Wigan libraries choose Talis

Citation

(2004), "Wigan libraries choose Talis", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 38 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/prog.2004.28038dab.002

Wigan libraries choose Talis

Wigan libraries choose Talis

As a key service for local citizens, Wigan Leisure and Culture Trust has chosen to replace its part Bookshelf and part manual Browne library management system (LMS) with an automated system to drive its e-government provision. Just three of the Trust’s 16 libraries are currently automated. As the second largest borough in the Greater Manchester conurbation, Wigan Metropolitan Borough serves over 300,000 citizens. E-government drivers have provided the spur to improve accessibility to council and local information for citizens of the borough and boost their adult and community learning initiatives. The library plan identified a new LMS as key to reducing supply times for requests by improving speed of access to items on waiting lists as well as ensuring quality of access to items for customers no matter which library they use.

The Trust chose the Talis Information Environment, based on the Talis Prism Web services architecture, after extensive market evaluation. Talis Prism will allow users to access the library’s catalogue 24/7, whether from the libraries or externally for self-service access to renew, reserve, search for items or gain information about library services. This will greatly increase accessibility of the services for those who work irregular hours or are unable to visit the libraries in person; 15-45 year olds have long been disaffected library users but Talis Prism’s potential to set up different catalogues for different interests could help turn this around.

Use of UnityWeb, provided by Talis in partnership with The Combined Regions, to support library resource sharing by enabling a nationwide interlibrary loan requesting system will also help meet the standard for requests supplied within 30 days.

Margaret Pennington, Wigan Leisure Trust ICT Manager explained: “We wanted a continually developing system from a growing and innovative company and Talis’ focus on research and development was an important factor to us. We see integrating our systems as a priority and the Talis integration with the smartcard system at Cornwall County Council was of great interest. In addition, for our e-procurement drive, it was essential that the library software could link to our new Agresso finance system to facilitate EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) payments.”

Enhanced community information and learning support for the borough’s citizens using the Web-based Talis Signpost package will also go live during 2004. This includes links to other local authority systems such as the local gazetteer system to provide accurate address information for seamless service delivery – potentially allowing users to contact the council just once with a change of address and for it to cascade through all the council databases.

Pennington adds: “Although we are now a Trust and independent from the council, we still work very closely with the council. Talis Signpost will help us link the community Web site with information from the council. This will improve accessibility to council and local information for citizens of the borough and boost our adult and community learning initiatives”.

Talis Information Ltd is a market leading library management system company in the UK and Ireland. The Talis Information Environment was launched in 2002 and is a new architecture that encompasses not only an advanced library management system but also a cross-domain resource discovery portal (Talis Prism), comprehensive reading/course list management (Talis List), guided resource access (Talis Signpost), a comprehensive cataloguing database, a managed EDI service, state-of-the-art management information and e-journal management (TDNet). Talis also provides solutions for local digital content (inVisage) and, in partnership with the Combined Regions, a nationwide Web-based interlibrary loan database and ILL client (UnityWeb).

For further information please contact: Talis Information Ltd, Birmingham Research Park, Vincent Drive, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2SQ, UK. Tel: +44(0) 121 471 1179; Fax: +44(0) 121 472 0298; E-mail: sales@talis.com URL: www.talis.com