In the recent US News and World Report annual survey of "Best Colleges," Boston College again appeared in the "Top 50" list, ranking 39th, and for the second straight year appeared on the "Best Values" list. Now Boston College joins another prestigious list by signing a contract with Ex Libris USA for the installation of ALEPH 500 as its next-generation library management system. Boston College offers undergraduate through post-graduate studies with a student population of 8,900 undergraduates and 4,800 graduate students. The University Libraries, which include the Thomas P. O`Neill Library, named for the former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, contain 1.8 million volumes and will be converting to ALEPH 500 from the current NOTIS system.
Jerome Yavarkovsky, University Librarian, said "We were delighted to find in the ALEPH system, a tool which we believe will provide our library and library staff real advantages in meeting the challenges of the new millennium as we continue to offer more electronic resources while maintaining our traditional services. We looked at many companies and systems and found a unique combination of functionality, collaboration and service being offered by Ex Libris. We are confident in our choice."
Carl Grant, President of Ex Libris (USA) Inc., said, "Boston College is a prestigious addition to our rapidly growing customer list. Ex Libris, with our ALEPH product, has clearly become a viable new choice for leading academic institutions in North America. We look forward to working with Boston College to create another state-of-the-art installation."
The ALEPH system will support a total of 1.6M bibliographic records and 460 users running on IBM`s SP hardware. It is scheduled to go live in the summer of 2000.
The system marketed by Ex Libris, called ALEPH, is now in over 500 installations with more than 17,000 concurrent users in 40 countries. Ex Libris is a multi-national company with offices located around the world.
