SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 21, 2006 – SirsiDynix, the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries bringing knowledge to people and communities, announced today the immediate availability of a new market area analysis module for SirsiDynix Director's Station. The module allows library managers to make more informed decisions related to collection development by analyzing U.S. Census demographic information for the communities and neighborhoods they serve.
The Director's Station statistical server offers easy drag-and-drop access to data collected by a library's management system. The new geographic information system (GIS) module adds another analysis tool to Director's Station. Leveraging its work on the Normative Data Project (NDP) for Libraries, SirsiDynix – partnering with the GeoLib Program at Florida State University – has compiled U.S. Census demographics on all 17,000-plus U.S. public libraries. By integrating census information with a sophisticated GIS, a library manager can view the compiled household demographics for individual libraries.
"Generic U.S. Census data on cities and counties is freely available, but finding GIS-based demographic data organized around U.S. public libraries is quite difficult and can be very costly," said Greg Hathorn, SirsiDynix vice president of library products. "SirsiDynix continues to invest in research and development projects that are tailored to producing software which supports better decision-making principles. It's a common theme at SirsiDynix. Librarians have great intuition on what they believe their communities need and want from the library. But with this new Director's Station add-on module, librarians can drill down into U.S. Census information around the library building to better tailor their collections and services.
"Commercial, for-profit companies use this kind of custom market map to determine far in advance what type of store to build and where, and what products to stock," Hathorn said. "By adopting such best practices, librarians can analyze the demographic variables that make each library unique, such as age of population, education and income levels and languages spoken – or not spoken – to ensure libraries continue to play a vital role in community development and enrichment."
The new market area analysis module is available for immediate installation as an integrated component of the Director's Station dashboard. The new Director Station capabilities are being shown at the 2006 ALA Midwinter Meeting here in San Antonio, Jan. 20-25.
About SirsiDynix
SirsiDynix is the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries – vital institutions whose primary mission is to make sense of the vast world of information for people and communities. This is an exciting role as libraries assist people in discovering and using knowledge, resources and other valuable content for their educations, jobs and entertainment. In concert with key industry partners, SirsiDynix supports this strategic role for libraries by offering a comprehensive integrated suite of technology solutions for improving the internal productivity of libraries and enhancing their capabilities for meeting the needs of people and communities. SirsiDynix has approximately 4,000 library and consortia clients, 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.