Tamkang University, Taiwan's oldest private institution of higher learning, has recently completed installation of the Unicode Chinese version of Virtua. Tamkang is installing Virtua OPAC (with WWW Gateway), Cataloging, Circulation, Serials Control and Acquisitions modules. VTLS Inc. has converted and loaded data from their customized Dobis-Libis system, converting the character set from Big-5 to Unicode. Tamkang's data includes materials in Chinese, Japanese and Russian in addition to Latin-1 data.

This installation highlights the successful partnership between Tamkang and VTLS Inc. in refining development of the Chinese version of Virtua, including Chinese sorting, Chinese MARC to US MARC data conversion, and translation of the user interface. Tamkang selected Virtua after conducting a thorough review of available solutions. Virtua's inherent support of Unicode and Z39.50, integrated display capabilities for non-Latin scripts, and overall design were key factors in the decision. The ability for Virtua to simultaneously display Chinese, Japanese, Russian and western languages demonstrated the power and flexibility of the software.

"Tamkang University has been a wonderful partner to work with," remarked Vinod Chachra, president of VTLS Inc. "The dedication and expertise of Tamkang's staff has added considerably to the quality of the implementation of Chinese in Virtua."

Tamkang University's Chueh Sheng Memorial Library includes an ultra-modern nine-story main library, a Maritime Museum and two branch libraries. Library holdings consist of over 700,000 books, over 6,000 periodical titles, nearly 100,000 non-book materials and a broad selection of electronic databases.