Fretwell-Downing Inc. (FD Inc.) is pleased to announce i ts exciting new partnership with The Ontario Council of University Libraries (OCUL), a consortium of university libraries that supports over 261,500 students.

Marshall Clinton, Director of Information Technology Services at the University of Toronto Library explains the strategic pact: "Shortly after the University of Toronto selected FD Inc.'s outstanding VDX (Virtual Document eXchange) system to manage its own interlibrary loan and document delivery services, it began acting as an application service provider for the nineteen universities comprising the Ontario Council of Universities."

Prior to the alliance with FD Inc., the Ontario universities used a variety of systems to manage their library catalogs and to support their interlibrary loan activities. Now, with FD Inc.'s VDX system in place, the universities can work effectively together like never before, as it enables new opportunities for inter-university cooperation.” Clinton says, "The VDX system will be the foundation for an Ontario union catalog. This will simplify the discovery of resources throughout the province for faculty and students."

The Ontario Council of University Libraries selected FD Inc. over competitors because its VDX system boasts a "richness of features, independence from any one ILS vendor, support for the wide range of library catalog systems used in the consortium's universities and the ability to inter-operate with other systems. This made VDX a real value for money solution for OCUL.”

FD Inc. also won the job, Clinton says, due to its "long-time involvement in systems that support consortium-wide interlibrary loan and document delivery services." He adds, "Our long-term our partnership with FD Inc. will present opportunities for greater cooperation among the nineteen universities and for new services to support students, faculty and researchers."

OCUL is the latest Ontario consortium to select VDX to improve resource sharing, following the Information Network for Ontario (INFO) who selected Fretwell-Downing, Inc. (FD Inc.) as its solutions partner for implementing a new resource sharing solution within public libraries across the province in April 2001.

For more than ten years, Fretwell-Downing Inc. (FD) has been a global leader in the evolution of digital libraries. Delivering the highest level of service and flexibility, FD offers libraries a seamless choice of standards-based solutions. Building toward a solid vision of a "library without walls", FD's "freedom by design" philosophy delivers the unique ability to integrate disparate library systems, as well as creating entirely new digital solutions.