The Environment Agency has selected OLIB as the information management system to deliver its vision of a new National Library and Information Service for the next Millennium. The Agency is implementing all modules of OLIB7, the latest version of the system, with the first phase due to go live from April 1998.

The 9 independent regional services are in the process of being amalgamated into a new National Library and Information Service for the Environment Agency. The service aims to co-ordinate and improve the quality of services provided to the population of 6000 users across England and Wales.

Stefan Carlyle, Head of Scientific and Technical Services at The Agency explains, "We needed our regional offices to work together to improve efficiency and to standardise the quality and range of services on offer. But our vision for the future goes much further than this as we envisage an environment that combines the virtual library with direct access to library expertise. Our new nationwide service will be the focal point for everyone with a need for information and will be based on a network of Internet café style information centres".

One of the fundamental concepts of the new service is that users will have easy access to local, external, printed and electronic information resources, both from their desktop and from the Information Centres. With an increase in the demand for a range of electronic media, in particular documents and WWW pages, the project team recognised the need to implement a networked information management system to replace a number of independent Soutron systems.

Stefan concludes, "We needed a system that would excite our users and that could move us away from the traditional image of a library. We soon recognised that OLIB was more than just a library management functionality. The system will enable us to integrate access to printed and electronic materials and to deliver the full-text of documents direct to the end user. We were also pleased to find a system that provided pro-active current awareness and SDI facilities as an integrated feature".