Blacksburg, Va. – February 20, 200. The newest Canadian territory of Nunavut recently went live with VTLS' Virtua ILS – Integrated Library Systems. This installation marks the first live integrated library system to provide support in the Inuktitut language. Virtua's full support of the Inuktitut syllabic character set enables residents and other native speakers to access information in their own language. Virtua ILS is the only library automation system currently featuring full Inuktitut character support. The territory of Nunavut was formed on April 1, 1999 and represents about one-fifth the landmass of Canada. Nunavut installed Virtua ILS with a 16-user license that connects the government's justice, legislative and college libraries. “The government of Nunavut was attracted to Virtua ILS' superior Unicode capability,” said Gavin Nesbitt, systems manager of the legislative library. “We needed a system that could provide us with the essential cataloging and circulation features while allowing us to serve our multilingual patrons.”

Out of 25,000 people, 85 percent of Nunavut's population is Inuit. English and French are commonly used in addition to Inuktitut, a language spoken by the majority of the people and written with unique characters known as “Canadian aboriginal syllabics.” Virtua's support of the Inuktitut language is included in both VTLS' Chameleon Web Gateway and staff client interfaces. By supporting English, French and Inuktitut in all modules throughout the system, Virtua ILS addresses all Nunavut's language needs. Also, Virtua's design allows entry and display of any combination of characters at any point in the system and allows users to dynamically change languages within their user session.

VTLS Inc. is proud to be working with the government of Nunavut to provide a complete solution that includes the Inuktitut language,” commented Vinod Chachra, President of VTLS Inc. “Virtua's use of Unicode allowed us to deliver the world's first Inuktitut library system effortlessly.”