Chicago, IL—August 17, 2011. Ex Libris Group, a world leader in the provision of library automation solutions, is pleased to announce that the North American Primo community is continuing to expand rapidly, with the addition of numerous research institutions that have opted for locally hosted or cloud-based implementations of the Primo discovery and delivery solution.
Academic institutions in North America that have recently selected Primo and the Primo Central Index include the following:
- Boston University
- Purdue University
- Texas A&M University
- Texas Woman's University
- Tulane University
- University of Alberta
- University of Kansas
- University of Texas at Dallas
- Virginia Commonwealth University
Among the many factors involved in enabling users to carry out high-quality research are information literacy, individual guidance by librarians, and extensive collection development on the part of the library. Recently, members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) in North America have been adopting new approaches to set up researchers for success. Next-generation discovery systems such as Ex Libris Primo create opportunities for library users to easily discover materials that they may not have found through traditional discovery methods.
"After an extensive evaluation process, we selected Primo to provide our library users with a unified discovery solution that enables them to access our Voyager catalog, commercial electronic resources, and unique local digital collections stored in our digital library and institutional repository," commented Deborah Ludwig, assistant dean of libraries at the University of Kansas. "With Primo, our users will easily connect to a diverse body of content in many formats. In addition, we are very excited to offer our users the added value of bX article recommendations within Primo, which are based on article usage by scholars around the world."
Paul Bracke, associate dean for digital programs at Purdue University Libraries, noted: "Primo's search technology, including its superior relevance ranking and faceted navigation, made Ex Libris the natural choice for our library. We were also pleased with the system's flexibility, which will enable our staff to customize the system to meet the exacting demands of faculty and students."
Michael Bolton, director of digital initiatives at Texas A&M, remarked: "We selected a cloud-based Primo option, which will allow our staff to fully control the public interface and manage the back office without having to deal with maintaining servers. Leaving information-technology issues to Ex Libris will reduce our total cost of ownership considerably. The addition of the Primo Central Index will provide our users with a new way to access our extensive collection of electronic resources."
"We are delighted to welcome these important institutions to the rapidly growing Primo community," noted Mark Triest, president of Ex Libris North America. "All of these universities' libraries provide world-class research services to faculty and students, and we are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with each one of them over the coming years."
About the University of Kansas
Opened in 1866, the University of Kansas (KU) is a comprehensive educational and research institution with more than 30,000 students and 2,450 faculty members. KU's main campus, considered one of the most beautiful in the nation, occupies 1,000 acres on and around Mount Oread in Lawrence, a thriving city of 90,000 in the forested hills of eastern Kansas. Library collections on the Lawrence campus contain more than 4.2 million volumes; 3.6 million microforms; 338,000 maps; and 3.4 million photographs, slides, drawings, and cartoons.
For more information, see http://www.ku.edu/.
About Purdue University
Purdue was founded in 1869 as a land-grant university, when the Indiana General Assembly accepted a donation of land and money from Lafayette businessman John Purdue to establish a college of science, technology, and agriculture in his name. With six campuses in Indiana, Purdue has the second largest undergraduate body in the state, and its international student population is one of the largest among public universities in the United States.
For more information, see http://www.purdue.edu/.
About Texas A&M University
Opened in 1876 as the first public institution of higher learning in Texas, Texas A&M University is a research-intensive flagship university with over 38,000 undergraduates and more than 9,000 graduate students studying in over 250 degree programs in 10 colleges. Texas A&M owes its origin to the Morrill Act, approved by the United States Congress on July 2, 1862.
For more information, see http://www.tamu.edu/.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris is a leading provider of automation solutions for academic libraries. Offering the only comprehensive product suite for electronic, digital, and print materials, Ex Libris provides efficient, user-friendly products that serve the needs of libraries today and will facilitate their transition into the future. Ex Libris maintains an impressive customer base consisting of thousands of sites in more than 80 countries on six continents.
Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with customers, Ex Libris enables academic, national, and research libraries to maximize productivity and efficiency and, at the same time, greatly enhance the user experience. By empowering users to discover and obtain the information they need, libraries ensure their position as the bridge to knowledge.