Atlantis, the Ex Libris distributor in Italy, announced today that five institutions in Italy--the universities of Firenze, Padova, Sassari, Siena, and Venezia Ca' Foscari--have chosen to implement the SFX link server and MetaLib library portal. A sixth institution, the University of Bologna, has contracted to implement SFX. These sites, all members of the CIPE (Inter-university Co-operation for Electronic Periodicals) consortium, bring the number of Italian institutions using the award-winning Ex Libris metasearch and context-sensitive linking tools to eleven.

The new customers will be implementing the latest versions of MetaLib and SFX, which continue to set the standards for library portals and link servers. New features include:

• A redesigned MetaLib user interface, which addresses the needs and expectations of novice, informed, and advanced users
• Enhanced A to Z listing services, which enable users to locate electronic databases and journals by name, publisher, category, subject, or other attribute
• MetaIndex, a component that harvests OAI-compliant repositories to make them available for metasearching
• Enhanced management of metasearch result sets, including relevance ranking and automatic merging and deduplication
• Enriched knowledge base content and functionality
• An improved personal research environment with links to reference management software

Guido Badalamenti, director of the library system at University of Siena, who coordinated the SFX/MetaLib CIPE project during the negotiation phase, explained, “We selected MetaLib and SFX after a long analysis and discussion with the other members of the CIPE consortium. The key factors that influenced our decision were the international diffusion of the software, the value and richness of the knowledge base, and the important community of users who are actively working in partnership with Ex Libris to shape the future development of the software.”

"We are very pleased that CIPE consortium member institutions recognize the value of MetaLib and SFX for enhancing their services to their patrons," noted Liliana Morotti, SFX and MetaLib product manager at Atlantis. “This is a very important project for us, and we are particularly satisfied that we could help make it happen. We are excited to start working with these new customers--as well as existing ones--to ensure that MetaLib and SFX continue to meet researchers' ongoing needs, including seamless navigation through research environments and integration with other parts of the e-campus."

About Ex Libris

Ex Libris is a leading worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centers, and researchers. The ALEPH integrated library solution from Ex Libris has been installed at over 1250 sites in 51 countries. MetaLib, the information portal for library collections, and SFX, the context-sensitive linking server for heterogeneous electronic resources in the scholarly information environment, have been adopted by more than 650 institutions in 32 countries. DigiTool, a solution for constructing digital collections, and the new Verde electronic resource management (ERM) system, round out the Ex Libris product suite.