Emeryville, CA—Innovative Interfaces, a leader in information technology for libraries, announced that the United Arab Emirates Consortium in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates has chosen to install its INN-Reach Direct Consortial Borrowing System. In addition, all members of the consortium—Zayed University, United Arab Emirates University, and the Higher Colleges of Technology—will install separate Millennium library automation systems. They will be migrating from their existing Virtua and Horizon systems.

INN-Reach, software developed by Innovative, connects the circulation modules of participating libraries and allows patrons from one library to request and borrow materials belonging to another library. Circulation transactions are communicated directly between the circulation modules of the independent systems.

The consortium is the first project of its kind in the Gulf region. The goals of this project, according to Dr. Hanif Al Qasimi, Vice President of Zayed University, is "to open doors for cooperation and coordination between the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research's universities, scientific centers, and their movement toward the millennium's technologies." There shared collection totals over 900,000 volumes.

"The United Arab Emirates Consortium will be Innovative's first INN-Reach system outside of the United States, as well as the first fully-Arabic interface," noted Petros Demetriou, Innovative's Director of Sales for the region. "This promises to be an exciting undertaking for Innovative that will also benefit the consortium's patrons."