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1999 Issues |
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  This month’s stories
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Aleph wins more major sites |
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Continuing their success in Europe and extending their N. American market presence with sales to two major Universities, the Aleph system is one of the few truly world wide systems - and the only
one not based in the N. American market. Details here of UCL London, McGill, Montreal and Iowa Universities. Also a major German consortium chooses Aleph for a complex system in Nordrhein-Westfalen and the oldest Public Library in France - Mazarine
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University College London |
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University College London (UCL) was founded in 1826 and is the largest and oldest of the constituent colleges of the University of London. It
is a university with a commitment to excellence in both teaching and research and its research rating consistently ranks it as being alongside Oxford and Cambridge amongst multifaculty universities in the UK.
Teaching and research are conducted through 67 departments grouped into eight faculties: Arts, Social and Historical Sciences, Laws, Built
Environment, Engineering, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Life Sciences and Clinical Sciences (Royal Free and University College Medical School). Student numbers total over 15,000 of whom 5,200 are graduate
students; there are 5000 staff.
During the last decade the College has increased in size significantly through the merger of a number of institutions into UCL.
UCL Library Services forms a strand within the Education & Information Support Division (EISD) which was created in August 1997. As would be expected of an institution committed to excellence in research and teaching, UCL has been a member of the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) for a number of years.
As a result of the institutional mergers referred to above, Library Services are provided on 14 physically separate sites and this number is
expected to grow further during the life of the new library management system. The Library currently houses in excess of 2 million volumes with many special collections of international renown.
On the occasion of the contract signature, Jan Cropper, Sub-Librarian, IT Services who led the procurement commented: "After a very thorough
evaluation phase, ALEPH500 was selected as the system best suited to meet the complex needs of a large, multi-site library such as UCL's.
We are particularly impressed by its public access catalogue which offers an extensive range of search facilities and is well-crafted in the detail of its operation. We look forward to working in partnership with Ex Libris who have demonstrated their commitment to develop the system with the requirements of the UK HE community to the fore.
Dr. Paul Ayris, Director of Library Services added: "We are excited at the prospect of bringing all the physically separate members of the UCL
family within the one system. ALEPH500's state-of-the-art architecture will ensure that UCL Library Services will be able to meet the sophisticated demands of our users and enable future integration with
information resources both within UCL and beyond.
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McGill University Montreal |
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May 25, 1999 Chicago, Illinois.
Ex Libris (USA) Inc. announced today that McGill University has signed a contract for the installation of an ALEPH 500(tm) system.
McGill is a major North American university with an international focus. The McGill University Library System is comprised of sixteen individual libraries. McGill University Libraries are active members of the Conférence des recteurs et des principaux des universités du Québec network of libraries, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, the Association of Research Libraries, as well as the Center for Research Libraries.
The ALEPH 500 system will replace a NOTIS system.
In selecting ALEPH 500, Frances Groen, Director of Libraries said, "We were looking for a system that would reflect the international aspects of our university. This included not only superior multi-lingual capabilities, but also a sophisticated design that would enable us to realize our future goals with regard to worldwide access of information resources. We see the ALEPH 500 system as the cornerstone of our digital library efforts and as an intelligent gateway for users who are dealing with global information resources."
McGill University Libraries are very proud that one of Canada's major benefactors, Mr. Seymour Schulich, BSc'61, MBA'65 has made a generous donation
which makes the installation of the new system possible.
Bruce Pennycook, McGill's Vice-Principal (Information Systems & Technology) is very enthusiastic, " McGill is in the midst of replacing
most of its administrative systems with new network and web-based systems. Aleph 500 is the perfect complement to our IT directions on campus".
Serving over 29,000 students, McGill's collections number over 3 million volumes. "We are very pleased to have been selected
at McGill," said Carl Grant, President of Ex Libris (USA) Inc.
"This selection further validates for North American research libraries that they have options, particularly when they are looking for a system with state-of-the-art sophistication and superior capabilities for dealing with global information."
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Iowa University |
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Press release: June 18, 1999: Chicago, Illinois.
Ex Libris (USA) Inc. announced today that the University of Iowa has signed a contract for the installation of an ALEPH 500(tm) system.
The University of Iowa Libraries consist of a Main Library, 11 branch libraries and a Law Library. The library, an ARL member, has holdings of nearly four million bound volumes and an annual operating budget of over $18M. The school, founded in 1847, is located in Iowa City and has an enrollment of over 28,000.
