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New territory for Innovative |
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Innovative Interfaces (Europe) Ltd have just announced sales to two new Universities - one in Turkey and the other in the United Arab Emirates at the American University of Sharjah. This latter deal ousts an existing OLIB7 installation and is Innovative’s first deal in the Arab speaking world.
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American University of Sharjah
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Bristol, England / Emeryville, California, USA – September 2000
Innovative Interfaces (Europe) Ltd, a leading supplier of Web-based library automation systems, will install its first Millennium system in the United Arab Emirates
at the American University of Sharjah. Millennium will replace the University’s current OLIB7 system, and a live date is planned for the early part of 2001.
The American University of Sharjah, founded in 1997, is a co-educational university modelled on US institutions of higher
education and developed in affiliation with the American University in Washington DC.
Stephen Shorb, University Librarian, said “Following a detailed evaluation of the major library systems available, we selected
Millennium for three key reasons. Firstly, as we are a new University in the Middle East, there is an expectation for our
technologies to be state-of-the-art, and we found that Innovative offered a system at the perfect stage of product development – mature enough to be highly reliable, yet new enough to
incorporate the latest features. Millennium uses its advanced technology to make the system both very functional, and easy to use.
“Secondly, support was a critical factor for us, and we were impressed with the 24-hour/
7days-a-week support via telephone, e-mail or fax available from Innovative’s headquarters in California. We've also met with some of the European support staff, and feel very comfortable
with the training and support plans.
“Finally, the functional aspects of Millennium were an excellent match for our needs. Our library
has holdings in English and Arabic, and the way that Millennium handles Arabic script was just right for us. We were very impressed with the simplicity and functionality of the circulation module,
and we also found that the acquisitions module – more of an after-thought in some of the systems we evaluated – appeared useful and well-developed. The ability to create our "most needed"
management reports without SQL programming was also extremely important to us.”
Petros Demetriou, Business Manager at Innovative Interfaces, said “We are delighted that the
American University of Sharjah has become our first customer in the Middle East. As the only truly web-based system available, Millennium will ensure the library will be best
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Stephen Shorb
University Librarian
American University of Sharjah
+971 6 505 5251
sshorb@aus.ac.ae |
placed to exploit future technological and functional developments in the educational sector”.
Mr Demetriou added “Innovative is dedicated to meeting the particular needs of Middle Eastern libraries, including the continuing
internationalisation of its products. Millennium has attracted a great deal of interest from libraries in the region and we look forward to partnering with many of them in the near future.”
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Millennium in at Istanbul Bilgi University
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Bristol, England / Emeryville, California, USA – September 2000
Innovative Interfaces, a leading supplier of Web-based library automation systems, continues to
grow in Turkey with the addition of Istanbul Bilgi University as a new customer. Millennium will replace the University’s existing, indigenous library automation system, and will run on a Sun platform.
Istanbul Bilgi University, founded in 1996, is a private, non-profit institution, located in the centre of
Istanbul. The University currently serves just under 7,000 students, and is dedicated to implementing and maintaining international standards in the study of social and communication
sciences, and arts and humanities.
Serdar Katipoğlu, Head Librarian, said “After an exhaustive and comprehensive study, we selected
the Millennium system and believe that it will take us to a higher level of information technology. Our library users will now be able to access both bibliographic and full-text information, and
Millennium’s Web Access Management and Electronic Reserves modules will provide them with the flexibility to access the catalogue whenever and wherever they wish.
“Meeting the needs of both local and distance users on the same system will not only facilitate
greater access to education, but will also support the University’s commitment to its own continuing development. At the same time, Millennium will extend the professional capacity of
our librarians by offering ease of use and therefore minimising the time needed for routine jobs.”
Bob Radford, Business Manager at Innovative Interfaces, added “Innovative is pleased to begin a
partnership with Istanbul Bilgi University, which we are sure will be long and successful. We are also grateful to the University in helping Innovative reach other academic libraries in Turkey with
news of Millennium and the future of library automation, by hosting a seminar at the campus in September. Innovative staff will be presenting and demonstrating Millennium at this seminar.”
Istanbul Bilgi University took its place within the Turkish system of higher education in June 1996, by an act of Parliament. Today, Istanbul
Bilgi University is a unique institution with 7,000 students, including over 850 on scholarship, a distinguished faculty, wide use of state-of-the-art technology and an adaptive dynamic structure. The
University Library has an impressive collection of books, periodicals, electronic information resources and other printed materials, and acts as a showcase for the University’s commitment to utilising new
technologies in response to the developments in education and access to information.
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