San Diego — January 10, 2004 — Sirsi Corporation, celebrating 25 years of delivering technology "firsts" to the library community, announced today at the Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association that the Sirsi SIP2 Certification program has drawn attention and applause from the library industry since its introduction as the first in the industry last year. In recent months, Sirsi has certified more than 10 vendors and is completing testing with several additional vendors, which brings a total of more than 20 vendors whose products are now SIP2-certified for use with Sirsi products. "Sirsi is proud to be an advocate for libraries of all types and sizes around the globe — more than 10,000 of which we are privileged to call our clients," said Berit Nelson, Sirsi's vice president of product management. "Sirsi is committed to assisting our clients in selecting the best third-party products available, while ensuring that the integrity of their Sirsi systems is safeguarded." Sirsi SIP2-Certified vendors include: 3M, Checkpoint, i-circ, CMS, Comprise, EnvisionWare, FlashScan, OverDrive, Pharos Systems, TalkingTech, Telus, VendPrint, Fretwell-Downing and Vernon Library Supplies.
"As a technology leader, Sirsi strives to maintain the flexibility clients require to utilize the best products in the industry," said Nelson. "To that end, we have developed the Sirsi SIP2 Certification Program, which has become a litmus test for our clients when selecting third-party vendors, as well as an important selling point for third-party vendors."
Pharos Systems became Sirsi SIP2-Certified in May 2003. "The Sirsi SIP2 Certification program is a great service to the library market," said Tom Cody, Pharos Systems director of business development. "It ensures our customers that the solutions we provide have been demonstrated to work seamlessly with their Sirsi library management system. This gives them the confidence to make buying decisions sooner since they know the solutions will work together." Central Technology's president and CEO Ken Czapla noted that, "to be certified by Sirsi Corporation is like having a 'Gold Seal of Approval' on our product. This will really give us a great advantage in the library marketplace."
The program enables third-party vendors to ensure that their SIP2-compliant products integrate seamlessly with Sirsi systems. Once a third-party product is Sirsi SIP2-certified, Sirsi users will know that they can take advantage of best-of-breed, SIP2-compliant products in their Sirsi environment. "Sirsi SIP2 Certification allows us to work with other vendors to meet the new technology demands of today's libraries and their users," said Nelson.
About Sirsi SIP2 Certification Program
The Sirsi SIP2 Certification Program, an original certification program for the standard interchange protocol, version 2 (SIP2), enables third-party vendors to ensure that their SIP2-compliant products integrate seamlessly with Sirsi systems. Once a third-party product is Sirsi SIP2-Certified, Sirsi users will know that they can take advantage of best-of-breed, SIP2-compliant products in their Sirsi environment. In addition to vendors that are taking part in Sirsi's SIP2 Certification Program, Sirsi also has a range of Sirsi Technology Partners who also provide SIP2-compliant products that integrate with Sirsi systems. For a list of Sirsi Technology Partners, visit www.sirsi.com/Aboutsirsi/techpartners2.html.
About Sirsi
In 2004, Sirsi Corporation (www.sirsi.com) celebrates 25 years as the strategic technology partner to more than 10,000 libraries around the world. A strong, growing company, we are dedicated to providing the library community with forward-thinking information technology solutions, including Sirsi Unicorn® Library Management System, the first client/server-based and UNIX-based integrated library system; Sirsi iBistro and iLink, the first e-Library solutions with streaming enriched content; Sirsi Rooms, the first suite of context management solutions; and Sirsi Director's Station, the first information analysis tool for library executives. Sirsi maintains operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Australia, China, and Singapore.