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The University of Palermo: ALEPH’s Second Sicilian User
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Verona, January 20, 2000
Atlantis Srl, the sole Ex Libris distributor in Italy, announced today that the University of Palermo
has selected the latest version of ALEPH 500 to replace its DOBIS library system. Following in the footsteps of the University of Messina, also in Sicily, Palermo will be the 23rd Italian ALEPH installation.
One of the oldest and most renowned cities of Sicily, Palermo dates back to the third millennium B.C. The University of Palermo, a major academic institution on the island, comprises 11
faculties, which include architecture, humanities, economics, law, and pharmacy. The university sponsors many cultural and scientific events for the community of students and researchers, both
at the local and national levels, and represents a lively institution in the academic scenery of Sicily and Italy.
Asked about the university's choice of ALEPH 500, Dr. Giuseppe Giannantonio, head of Library
and Document Services, said, "With ALEPH 500 we expect to satisfy our need for a single integrated software system throughout the university. At one large information site, the library
system will incorporate the numerous databases that have been autonomously created over the years."
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Universidad Nacional de Colombia Acquires ALEPH 500
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Bogotá, Colombia, January 3, 2000
On the eve of the new year, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia (UNAL), located in Santa Fe
de Bogotá, opted to acquire ALEPH for the management of all its library-processing needs. With this decision, UNAL joins other key institutions in Colombia, such as ICFES, CORPOICA, and CIAT.
The features offered by ALEPH will help UNAL build the most important university network of library services in the country. The new system will be able to provide users with access to
electronic documents and images covering a broad range of information.
Implementation of the ALEPH project began in January and will be completed in June of 2000.
After the installation of new network technology, the various libraries of the university, including those located on campuses elsewhere in the country, will be connected by ALEPH. ALEPH will
enhance the quality of the UNAL library services, improve their efficiency, and enable UNAL to incorporate today's global educational trends in its library system.
Ex Libris is a world-wide supplier of library systems for academic, national, research, and public libraries, and has over 15 years' experience developing and supporting the ALEPH products.
More than 500 sites in 40 countries now use the software. Incorporating the latest relational database management system (RDBMS) and client-server technologies, the ALEPH 500
system is designed to support international computing and library standards.
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Ex Libris Opens Australian Office
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Tel Aviv, February 8, 2000
The Ex Libris group is pleased to announce the establishment of a wholly owned subsidiary in
Australia -- Ex Libris (Australia) Pty Ltd -- the group's fifth subsidiary. Located in Melbourne, the new office is the sales and marketing center for Australia and New Zealand and will eventually fulfil
the role of support center for local customers. The Australian office joins the growing Ex Libris network of subsidiaries and distributors, which spans 18 countries on four continents.
“The decision to open an Australian subsidiary,” said Ex Libris Chairman Azriel Morag, “was strongly influenced by the company’s recent successes in other competitive library automation
markets, such as the US and the UK. The Australian market is not dissimilar to those and has demonstrated a need for state-of-the-art library automation such as ALEPH 500 and ALEPH
Cluster. ALEPH’s support of Unicode and CJK also means that we now meet a major requirement for the entire Asian and Australian region.”
The newly appointed general manager of the Australian subsidiary, Mike McLellan, recently relocated from the Ex Libris office in London. After training as a librarian in Australia, Mr.
McLellan moved to the United Kingdom. He spent 17 years working in the library automation industry there - working with Adlib, CLSI, Ameritech before joining Ex-Libris where he helped to
establish the UK Ex Libris office, serving as sales manager. Mr. McLellan commented, "I'm glad to be back home and am looking forward to using my experience from the European market to
bring the most modern in library automation to Australia. When it comes to using IT, and particularly connectivity issues, libraries and librarians in Australia and New Zealand have had to
be imaginative. In ALEPH500 I believe they will find a system that, through its unique system architecture, matches this imagination especially when it comes to connectivity, resource sharing
and the whole digital library concept.”
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The University of Salerno chooses ALEPH 500
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Verona, Feb. 16, 2000
Atlantis Srl, Ex Libris exclusive distributor in Italy, announced today that the University of Salerno
has signed a contract for the installation of the latest version of ALEPH 500 as its Library Automation System, thus becoming the 24th Italian ALEPH user. The University of Salerno,
initially with 10 full user and 20 Web OPAC licenses, is joining the steadily growing group of international Aleph installations, totalling at present more than 500 installations in 40 countries world-wide.
The University of Salerno (near Naples) is one of the main academic institutions in Southern Italy. It comprises 9 faculties (Humanities, Law, Political Sciences, Engineering among the others)
serving a population of several thousand students. Though recently founded, the University represents an element of continuity in the region from the days of the famous Schola Medica
Salernitana, dating back to a period spanning the 10th to the 13th century.
