March 18, 2011 -- Emeryville, CA. The Consortium of Catalonian University Libraries (El Consorci de Biblioteques Universitŕries de Catalunya)—comprised of nine of the most prestigious academic libraries in Spain—has entered in a partnership agreement with Innovative Interfaces for Encore for a Group. The Consortium libraries are Autonomous University of Barcelona, Barcelona University, Catalonia Technical University, Girona University, Lleida University, the National Library of Catalonia, Open University of Catalonia, Pompeu Fabra University, and Rovira and Virgili University. The Consortium will leverage its existing Millennium Union Catalog and ILS implementations.
The Consortium's Encore for a Group project integrates with Millennium and brings their collections into a single discovery environment without the need for CBUC staff or local staff maintenance. The implementation will make possible:
- Real-time access to holdings of different sites and item availability information
- Direct, patron-initiated requesting across the entire collected collection
- Improvement of the user experience through the introduction of 2.0 services
History of Cooperation
With the Encore for a Group implementation, the CBUC will reach a new milestone in user service and library cooperation. In 1996, the CBUC created a Union Catalog, which currently comprises more than 8 million documents from 167 Catalan libraries with an interlibrary lending agreement in place since 1998. In 2005, the CBUC selected the Millennium ILS to upgrade and modernize the Union Catalog, as well as its library operations technology. After a close and extended cooperation with Innovative on its Union Catalog, the CBUC plans to inaugurate the new Encore service for direct requesting and discovery of its holdings before the summer.
Lluís Anglada, director of the CBUC says: "We want to maximize the use of our collections, ease access to materials through the enhancement of our discovery tool, and to facilitate resource sharing. Often many patrons are waiting for books and other materials that are rarely used in another library. The Encore for a Group project will help us to link existing, but previously hidden, resources with the patrons who need them. With this new service we want to increase cooperation between libraries and to show that cooperation is a necessary tool for libraries to give better services with lower costs."
About the Consortium of Catalonian University Libraries
The Consortium of Catalonian University Libraries (www.cbuc.es) was created in 1996 with the mission of improving library services through cooperation. The Consortium has achieved a number of positive results including its Union Catalog, interlibrary loan, comprehensive discovery, and cost-effective joint purchases of equipment, training, bench marking, and technology.
About Encore
The Encore discovery services platform (www.encoreforlibraries.com) transforms how users uncover the rich and varied resources the library has to offer by uniting content, community, and discovery. No matter which ILS a library uses—or its level of development resources or staff expertise—Encore provides a reliable solution that makes it easy to offer the latest information technologies. At its core is the Encore Framework developed using modern, Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) software design principles. The Framework supports a suite of robust applications and Web Service offerings that can be tailored to meet the needs of any library. What's more, the Encore Services team backs the product with in-library installation, hosted options (SaaS), and more. With Encore, it's all right here.
About Innovative Interfaces
Innovative Interfaces (www.iii.com) dedicates its energies to meeting the needs of libraries and the challenges of library automation. The company has fulfilled this mission with first-rate services and products such as the Millennium integrated library platform, INN-Reach resource sharing, Electronic Resource Management, and the Encore discovery services platform. Today, thousands of libraries of all types in over 50 countries rely on Innovative's products, services, and support. The company is located in Emeryville, California with offices around the world.
