LONDON—August 24, 2005— SirsiDynix announced today that the University of Huddersfield, located in the West Yorkshire region of England, will migrate to the SirsiDynix Corinthian Library Management System from their existing Horizon integrated library system. Following a competitive selection process, Corinthian was selected over several other systems. Sue White, head of Library Services at the university, said, "We felt that after eight years with the same system, it was time to have a good look at the market to see which product would best meet our future needs. In particular, we wanted a library management system which could integrate with other systems such as an institutional portal and cross-database search tools." Ms. White added, "We were impressed by the potential of Corinthian and the innovative aspects of the SirsiDynix vision for the future."
In addition, Corinthian's ability to integrate with other university systems, such as the Blackboard VLE for e-learning, was an important issue for the university, allowing them to move toward their ideal of seamless access to information. The use of Shibboleth to enable secure access to digital content was also a major factor in their selection of the system, as was the ability for greater personalization of the interface for students.
The university maintains a collection of 400,000 volumes at its library, serving approximately 17,000 undergraduate students as its user base. Annual circulation is around 615,000 with approximately 745,000 user visits to the library each year. The university has a high proportion of part-time, mature students who are unable to visit the campus on a regular basis, and it is also expanding its overseas provision. For all these remote students, it is essential that the library is able to provide access to a reliable and user-friendly system which allows them to search the catalogue, place requests and renew books.
Mark Carden, SirsiDynix vice president, said: "We are extremely pleased that Corinthian has been selected by the University of Huddersfield. The system has been developed to meet the unique needs of academic libraries and incorporates today's leading-edge technologies. Its open APIs allow the easy integration with the existing campus technology infrastructure, which was so important to Huddersfield. We look forward to continuing our relationship with the university with the implementation of Corinthian in 2006."
About SirsiDynix
Created in June 2005 through the merger of Dynix Corporation with Sirsi Corporation, SirsiDynix provides the broadest array of information management products and services for libraries and consortia worldwide. Both Sirsi and Dynix have had excellent track records as leading information technology providers for libraries and their users, and the new company will build on its constituents' strengths while providing more opportunities for technological innovation and growth. SirsiDynix has approximately 4,000 library and consortia clients around the world, serving more than 200 million people through more than 20,000 library outlets in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. For more information, please see www.sirsidynix.com.