Ex Libris (Germany) welcomes yet another Swiss Canton to the ALEPH 500 circle. Following the recent signing of an agreement between the cantonal authorities and Ex Libris, ALEPH 500 version 16.02 will replace the library's existing SISIS system. Canton Aargau is the fourth Swiss canton to opt for ALEPH, joining those of St.Gallen, Graubünden/Grisons, and Tessino. In addition to the central canton library, the ALEPH network will include a number of local school libraries.

Dr. Ruth Wüst, ALEPH Project Manager for the Aargau Cantonal Library, explained that "a major factor in our decision making process was the possibility for the canton to connect to the IDS consortium of German-speaking Swiss libraries, which has been using ALEPH 500 for a number of years. We also like the fact that ALEPH is based on international standards."

"We welcome this opportunity to extend the ALEPH coverage for the Swiss, German speaking library community in which our consortial models have been warmly accepted," said Michael Luetgen, Managing Director of Ex Libris (Germany). In addition to providing full installation, configuration, training, and ongoing support services to the Aargau library network, Ex Libris looks forward to maintaining interactive cooperation with the Canton Aargau. The ALEPH library system has also been adopted by the French and Italian speaking library communities in the Swiss Canton of Tessino."

The ALEPH 500 system will be hosted on a SUN Solaris server and will initially support 25 professional and 75 Web OPAC users. The move to production is scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2005.  

About the Canton Aargau Library

Established in 1803 with the founding of the canton itself, the library manages the collection and handles the safe-keeping of all publications in the canton. The library provides citizens with access to local literature in a number of scientific fields as well as to worldwide media through the most modern communications tools. The cantonal collection is comprised of 650,000 books and 1,500 ancient maps as well as a collection of precious manuscripts and old print works. Some of the library's newer acquisitions will be lent out on a regular basis.

For more information about the Aargau Cantonal Library, please see www.ag.ch/kantonsbibliothek.

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 660 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.