SLS Information Systems, the European Division of Innovative, announced today that the University of London Library has signed a contract to upgrade its LIBERTAS library automation system to INNOPAC Millennium. The library plans to go live with INNOPAC Millennium in January 1998. This agreement is the first such upgrade, following the purchase of SLS Information Systems by Innovative in April this year.

"All our LIBERTAS customers are being offered the opportunity to upgrade to JNNOPAC Millennium whenever they wish." said Mark Carden, General Manager of SLS Information Systems. "We are committed to continuing support of LIBER TA S for several years to come, but many of our customers are already choosing the smooth migration path to INNOPAC Millennium."

Emma Robinson, Librarian at the University of London Library said, "Our confidence in the product was such that we chose to take advantage of the offer of making the upgrade to INNOPAC, without going through procurement procedures. We are convinced that it will be the right solution for us."

ULL has confidence both in today's capabilities of INNOPAC Millennium and in its future prospects. Ms Robinson said "We believe that INNOPAC offers our users all the functionality they require, and allows us to tailor the system to their needs. We were also most impressed by the development strategy and the range off features being incorporated into the Millennium project."

Bob Radford, UK Business Manager for SLS said that he was very pleased at ULL's decision, and continued, "This is a clear indication that our customers have confidence in the choices we are offering them." Ms Robinson added, "We are delighted to be working with the SLS team again and would like to thank Bob Radford in particular for his care and commitment to bring the negotiations to a successful completion within a very tight timescale."

Innovative Interfaces Inc, based in Emeryville, California, USA, is a leading international provider of information technology to academic, public, government and special libraries. Innovative's products and services are in use in more than 700 libraries throughout the world. The company's Web page is at http://www.m.com.

SLS (Information Systems) Ltd has its headquarters in Bristol in the United Kingdom, and has offices in Stockholm, Madrid and Lisbon. The LIBERTAS library automation system from SLS has more than 100 installations throughout Europe, serving university, higher education, public, national and special libraries. Following the purchase of SLS Information Systems by Innovative in April 1997 the two companies are gradually being integrated, with SLS Information Systems becoming the European Division of Innovative. SLS Information Systems is continuing to support its LIBERTAS customers through its local offices and staff, whilst also offering INNOPAC Millennium to existing and new customers. The company's Web page is at www.sls.se.

The University of London Library, located in Senate House in Bloomsbury, is one of the larger academic research libraries in the UK, with holdings of some two million items. The range of research and special collections are predominantly in the humanities and social sciences. The Library is to most of its users a secondary resource, supplementing the services available to them elsewhere. With some 44,000 registered users, and others consulting materials on an occasional basis, the Library must pay particular care to the provision of inquiry and consultation services. The report of the Anderson Committee's Joint Funding Councils' Libraries Review on the National Strategy for Research states that ‘Most of the use made by external researchers is concentrated across a relatively small number of libraries. Cambridge and Oxford University Libraries, and Senate House in London, were each used by 12% of respondents using other libraries. ". The library's Web page is at www.ull.ac.uk. The University of London Library works together with the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (Librarian, Dr John Screen) and Heythrop College (Librarian, Mr Michael Walsh).