LONDON, UK, March 31, 2002--The University of East Anglia (UEA) recently signed contracts with Ex Libris for the installation and implementation of ALEPH 500(tm), MetaLib, and SFX. Replacing a Dynix installation, the Ex Libris systems are targeted to go live by the summer of 2002. UEA will also operate ALEPH 500 on behalf of Suffolk College, Otley College, Norwich School of Art and Design, and the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital.
Working at breakneck speed, UEA has already implemented SFX, the reference linking software from Ex Libris. With operations commencing just three weeks after installation on the server, the system now enables students at UEA to link to the following resources:
- ISI Web of Science
- The MLA, PsycINFO, and GEOBASE databases from OCLC
- The Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts and Linguistics & Language Behavior Abstracts databases from CSA
SFX will become fully functional over the next few months as the linking options are developed.
"The inherent design of ALEPH 500 makes it an ideal choice for an academic consortium of this nature," commented Julie Booth, Managing Director, Ex Libris (UK). "Although Ex Libris has been providing consortium systems for a number of years, this will be the first installation of its kind in the UK. UEA and its fellow consortium members have been using their current library automation system for more than eight years. A move to a new system represents a major change for these organizations. I'm very pleased that Ex Libris has been selected as their partner in this venture."
"We are delighted as a consortium to have signed up with Ex Libris," says Jean Steward, Director of Library, Learning and IT Services, University of East Anglia. "We are impressed with the functionality of the current ALEPH system and the forward-looking approach to systems development demonstrated by Ex Libris. ALEPH provides us with a good platform to extend the partnership within the consortium to meet our common strategic objectives. The MetaLib and SFX functionality is critical to our development plans; our users have been impressed with the demonstrations they have seen to date and are excited about using the new software. We look forward to working with the staff of Ex Libris and are confident that we will have a smooth transition to their systems."
About the University of East Anglia
UEA admitted its first 87 undergraduate students--in English studies and biological sciences--in 1963. Today, ranked eighth out of all UK universities in the field of science, UEA has more than 9,000 undergraduate and almost 4,000 graduate students studying on campus. About a third of the students study part-time, and nearly one thousand are from outside the European Union.
UEA's academic thinking has been distinctive from the outset, as signaled by its choice of the motto "Do Different" and its adoption of an interdisciplinary approach. Continuing in this vein throughout its development, UEA was one of the first universities in Britain to introduce a modular semester system for degree courses, which provides even more flexible ways for students to combine units of study toward a degree.
For further information about the University of East Anglia, please link to www.uea.ac.uk.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris is a leading worldwide developer of high-performance applications for libraries, information centers, and researchers. A multinational company, Ex Libris has offices around the world. ALEPH, the Ex Libris integrated library solution, has been installed at over 700 sites in 48 countries. Other Ex Libris software products include MetaLib, an information portal for library collections that provides libraries, institutions, and consortia with a standardized user interface; SFX, a context-sensitive reference linking solution for heterogeneous electronic resources in the scholarly information environment; and DigiTool, a solution for building digital collections as components of an overall digital strategy. For more information on Ex Libris, please link to www.exlibris-usa.com.