News from Innovative

Citation

(2004), "News from Innovative", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 38 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2004.28038cab.004

News from Innovative

News from Innovative

Innovative expands its presence in Europe

Innovative Interfaces has announced that Millennium has been selected by several prestigious European universities or projects. Although the libraries vary in size, language and technology needs, the Innovative team worked to provide tailored solutions for each.

Université de Valenciennes. Service Commun de Documentation (SCD) at Université de Valenciennes in France is committed to knowledge and information management on campus. In 2003, the group launched a re-computerisation project that will be completed in mid-2005. The University is located at four sites and some of the SCD’s 60 staff members are situated at all the sites. The SCD plan is for a total re-organisation of the University’s information assets. The acquisition of a coherent library system with integrated components and functions was the primary goal. Another key objective entailed the creation of a portal to provide a flexible, integrated display of the University’s information resources.

In comparisons between systems conducted during the Request for Proposal process, Millennium emerged as the most appropriate system to replace the previous MultiLIS system because it:

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  had extensive functionality;

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  had adaptable modules; and

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  functions as an integrated system.

Innovative is partnering with a local service provider, the Jouve Company, to deliver Web services. Belonging to a group of mid-sized multi-disciplinary establishments in France, Université de Valenciennes offers degrees in business, law, technology, the arts, science, and social sciences and hosts 11,000 students. The institution has a long tradition of innovation and is renowned as a pilot school by the European System of Higher Education.

Universidade de Coimbra. Universidade de Coimbra in Portugal has a long and rich tradition, having been established in 1290. The library co-ordinates the Sistema Integrado de Informação Bibliográfica (the database of the University of Coimbra), to which 24 diverse faculty libraries and study institutes contribute. The library has been using the Libertas system since 1996.

Millennium was chosen for its:

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  operational flexibility;

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  ease of handling a great volume of data;

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  compatibility; and

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  excellent Web OPAC for library users.

The library is a public, national and academic library containing one million volumes and an impressive array of archive materials, including some of the oldest surviving books, dating from before 1501.

Universitaria de Huelva. Since its founding in 1994, the Biblioteca Universitaria de Huelva in Spain has provided the essential service of supporting teaching and research, while enhancing the campus environment.

The library will be migrating from an existing Sabini system, and Millennium was the definitive choice for the following reasons:

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  the need for latest-generation technology, functionality and features;

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  Millennium’s adaptability to new technological challenges as they present themselves;

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  desirable features for patrons; and

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  Innovative’s track record in both the United States and southern Europe, in places such as the Consortium of Libraries at Andalucia.

The library serves nearly 14,000 patrons at seven outlets: a central library, three campus libraries, and three large study halls. The library makes available 182,000 monographs, 4,100 periodical subscriptions, 4,500 electronic serials, 84 databases, and 6,500 multimedia sources.

Flemish Library Consortium. The Flemish Centre for Public Libraries (VCOB) will implement a central cataloguing project using Millennium, and Ardatis, Innovative’s partner and local systems integration provider, will provide implementation and support assistance.

Scheduled for release in the fall of 2004, library users using Millennium’s OPAC will be able to consult the collections of over 300 Dutch-language public libraries in five regions across Flanders. The first implementation phase will include a database of the six largest Flemish libraries and an additional number of pilot libraries. This will be followed by public Web access to a single database of 40 million records forming the Flemish Union Catalogue which will be available to two million library users and will serve as an efficient working instrument for more than 4,000 librarians.

Innovative held up to an intense screening process conducted by VCOB’s board of directors, representing city, county and provincial levels of Flemish government. The committee submitted 3,500 requirements (over 800 pages) involving functionality, planning, and service warranty. To Innovative’s credit, approval was unanimous.

The Board chose Millennium for many reasons, including:

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  its reliability;

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  its extensive compatibility with international information technology; and

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  its compatibility with specific library standards.

In addition, Innovative will be providing customised features for its Belgian clients to allow easy Web-based cataloguing for libraries contributing records to the database. The Innovative team will develop a method for library users to view aggregate results when searching for a work with many manifestations (such as Hamlet), through the FRBR (Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records) standard and this will also be used to optimise the cataloguing of classical music recordings.

The Millennium server runs on UNIX (in this case a Solaris platform) with an Oracle RDBMS data model. All libraries will catalogue over intranet or Internet via a Java-client or a simplified Web interface.

Celebrating 25 years of partnership with the library community, Innovative Interfaces is a leader in providing Web-powered, Java-based automated library systems. Its flagship product offering, Millennium, is installed in thousands of libraries in 39 countries. The company is headquartered in Emeryville, California, with offices in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Korea, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand and the UK.

For further information please contact 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