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Sirsi Sales news and iBistro update
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Indiana University, Yokosuka Naval Base, Kansas - Ottawa University, Georgia Pines, More at the iBistro, Pikes Peak
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Sirsi goes live at Indiana University
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The Indiana University Libraries, the 13th largest academic research library system in the
U.S., went online with their new SIRSI Unicorn Library Management System on January 3, 2001. The University Libraries, comprising 52 libraries in eight cities statewide, went live
simultaneously with their new SIRSI system at all libraries. They did so on time and under budget, even though the libraries were migrating to SIRSI from two legacy systems.
The new SIRSI system, which will help manage 4.4 million bibliographic records, will equip
the University Libraries to serve more than 115,000 faculty, staff, and student users throughout Indiana and around the world.
"Our implementation of the SIRSI system was the result of a tremendous collaborative effort
among the Indiana University Information Technology Services department, the Indiana University Libraries staff, and the SIRSI team," said Phyllis Davidson, director of information
technology for Indiana University Libraries. "We're so pleased with our SIRSI system and  are looking forward to the future.". |
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Yokosuka Naval Base Library Selects SIRSI
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Feb. 16, 2001) Yokosuka (Japan) Naval Base, the U.S. Navy's largest
Pacific Rim base, has selected Sirsi Corporation's Unicorn® Library Management System for the Fleet Activities Yokosuka MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) Library.
According to Dr. Marilynn Smith, base librarian, the Unicorn system will enable the library to provide base Navy families with Web-based access to its holdings and resources.
"We have a base population of more than 30,000 military and civilian employees and their
families. Besides the main library, we provide library service to the Yokosuka Pre-Trial Confinement Facility and the Yokohama branch in Negishi. Given the fact that television is
primarily in Japanese, we find that our community uses the library for all of its resources: books, videos, computers, music CDs, books on tape, and cultural programming. Because
we offer more than 64,000 titles, we have one of the busiest, if not the busiest, general libraries in the Navy," Smith reported.
In addition to recreational material, the Library provides educational resources for current
students enrolled in Navy College courses, Smith said. "We are a member of PALS (Pacific Academic Library Steering Committee), a group of librarians representing service
libraries and academic institutions offering courses on our representative bases. Several PALS members are satisfied SIRSI customers. That, in addition to the availability of
support within our time zone from SIRSI's Australia office, influenced our decision."
Although the Library has never been automated, it offers Internet access from seven workstations. "When the SIRSI system is installed later this spring, we plan to offer
20 workstations with Internet access. We think it will be very useful for our patrons to have a Web-based library system," Smith said. |
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Ottawa College (Kansas) chooses Unicorn
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (March 9, 2001) Ottawa University, a liberal arts college in Ottawa,
Kan., offering both a traditional residential education and worldwide adult education programs, has selected Sirsi Corporation's Unicorn® Library Management System.
According to Janice Lee, interim library director, Unicorn will provide Ottawa students, faculty, and staff with an easy-to-search Web catalog and library staff with a user-friendly
interface for completing administrative tasks.
"We chose SIRSI because it was superior to the other three systems we saw demonstrated
and would do the most for us with the dollars we had to spend," Lee reported. "The WorkFlows client is easy for our staff to use, and we like the searching capabilities that
patrons will have in SIRSI's online catalog. In addition, the Ottawa Public Library has a SIRSI system, and we thought it would be more convenient for patrons if both libraries used the same system."
Founded in 1865 by Baptist lay persons, Ottawa University was so named to recognize a
20,000-acre land grant given by nearby Ottawa Indians to ensure a private Christian education for their own and others' children. Over the years, Ottawa University has retained
its Christian and liberal arts emphases, while adapting to changing curricular needs. Since establishing its first non-residential adult degree completion program in Kansas City in
1974, Ottawa has opened centers in Phoenix, Ariz.; Milwaukee, Wisc.; and Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore.
Lee commented, "Currently, the Myers Library supports only the Ottawa campus. When
our library goes online with SIRSI, the Ottawa campus and surrounding community will have access to our catalog via the Web for the first time. Because the off-site adult education centers don't have libraries, having our catalog on the Web also opens up the
possibility for us to provide access to our collection to those students in the future.". |
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PINES Adds 110 More Libraries
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (March 2, 2001) Georgia's Office of Public Library Services (OPLS),
which in 1999 chose Sirsi Corporation's Unicorn® Library Management System for the initial 98 libraries in its PINES (Public Information Network for Electronic Services) Consortium, is
adding 110 additional PINES member libraries to the SIRSI system. According to David Singleton, PINES project manager, installation will be complete by September 2001. The
PINES Phase II automation project is a joint partnership among the State of Georgia; SIRSI, which supplies the software and associated services; KPMG Consulting, Inc., a consulting
firm that provides e-business integration services, project management and technical support; and Sun Microsystems, which supplies the server that houses the libraries' joint database.
PINES was established in 1999 by OPLS, now a unit of the Board of Regents of the
University System of Georgia. "The idea behind PINES was to create a system that would enable library users to use a single library card to check out or place holds on materials
from any member library statewide; the centralized administration and technical support is designed to allow member libraries more time to focus on serving library customers.
