Blacksburg, VA - VTLS announced today the debut of a new era in library automation with the company becoming the first major ILS vendor to lead the way in the embracement of open-source software as the foundation of a suite of new product and service offerings. VTLS, after extensive analysis, selected FEDORA™ from the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and Cornell University, as the open source software to serve as the basis of digital asset management software to be called VITAL.

“We're very proud to say VTLS listens closely to what libraries and information centers are saying with regard to open-source software” said Carl Grant, President and COO, “Basing VITAL upon the FEDORA™ open source package is a direct response to libraries and information centers embracing this kind of technology. Open source software means lower acquisition costs, faster development times, and protection of investment in the technology. Furthermore, we're providing a way for institutions that want to use open-source software, but don't have a large technical support staff, to benefit from this technology. When libraries want visionary approaches, VTLS is the company that is going to respond.”

"We're very pleased to have a vendor such as VTLS see the opportunity created by Fedora" said Thornton Staples, Digital Library Research, University of Virginia "we're hoping that their offerings will greatly expand the number of users that can benefit from our open source software."

FEDORA began in September 2001 when the Mellon Foundation funded a project to build a digital object repository management system. The project was based on and became known as the Flexible Extensible Digital Object Repository Architecture (Fedora).

Specifically, FEDORA features:

• Datastreams – Objects in a repository may consist of content and metadata that physically reside inside or outside the repository. FedoraTM supports content of any MIME type.
• Batch Utility – Fedora includes a Batch Utility as part of the Management client that enables the mass creation and loading of data objects.
• OAI Metadata Harvesting Provider – The OAI Protocol for Metadata Harvesting is a standard for sharing metadata across repositories. Every Fedora digital object has a primary Dublin Core record that conforms to the schema.
• XML Submission and Storage – Digital objects are stored as XML-encoded files that conform to an extension of the METS schema.
• Versioning – The Fedora repository system includes the infrastructure to support versioning of digital objects and their components.
• Access Control and Authentication – Provides access restrictions based on IP address and HTTP Basic Authentication, with upcoming support for Shibboleth and digital rights management as well.
• Searching – Selected system metadata fields are indexed along with the primary Dublin Core record for each object. Fedora™ provides a search interface for both full text and field specific queries across these metadata fields.

VITAL builds on the Fedora repository architecture by providing VTLS developed workflow extensions, management utilities and enhanced searching capabilities. Using Fedora defined web services, VITAL provides a mechanism for your organization to create tools, enhance the functionality provided by VTLS, or leverage the open source community for future applications. Together, the package is known as VITAL. The package provides every feature—storing, indexing, cataloging, searching, retrieving—required to handle large text and image rich content collections. VITAL takes advantage of technology standards such as XML, TEI, EAD and Dublin Core to easily describe and index an assortment of electronic resources.

VTLS is offering the following packages of products/services:

1. The VITAL package:
   • Fedora open source software (free)
   • VTLS software and hardware extensions.
   • VTLS installation, support, training and documentation.
2. The Fedora package:
   • Fedora open source software (free)
   • VTLS installation, training, and support
3. A Hosted Solution where VTLS acts as an ASP service for either VITAL or Fedora
4. VTLS Professional Digital Imaging Services and project consulting can be combined with any of the above to provide tailored solutions.

Note: The Fedora product developed by UVA and Cornell is not to be confused with Linux's Red Hat Fedora product.

About VTLS Inc.

VTLS Inc. (www.vtls.com) is a leading global company that creates and provides visionary technology in library solutions. We have three distinctive divisions that provide these solutions to a diverse customer base of more than 900 libraries in over 32 countries. Our VIRTUA division remains focused on ILS solutions, our VTRAX division focuses on RFID type technologies through our partnership with Tagsys and our Digital Asset Creation & Management division provides cutting edge software and services for Digital Libraries. VTLS is also one of the few ISO 9001 quality certified companies within the library industry.