ALEPH 500 will be the first step in the establishment of the Central Academic Library System,
totalling more than 350.000 items and serving the research needs of the faculties of Economics, Law, Humanities, Communication Sciences, Political Sciences, Engineering and Pharmacy. The
automation of the catalog aims at making easily available to students and researchers the rich collection of materials possessed by the different libraries of the University, while improving the
user-librarian communication.
Asked about the reason for choosing ALEPH 500, Dott. Egisto Manicatori Head of the Academic Service Center for Libraries and Prof. Vittorio Dini, delegate of the Rector, noted: “
With the acquisition of ALEPH 500, at Salerno the “dream of the bibliophile” is coming true: to be able to utilize, in a proper location, the most complete and fast system of information retrieval and
library administration and, at the same time, to have books and serials available in their “natural” aspect, i.e. the printed paper. ALEPH 500, thanks to its flexibility and its adherence to
international standards will make the use of our new library, easier and more efficient. Since its opening two years ago, our library has added space and extended opening hours, affording
better usage to the students and the researchers of the University of Salerno.”
Erwin Linthout, Sales Manager of Atlantis Srl, welcomes the University of Salerno among the
steadily growing group of Aleph users in Italy. For this project, as for others in Italy, his company is in charge of system installation, migration of the records from SINBIB, staff training, first line
support and project management activities.
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The City University of New York (CUNY) selects ALEPH 500™
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February 23, 2000 - Chicago, Illinois.
Ex Libris (USA) Inc. announced today that the 21 campuses of The City University of New York
(CUNY) have selected ALEPH 500 as their next generation library system, replacing their current NOTIS system.
The City University of New York (CUNY), situated in one of the world's pre-eminent cities, is the
largest urban university in the United States and is the third-largest public university system. Some 200,000 students are enrolled for degrees on 21 campuses in all five boroughs of New
York City. Another 150,000 students take adult and continuing education courses. CUNY believes in open access to educational opportunities and resources and their selection of
ALEPH 500 is designed to support that policy.
The Office of Library Services supports the University's 19 campus libraries under the Director of
Library Services, Marsha Ra. "The CUNY Council of Chief Librarians unanimously endorsed the recommendation to license Aleph 500 which will replace our existing NOTIS system," said Ms.
Ra. "CUNY has successfully operated its libraries as a co-operative consortium for the past 12 years. We have been ready to move to an open architecture, client server solution for some time.
We were looking for a system that offered us full functionality as well as powerful support for our complex consortial environment. ALEPH 500 meets these requirements with far more flexibility
and more powerful searching tools than we enjoyed with our legacy system. The architectural considerations were a key part of our process. We knew that the new system would serve as a
cornerstone for our future plans."
Ms. Ra also referred to SUNY's recent decision to license ALEPH 500 as a factor in the CUNY
decision. "We are very excited about this opportunity to work with our SUNY colleagues as both institutions implement ALEPH. Together we will be providing an impressive array of new tools
and services to our students and faculty. We hope to leverage this decision to maximize New York State tax dollars. The result will be a dramatic expansion of information resources available
to our respective communities, spanning the entire State of New York."
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The Russian State Library chooses ALEPH 500
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Ex Libris (Deutschland) GmbH has announced that ALEPH 500 has been selected as supplier
after a tender to the European Commission’s TACIS unit (Technical Assistance to the former CIS States), for an integrated library system in the Russian State Library - Europe’s largest library.
Founded in 1862 at Moscow, the Russian State Library (RSL, formerly known as the Lenin
Library) is the largest library in Europe, as characterized year by year by the Guinness Book of world records and the second largest in the world, holding over 42 million items. The library is
unique in its comprehensiveness and the universality of its collections. It acquires and stores national and foreign publications in 247 dead and living languages. Each day, the RSL serves
about 5,000 visitors, borrowing about 34,000 items and registers about 200 new users, each day. It’s reading rooms have a capacity of 2,000 seats. It is located in the heart of the capital,
within view of and short walk from the Kremlin.
The RSL is also the country’s leading cultural, educational and scientific information center. It
serves as a center for methodological and research work in the field of library science, bibliography and bibliology and as a national book depository.
The RSL has its origins in a palatial building, adjoining the newer wings, known as the
Rumiantsev Library. Regular patrons of the Rumiantsev included Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky, Chekhov, Gogol, Mendeleyev, Lenin and many other luminaries. Many ancient and priceless books, maps
and manuscripts, going back to the 11th century, are on view in the library’s book museum and treasure rooms. I believe ALEPH 500 is the best choice for us”, says Alexander Vislyi, Deputy Director of the RSL.
The ALEPH project at the RSL involves a consortium of participants, including besides Ex Libris,
the TACIS division of the European Unit, the British Council, EDS and Jouve S.A.
The ALEPH 500 system will definitely place the RSL in the front line of libraries using the latest
international standards increasingly directed towards the creation of digital libraries. The project is expected to be ALEPH’s first in a row of Russian libraries intending to automate their operations.
For more info: www.exl.de (in German)
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