.
Cranfield University focuses on excellence and quality in post-graduate teaching, research and continuing education. The university libraries support teaching and research in the fields of aerospace, advanced engineering and materials; energy, defense, management and social policy and biotechnology. In 1992 Cranfield opened the Kings Norton Library, an impressive steel and glass structure designed by the internationally acclaimed architects Sir Norman Foster and Partners.
The libraries place considerable emphasis on access to information. A wide range of electronic information sources, including networked databases, CD-ROMs and electronic journals, are available to some 7,000 library users. Print resources include 340,000 books and reports and 2,250 current serial subscriptions.
Hazel Woodward, University Librarian, commented: "After an extensive review of the library systems market place, we chose Unicorn because of SIRSI's flexible and innovative approach to service provision and management information. As we move increasingly towards the digital library, we feel confident that the company, and the system, will keep pace with developments in both technology and service requirements."
SIRSI, founded in 1979, is a privately held company with headquarters in Huntsville, Ala. SIRSI uses the most advanced technology available to provide easy-to-use information systems for libraries, businesses and archives. With offices in major U.S. cities and subsidiaries in Australia, Canada, Latin American, the Middle East and the United Kingdom, the company has established its Unicorn products as the leading client/server library information systems in the world.
