News from Innovative Interfaces

Citation

(2002), "News from Innovative Interfaces", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 36 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2002.28036bab.002

News from Innovative Interfaces

News from Innovative Interfaces

New contracts

Innovative Interfaces has announced that the Metropolitan Borough of Bury in the UK has chosen the Millennium integrated library system. Diane Sorrigan, Principal Librarian at Bury, said:

In looking to replace its existing library packages, Bury was looking for a robust integrated system capable of meeting existing requirements and addressing both national and local agendas for the future of Council-delivered new technology services. Although many commercially available library systems will perform basic library functions adequately, we felt that only Millennium was able to offer such a varied mix of facilities combined with an excellent Web-based online catalogue system, comprehensive customer support and all at a highly competitive price. We are particularly pleased to be the first public library service in Great Britain to acquire the Millennium system and look forward to the continuation of the excellent relations built up with Innovative.

Millennium is used in public libraries in North America. One recent customer has been, EIN, the Electronic Information Network, which is a collaborative project of the Allegheny County Library Association, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the Commission on the Future of Libraries in Allegheny County. Its mission is to use advanced technology to supply information access to public libraries, schools and museums throughout the region in Pennsylvania. Over 70 public libraries are networked with Millennium, along with 12 "Knowledge connections" centres which provide library services in public housing communities. In Canada, the Côte Saint-Luc Public Library, located at the heart of the Island of Montréal, and which has a collection of 115,181 volumes, with specialities in architecture, art, computers, and women's studies, has become the first public library in Quebec to use Millennium. This system is fully bilingual, being available in French and English.

Innovative has also made a number of sales of its system in the Spanish-speaking parts of the world. The Royal Library in Madrid has selected Millennium to replace its Absys system. The library is part of the Patrimonio Nacional, which administers the properties belonging to the Spanish State. Originally the private library of the Monarchs of the Bourbon dynasty, the Royal Library contains hand-written and printed books, maps, music scores, drawings, engravings and fine bindings, coins and medals. In Mexico, the Instituto Tecnólogico de Monterrey is to expand its Millennium system to include 29 additional colleges. The new system will provide a unified OPAC for all the colleges instead of the five separate systems currently in place. The Institutes of Technology in Mexico cover almost all of Mexico and provide a virtual university for other Latin American countries. During 2001 Innovative signed contracts with over 45 academic libraries dealing in Spanish language material.

New interface for serials check-in developed with Swets Blackwell

Swets Blackwell and Innovative Interfaces, Inc. have announced their development of an automated check-in interface for print journals through Innovative's Millennium Serials E-Checkin. This follows successful testing with the University of Queensland and Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Customers of Swets Blackwell's FastPlus journals consolidation service who use Innovative's Millennium Serials E-Checkin are now able to automatically check in journals at issue level. The interface enables customers to update check in records for an entire FastPlus shipment via an XML packing slip that is uploaded to their Checkin Server. In a later phase of this development, the two companies will provide libraries with check-in data for electronic journals, involving the automatic loading of URLs into libraries' OPACs. Geert Visscher, Chief Executive Officer of Swets Blackwell, commented:

We have always striven with our FastPlus service to provide libraries with shelf-ready issues, including barcodes and security strips as specified. This initiative with Innovative enables our customers to perform these tasks electronically rather than manually, thereby saving them considerable time and effort.

Ted Fons, Product Manager at Innovative, added:

Innovative's long history of sophisticated serials control and Web-based architecture puts us in the unique position to help libraries streamline a traditionally labour-intensive function. Swets Blackwell, like Innovative, shares a willingness to take existing standards and go beyond them. As a result, we have created something completely new and relevant for libraries.

Enhanced bibliographic content via link with Syndetic Solutions

Innovative Interfaces has announced an alliance with Syndetic Solutions to provide enriched bibliographic content to users of Innovative's Millennium library automation system. Syndetic Solutions content can be used to enrich both the Millennium staff clients and Web OPAC displays, and is fully compliant with the MAP (Millennium Access Plus) suite of products. This information includes tables of contents, reviews, book summaries, author notes, book-jacket images, first chapters, and fiction and biography profiles.

Innovative introduces MetaSource

According to Laurie Davidson, Product Manager at Innovative:

MetaSource provides libraries with the necessary tools to meet the modern challenge of digitising, handling and describing disparate collections. It includes tools for digital object storage, crawling external collections, and full support for metadata schemes such as Dublin Core.

MetaSource is made up of three components: Millennium Media Management, XML Harvester and Metadata Builder. Millennium Media Management creates and stores media objects such as images, sound files and audio files. It also includes a Copyright and Access component to handle the complex licensing and copyright issues of digital collections. The XML Harvester gathers XML records from any server; it then parses and creates records on the Innovative system. Metadata Builder stores XML in the metadata scheme of choice. Together, these tools create a comprehensive digital library management strategy.

Innovative's library management systems are now installed in 29 countries by over 1,000 customers.

For further information please contact Gill Carter, European Marketing Co-ordinator, Innovative Interfaces, 3 York Court, Upper York St, Bristol BS2 8QF, UK. Tel: +44(0) 117 975 1021; Fax: +44(0) 117 924 4367; E-mail: gill-carter@iii-europe.com; URL: www.iii.com