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Cambridge University Signs With Endeavor
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DES PLAINES, ILLINOIS, Jan. 12, 2001
Endeavor Information Systems announced today that the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, has purchased the
Voyager integrated library management system.
Cambridge also selected Endeavor's Universal Catalog for a de-duplicated database of
bibliographic records, detailed holdings and item information from the databases of the local libraries.
"Voyager has a strong system administration client," Killiard said. "With a small system
support team, we like to devote as much time as possible to supporting individual libraries, so we need a good systems administration module."
Other features in Voyager, including the integration of print, manuscript and electronic
materials, essential for managing the range of collections in Cambridge's libraries; support of non-MARC standards including Encoded Archival Data (EAD), and Endeavor's published
timetable for Unicode and non-Roman scripts, important for handling Cambridge's large collections of Far East and Near East materials in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic and Hebrew, were important in the decision.
"There are over 100,000 serials titles, including 36,000 live titles within the University of
Cambridge system, so checking in serials is a major issue. Voyager stood out with very
sophisticated functionality in this area, " explained Killiard.
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Universal Catalog Instrumental to Needs of Cambridge Libraries
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"With 97 member libraries, ranging from the very small to the University Library itself with 6
million holdings, it is extremely important for us to have the Universal Catalog. Some libraries have major historic collections and all have collections of modern material. College,
faculty and departmental libraries operate independently, but the library system is managed on their behalf by Cambridge University Library," Killiard explained. "In our current Union
Catalog, to which all 97 libraries contribute, the records are not de-duplicated as in the Endeavor Universal Catalog, and all of our sites are protective of the ownership of their
records. Endeavor's hierarchy of records allows them to all use the system, yet continue to operate independently."
"Cambridge currently has an online stack request system, similar to a call slip system, so
it was very important that the system we chose had call slip and short loan capabilities," Killiard explained. "The OPAC's range of search options, particularly the keyword anywhere
search, will enhance the facilities we can offer to our users, as will the extensive patron self-service functions.
"One thing very important to us was the overall feel of the company," Killiard explained.
"We're a small team taking a big step-- we had confidence that the company could handle the implementation. Endeavor has a strong project management history. We spoke to
other Endeavor customers who were happy about how their implementation was handled."
"We're also very comfortable with the customer base," she continued. "We're joining a
international group of research and legal deposit libraries with similar interests."
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Cambridge university libraries
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The library staff in Cambridge serve a university renowned all over the globe and one that
will, in a few years, be celebrating its 8ooth anniversary. As a legal deposit library, Cambridge University Library is entitled to claim a copy of all books, journals, printed maps
and music published in Britain and Ireland The Cambridge library system includes items from before the dawn of printing to twenty-first century digital collections.
Located 50 miles north of London in Cambridge, England, the Library is a member of CURL
(Consortium of University Research Libraries), SCONUL (Standing Conference of National and University Libraries), RLG (Research Libraries Group), Library Association, ASLIB and
LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche). |
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DES PLAINES, ILLINOIS, Jan. 12, 2001: Endeavor Information Systems announced today
Kansas State University (KSU) has purchased the ENCompass digital collection management system to build and organize the University's digital projects. The library will
employ ENCompass as the unified user interface for the KSU Digital Library.
"We were looking for three distinct objectives in a digital collection system: it has to be able
to organize, it has to have the capacity to index and display information in a sensible manner, and it has to provide an interface to bring the campus together at a higher level,"
explained Karen Cole, Associate Dean of Libraries for KSU.
Cole explained other systems did not have the capacity to deal with organization and
indexing, yet others did not have solutions for integrating local content, but ENCompass met both these needs. The 2001 development of commercial content into ENCompass was
also a strong point for the University. "We saw that Endeavor has a strong architecture that complements our goals. Adding commercial content is a big part of our strategy," Cole
explained. "Endeavor has done more than just partner with Elsevier Science. They've shown that an ILS vendor and publisher can work together. Endeavor does not have to build
bridges with a publisher to make commercial content happen, it's already there. Endeavor and ENCompass are fully poised to allow the further integration of more commercial content
past the Elsevier resources, something all libraries can appreciate."
The KSU Digital Libraries Program Task Force of library professionals, faculty and IT staff
only began their search in August 2000, with the goal of a university-wide system, not just a library system, to electronically acquire information, process it, and organize it in a way to
make it available to all users, regardless of format. The Task Force looked for user-customizable collection presentation in a system that could represent a unified interface to the repositories created at KSU.
"The digital library represents the content of the University, who we are and what we're
researching, access at all levels, and infrastructure, moving the library out of a silo of IT people and taking agendas forward on behalf of support areas," Cole commented. "We
need all three—content, access and infrastructure—or it does not meet our expectations."
"We've chosen to take the quantum leap with ENCompass to push this agenda forward for
all libraries—we believe we might be pushing the profession a bit," Cole explained. With the university mandate of a live prototype system in May, the KSU Digital Library Task Force
has already determined primary KSU-born collections to include in ENCompass, ranging from Kansas wildflowers, graduate school dissertations, historical and current agricultural
research publications, a campus hazardous materials e-journal, to the Landon Lecture Series, a KSU visiting lecturer series including many US presidents
"We are elated to have Kansas State University join our prestigious ENCompass
development partners to continue the Endeavor goal of delivering the digital library," stated Jane Burke, Endeavor President and CEO. "As our first large Voyager customer, Kansas
State has continually proven to be a trendsetter in library technology. We are proud that Kansas State continues to believe in Endeavor and ENCompass. Kansas State shares the
ENCompass vision of presenting integrated access to collections, and clearly understands how all of these collections support the University's mission."
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