BIRMINGHAM, England, April 18, 2007 – SirsiDynix, the global leader in strategic technology solutions for libraries, announced today that the University College for the Creative Arts, located in the United Kingdom, has chosen the SirsiDynix Unicorn GL3.1 Library Management System. The college has campuses at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester.
Rosemary Lynch, director of Library and Learning Centres and deputy head of Library and Learning Services for the college, said: "We are delighted to announce that Unicorn will be the new library management system for the University College for the Creative Arts. Following an extensive selection process, Unicorn scored the highest overall for system quality and value for money.
"We were particularly impressed by the system's configurability, an essential requirement for a specialist organization such as ours, and a powerful tool for dealing with the logistics of managing a library service over five geographically dispersed sites," Lynch said. "The system offers many features to facilitate the research process and enhance the experience for end users. Additional functionality will also enable the library to streamline systems behind the scenes and improve the delivery of our services across the University College."
Keith Sturges, president of SirsiDynix International, said: "We are delighted that the University College for the Creative Arts has chosen Unicorn. SirsiDynix has had a long history with Kent Institute of Art and Design, which merged with the Surrey Institute of Art and Design in August 2005. We are pleased that following the merger, the new University College for the Creative Arts has selected Unicorn for the delivery of library services to staff and students."
In March, SirsiDynix announced a new technology platform, code-named "Rome." The platform is built on the proven, scalable and extensible architecture of the industry-standard Unicorn Library Management System and will include an impressive set of new solutions created as part of SirsiDynix Horizon 8.0/Corinthian development. Rome offers integrated technology building blocks for today's libraries and consortia, including costsaving software-as-a-service (SaaS) hosted options, state-of-the-art portal and search solutions, new and easy-to-manage Web-based library staff software, electronic content management and presentation solutions, the broadest suite of library management and productivity solutions – and more. The first version of Rome will be released later this year.
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 300 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.
About the University College for the Creative Arts
The University College for the Creative Arts at Canterbury, Epsom, Farnham, Maidstone and Rochester is one of the United Kingdom's leading providers of specialist art and design education, offering strengths in art, design, architecture, media and communication. With approximately 6,500 students across five locations, the University College offers more than 80 different academic courses leading to diplomas, degrees and postgraduate qualifications.
A thriving and vibrant community of students, staff and researchers, the University College plays a significant role in the creative, economic and cultural life of the United Kingdom. It is home to several public art galleries, to the Crafts Study Centre and to research centres that include the Centre for Sustainable Design and Animation Research Centre.