LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 15, 2006) − The University of Kentucky Libraries announced today it will join Innovative Interfaces, Inc. in developing Encore, a next-generation library interface that expands UK Libraries' current search-engine capabilities and makes for an easier searching experience for students and faculty. UK joins 13 other partners that are engaged in development partnerships to create this new library-technology product. Encore will become available to the UK community in 2007.

"From what we have seen before, Encore adds a lot of panache to the library search experience and is not dissimilar from what patrons find on the greater Web," says Kelly M. Vickery, associate dean for Library Information Technology at UK. "We particularly like how Encore separates faceted search results between format types, which will be very appealing to our users and staff here in the library."

The Encore discovery services platform transforms the user experience of the library. As a unified search and access tool, Encore is a new way of creating public access to libraries on the Web. New features include:

• the ability to bring more kinds of information to the user from a single keyword search, including results from UK's many subscription databases;
• community features that allow students and faculty to rate, review, and "tag" library items (as is done on Web sites like del.icio.us); and
• a more dynamic and interactive interface that brings new search results without refreshing the Web page or interrupting the user's flow.

UK Libraries chose Innovative to bring the next phase of library access to fruition. "Innovative Interfaces has an exceptional track record in timely delivery of products which help libraries serve their users better," says Carol Pitts Diedrichs, dean of UK Libraries. "We're excited about the opportunity to work with them in a development partnership to create a dynamic new interface for our catalog data."

Development is now focusing on features such as simultaneous search of the library's catalog data and its subscription databases, popular choice suggestions based on the UK community's usage of materials, and tag clouds that guide users to relevant materials by showing the most popular tags created by the community. Encore will also include faceted search results, which respond to a keyword search by listing where relevant items are to be found, and the most closely related library subject headings.

"We are very pleased to be working with the University of Kentucky," said Encore product manager Dinah Sanders. "They will be our second non-Millennium system to be integrated into Encore, and we're excited about offering this improved functionality to their patrons."

Other public and private libraries partners around the globe include Binghamton University (SUNY), Australia's Deakin University, Oregon's Deschutes Public Library, Georgetown University, Michigan State University, Nashville Public Library, Scottsdale Public Library System, Missouri's Springfield-Greene County Library, Pennsylvania's Tri-College Library Consortium, Scotland's University of Glasgow, Australia's University of Queensland Library, Ohio's Westerville Public Library, and Yale University's Lillian Goldman Law Library.