The ALEPH 500 system will replace a NOTIS system.
In selecting ALEPH 500, Sheila Creth, University Librarian said, "We chose ALEPH because it clearly represented the best fit for the University. We felt the functionality was superior to any other product on the market and the system offered more flexibility in the ways we could implement". Larry Woods, Director of Information Technology, added, "ALEPH provided the best interface to our campus computing. Furthermore, we felt that as Ex Libris grew, we would be able to have a positive influence on the future of the product".
"Once again, we are thrilled to be selected by another well known and respected ARL" said Carl Grant, President of Ex Libris (USA)
Inc. "Institutions like the University of Iowa are making it clear that libraries
have become very sophisticated and that they are looking for, and finding, systems and companies that will match their sophisticated needs."
The ALEPH 500 system to be installed at the University of Iowa will run on an IBM RS/6000, S70 system, supporting 500 concurrent users. The
system will be installed in November of this year, with full implementation planned for August, 2000.
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German consortium of Nordrhein-Westfalen |
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The library consortium of the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, the largest German federal state, has announced the choice of Aleph 500 as it's next
consortium wide Library automation system.
The consortium, officially Hochschul Bibliotheks Zentrum Nordrhein-Westfalen (HBZ), Koeln will be the fifth German speaking library consortium equipped by the Ex Libris Group. Previous ones are:
- The Cooperative Consortium of the Berlin-Brandenburg Region (KOBV), comprising, among others, the Free University of Berlin, the Technical
University of Berlin, the Humboldt University, the University of Arts and the Konrad-Zuse Zentrum for Computing;
- The Austrian library network organized and managed by the Federal Ministry for Science and Transport, involving some 20 major universities and
colleges, as well as the National Library of Austria.
- A library consortium of thirteen Austrian pedagocical institutes and colleges under the aegis of the Federal Ministry for Education and
Cultural Affairs
- The Swiss Network of German-speaking libraies (IDS) comprising the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), the Federal Polytechnic Institute of
Lausanne, the Public and University libraries of Basel, Bern, St. Gallen, the Central Library of Luzern and the university library of Zurich.
Current. system: BIS (mainframe: Siemens, OS: BS2000) 9.000.000 titles 18.000.000 local records 3.400.000 authority data 9.000.000 records from
external data sources 1.800 concurrent users, including staff and OPAC users Local: 31 university and college type libraries 7 special institute libraries 24 public libraries (only large libraries with specific
tasks) Holder of HBZ: State of Nordrhein-Westfalen, Ministry of Education, science and research
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Bibliotheque Mazarine |
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Paris, June 3, 1999
DATAPOINT S.A., Ex Libris' exclusive distributor in France, announces that it will install the latest version of ALEPH 500 at the Bibliotheque
Mazarine, the oldest public library in France.
The «Mazarine», as it is known colloquially, was founded in 1643 by Cardinal Mazarin, prime minister to King Louis XIII’s widow and regent of
France, Anne d’Autriche. It is a research library, specializing in history and literary history, as well as a precious patrimonial reference library with a collection of over 180,000 documents from the sixteenth,
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It owns one of the five original Gutenberg Bibles. In 1930, the Mazarine Library was affiliated to the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.
The Mazarine was not previously automated. By selecting ALEPH 500, it will be able to offer its patrons and staff the most modern and advanced
library service and management tools, answering to state-of-the-art standards, such as UNIMARC format or Z39.50 gateway.
The implementation of ALEPH 500 will be performed by Datapoint, in cooperation with Société Archimed, responsible for the CD-ROM network and OPAC
security aspects. Due to go on line by March 2000, the installation will initially comprise 13 concurrent staff and 18 concurrent OPAC users.
The Mazarine collection consits of 500,000 printed books, 2,300 incunabula, over 4,600 manuscripts (of which 1,500 medieval rarities) and some 2,000
periodicals. An average of 3,000 monographs and 650 periodicals are added each year. This latest and most prestigious award constitutes ALEPH’s thirteenth site
in France, contracted over a very short time span. Among these, we count, inter alia, the Sorbonne, the Ecole Polytechnique, the universities of
Montpellier, Pau, Nanterre, Créteil, the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, as well as the municipal libraries of Le Havre and Les Ulis.
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