London -- 15th November, 2012. The 20 NHS library partners of the BASE Consortium (covering Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health Foundation Trust, Birmingham Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Women's NHS Foundation Trust, Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, Dudley Group Foundation Trust, Dudley Public Health, Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust, Birmingham Community Healthcare, Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital Trust, Dudley and Walsall Mental Health Partnership Trust and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust) have chosen the Koha open source library management system to replace its existing SirsiDynix system. PTFS Europe are carrying out the initial implementation and providing ongoing support. The system is hosted at the PTFS Europe data centre in Manchester.

Koha Library Management System

With Koha, library staff access to the system is completely web-based; acquisitions, circulation, cataloguing, serials and reports are all done through a web browser. As well as an excellent search engine the OPAC offers a range of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 facilities such as tagging, commenting and public and private lists.

Working with PTFS Europe provides the freedom and functionality of open source software together with the benefits of receiving high quality hosting and customer support.

Natalee Mousley-Metcalfe, Area Systems Librarian for BASE said "Koha offers exciting prospects for the consortium, with a worldwide community dedicated to its development; the move will have numerous benefits for both our library members and library colleagues alike."

Jennie Cooke, Trust Library Manager at University Hospitals Birmingham said "The partners were looking for a cost-effective integrated library system which could offer future flexibility and maximum interaction with Library users. We chose PTFS Europe as we were impressed with their desire to work in partnership with us, and because we felt they were committed to helping libraries offer innovative, excellent, state of the art services."

Nick Dimant, Managing Director at PTFS Europe said "We are delighted at the decision of the members of the BASE Consortium and we are looking forward to working with them on this project. The changing economic climate emphasises even more the benefits of the combination of modern technology and value for money that can be achieved by moving to Koha in a hosted environment."

About BASE

Base provides access to the services and collections of a consortium of West Midland NHS libraries throughout Birmingham, Solihull and the Black Country.

We represent a range of specialist, mental health, community and acute Trusts who work together collaboratively in order to maximise resources for all of our library users.

About PTFS Europe

PTFS Europe implements and supports the Koha and Evergreen open source library management systems and the Rebus:list reading list management system as well as distributing and supporting the ArchivalWare range of products from PTFS Inc in North America. PTFS Europe is able to provide full implementation services, including installation, configuration, data conversion, software development and training through to ongoing hosting and customer support.

More information on PTFS Europe: www.ptfs-europe.com