Blacksburg, VA, U.S.A. — In partnering with Oregon-based Syndetic Solutions Inc., VTLS Inc. now offers extended bibliographic services to libraries and institutions with the Chameleon Gateway XBS, the fully customizable Web OPAC for Virtua ILS – Integrated Library Systems.
XBS is seamlessly integrated with VTLS' web-based Chameleon Gateway. Libraries already using the Virtua ILS with the Chameleon Gateway can quickly install and activate XBS content. VTLS' Chameleon Gateway XBS provides additional content that extends and compliments information already present in a title's bibliographic record. By simply clicking on an icon or link in the web OPAC, library patrons may access a variety of content relating to a particular title. This information covers art images, table of contents, book reviews from industry publications, excerpts, synopses and annotations, author notes, and fiction and biography headings.
Chameleon Gateway XBS benefits library patrons in several ways. XBS provides a simple and intuitive means for patrons to retrieve information on items that interest them. XBS also helps patrons find the desired information about an item and increases the overall satisfaction with library services. With XBS, libraries can provide enhanced content at very affordable prices.
Chameleon Gateway XBS offers a wealth of extended bibliographic content:
Book Cover Images – Images of book covers are presented within the OPAC and are available for over 550,000 titles. Cover images are the full electronic scanned image of the book cover in “jpg” or “gif” format.
Table of Contents - Full electronic Table of Contents are provided for over 60,000 titles published each year
Summaries & Annotations - Summaries and annotations written by the title's publisher are available to the user.
Excerpts – The database includes the text of the first chapters, forewords or selections from titles as originally published. Patrons may evaluate an item's content and value before checkout. Excerpts are available for over 10,000 prominently reviewed titles each year.
Book Reviews – Patrons may read the exact text of reviews as published in selected book review journals. Reviews are provided from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, as well as Criticas and Choice.
Author's Notes – Patrons may review descriptions of the author's educational and professional background, as well as other biographical details derived from the dust jackets or back covers of the books themselves.
Fiction and Biography Profile Data – The database includes descriptive elements pertaining to the subject, plot, and genre of novels, biographies, and memoirs.
External Resources – From the Chameleon Web Gateway, patrons can follow context sensitive links to external resources like Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble or to internet search engines like Google.
This content is dynamically accessed and maintained by the service provider, eliminating the need for local maintenance and storage requirements. The service provider, Syndetic Solutions, is a leading supplier of catalog enrichment services. Syndetics currently provides over 2,500,000 separate descriptive elements, including tables of contents, reviews, summaries and annotations, author notes, cover images, excerpts, and Syndetics' own fiction and biography profiles.