Following in the footsteps of model cooperative projects such as GALILEO, PINES is a good example of Georgia's continuing leadership in resource sharing that benefits every
citizen in the state," Singleton commented.
The SIRSI system meets PINES' requirement for an automation system that
accommodates the needs of member libraries, while providing seamless access to the PINES union catalog, Singleton noted. "Unicorn enables us to provide the necessary
flexibility at the local level, while maintaining a common interface and many common policies for the entire system. For example, our users must be able to search the union
catalog by individual branch, library system, or the entire consortium. Unicorn 2000 has that capability, and, because it is also Web-based, our users can search from
anywhere," he said.. |
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (March 2, 2001) Sirsi Corporation announced today that it is adding still
more content to its popular iBistro e-library to meet the needs of academic and research libraries. Syndetic Solutions, Inc., the leading provider of bibliographic content information
for booksellers, publishers, and libraries, is furnishing SIRSI with 150,000 additional cover images and 140,000 annotations for academic titles. Syndetics will also supply
approximately 10,000 book excerpts or first chapters up to 20 pages in length, selected from the approximately 100 new titles each week that receive featured reviews in major
sources such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, USA Today, and C-SPAN.
According to Patrick Sommers, SIRSI president, the additional content will enable
academic and research libraries to give students and faculty around-the-clock access to serious research resources. "We're committed to enabling libraries to serve users with
high-quality, continuously updated content without any effort on the part of library staff. It's particularly critical for academic and research libraries, whose users rely on and expect to
be supplied with timely information about the latest research in their fields, to make this content quickly and easily accessible directly from the bibliographic record," Sommers commented.
Allan Graham, director of marketing and business relations for Syndetics, noted that
Syndetics currently supplies SIRSI with 60,000 tables of contents, with 800 to 1,000 new records added weekly; 300,000 book summaries, with 1,200 new records added weekly;
and 30,000 author notes, with 500 new added weekly. This constantly updated data stream gives iBistro e-library access to an entire universe of informative bibliographic content
enrichment. SIRSI maintains all content for each iBistro e-library. "Our alliance with SIRSI ensures that libraries with iBistro can effortlessly provide users with the very latest content
information available," Graham said.
First installed in October 2000, the iBistro e-library has now been selected by more than 60
libraries throughout the U.S. SIRSI's iBistro is designed to help libraries better serve the needs of today's online information seekers. Through iBistro, users can do almost anything
normally done in a traditional "brick and mortar" library, plus view enriched content on library holdings, create a personal account for automatic notification of new items by authors and
on subjects of interest to them, browse cataloged Web sites, view bestseller lists, and place holds-all from a single, simple interface. About Syndetic Solutions and SIRSI Syndetic Solutions, Inc., serves a unique and vital role within the publishing and book
selling community. Acting as a centralized collection and distribution center for "content data" for books currently in print, the company serves both booksellers and
publishers alike by consolidating and standardizing data formats, and by providing the most cost efficient method of gathering and disseminating the data for the widest audiences possible |
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Pikes Peak Library District Awards to SIRSI
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HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (Feb. 23, 2001) Pikes Peak Library District (PPLD) in Colorado
Springs, Colo., which has won numerous awards for customer service and users' programs, has selected SIRSI's iBistro™ Electronic Library and Unicorn® Library Management
System to provide an automation system that is easy to use for both library staff and library users. According to Patrick A. Losinki, PPLD director, Unicorn and iBistro will enable
PPLD to continue its tradition of providing users immediate access to the materials and resources they need, both within the library and from sources accessible electronically.
Established in 1905 in a Carnegie-funded facility as the Colorado Springs Public Library, the
PPLD now comprises 11 branches and two bookmobiles. During 2000, PPLD served more than 2 million people and achieved an all-time record - 4,043,000 - for the number of items
checked out to library users. During 2000, PPLD also won the Colorado Springs Better Business Bureau's Excellence in Customer Service Award and the Colorado Library
Association's award for the best summer reading club in Colorado. In January 2001, PPLD's Community Relations Office was honored with the American Library Association's
John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award for their promotion of a Friends of the Library fundraiser to help restore the historic Carnegie library.
The Pikes Peak Library District chose the SIRSI products for a number of reasons,
according to IT Officer Bob Pasicznyuk: "While there are several credible library systems, only SIRSI's iBistro e-library offered elegant solutions to meet our customers' expectations.
We were looking for (1) patron self-management services that enable patrons to access account information and place holds, transfers, and renewals by phone and the Web, (2)
enriched catalog content that add images, reviews, Web resources, and tables of content to our library's high-quality bibliographic information, and (3) unique communication tools that
enable us to inform our patrons when the materials they prefer are acquired. iBistro enables us to do all this, as well as market our collection via phone, mail, email, and the Web by
constructing customized item lists," said Pasicznyuk.
"Beyond iBistro, we needed a company that could work with us to meet local demands
without spoiling the integrity of the integrated library system package. SIRSI worked hard at understanding our needs. They often found ways of meeting our needs within the
existing software's framework, and added some customizations quickly and professionally. They also steered us toward organizational changes that help us exploit their system to our
customers' advantage," Pasicznyuk concluded.
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