News from Fretwell Downing

Citation

(2003), "News from Fretwell Downing", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 37 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2003.28037cab.006

News from Fretwell Downing

News from Fretwell Downing

OLIB7 to be used for multi-site legal firm

Fretwell-Downing Informatics has announced the successful deployment of its OLIB7 library management system at the law firm, Pinsent Curtis Biddle. OLIB7 was chosen to operate in a multi-site environment and cover all aspects of library management from serials control to financial management.

Pinsents is a dynamic, fast growing law firm which received the accolade of UK's "Most Enterprising Law Firm" in the Legal Business 2002 Awards. After a firm wide decision was taken to move away from a Lotus Notes environment, the firm turned to OLIB7 as its information management solution.

Law firms such as Eversheds, Morgan Cole and Osborne Clarke showed that OLIB7's functionality has been designed to meet the needs of the legal sector. Three features were identified as key for Pinsents when choosing OLIB7 over other short listed systems – ability to easily personalise the look and feel, financial reporting and analysis, and FDI's ongoing development.

"The financial reporting and management modules will allow us to have greater control over our library budget and greater accuracy in analysing our purchasing trends", commented Vicky Foster, National Information Manager. She added: "It is vital that the library collections available in each of our offices complement the needs of the lawyers working there. The look and feel of the software was particularly important to our firm. We wanted a package that we could configure to our own house style with minimal assistance from IT or the appointment of a dedicated systems librarian. We have already configured our Web OPAC to mirror our corporate image so when users log on they see a Pinsents interface. We believe that the ongoing development of the product is particularly important. FDI proved to us their commitment to software development through recent improvements made to the serials module. Like an increasing number of law firms, we have chosen to use FDI's database administration service to manage the Oracle database, therefore freeing up time internally and removing the need for internal Oracle skills".

Pinsent Curtis Biddle has more than 500 lawyers in offices in four locations in the UK: London; Birmingham; Leeds and Manchester. They also have alliance links in France, Germany and Scandinavia.

New content indexing functionality

FDI has announced new functionality for its OLIB library management and ZPORTAL information management solutions. The new Content Indexing module will search the full text of internal documents in formats such as Excel, Word and Acrobat (PDF) held on internal networks alongside a full catalogue.

Robin Murray, Managing Director of FDI, says, "This is a cost effective, low overhead way to open up access to internal information. It is a hugely powerful new development. Librarians and information professionals will now be able to search internal documents alongside library catalogues and 'know how' information. This will unlock the power of internal documents and ensure that their use is maximised and not lost". Ideal for project working, content indexing allows members of projects to share networked documents within or between organisations to work more effectively in collaboration. Murray continues, "Only minimal training is required to use the system, as it has a very user-friendly interface, just like OLIB and ZPORTAL. This meets demand for more structured searching, using taxonomies and offering searching through themes and topics as well as free or full-text searching".

New OLIB7 front end – OLIB7 Webview

FDI has introduced a new Web OPAC for its library management system OLIB7. OLIB7 enables organisations to manage and improve access to their resources with an intuitive search facility. Currently running a trial of OLIB7 WebView, Claire Marsh of the Leeds College of Music Library comments, "The upgraded WebView is more attractive, more modern and clearer to use than its predecessor".

Robin Murray, Managing Director of FDI says, "OLIB7 WebView uses the latest Web graphics to present information on electronic documents in a very user-friendly manner. It's part of our commitment to ongoing support and enhancement for OLIB7". He concludes, "By choosing an intuitive and flexible system such as OLIB7, clients have the benefit of using a system which allows them to provide a centralised point for the firm's information resources".

Fretwell-Downing Informatics (FDI) has a long history of supplying leading-edge information management solutions to over 200 organisations worldwide. FDI operates from its headquarters in the UK with a US subsidiary, Fretwell-Downing Inc., in North America plus additional offices in Australia and Europe. FDI's experience has resulted in a suite of well-designed solutions including information portals, library management, resource sharing, document delivery and data publishing. The company's freedom by design philosophy is underpinned by a strong software development team and a commitment to interoperability and open standards such as NISO Z39.50, Dublin Core. This enables FDI components to be built into a total solution or integrated alongside existing technologies.

For further information please contact: Sarah Walton, Fretwell-Downing Informatics, The Portergate, 257 Ecclesall Road, Sheffield S11 8NX, UK. Tel: +44 (0) 114 281 6040; Fax: +44 (0) 0114 281 6041; E-mail: sarah.walton@fdgroup.com; URL: www.fdgroup.com/fdi