ALA Conference 2009: InfoTech Briefs
RSSALA Conference 2009: Rough Guides for Gale, EBSCO/Ex Libris team, SirsiDynix Strategic Partnership Program
Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 07/10/2009
- Rough Guides added to Gale Virtual Reference Library
- EBSCO providing tech support for accessing Voyager and Aleph
- SirsiDynix debuts Strategic Partnership Program
Gale has cut a licensing agreement to include more than 100 titles from the Penguin Group’s Rough Guides line of travel books in the Gale Virtual Reference Library ebook platform. “By adding Rough Guides to Gale Virtual Reference Library, we are expanding our subject offerings. Users will now be able to access detailed travel-related content while taking advantage of cross-searchability, connecting popular updated information with historical reference,” said Jay Flynn, Gale’s vice president and publisher for social science and K-12.
In more partnership news, EBSCO Publishing has entered into an agreement with ILS provider Ex Libris Group™ that provides “key technology support for accessing the catalogs of the Voyager® and Aleph® integrated library systems as well as other software services provided by Ex Libris via the EBSCOhost® experience.” Mutual users will be able to access both catalog and database content in a single interface. Additionally, EBSCO has launched new display and searching technology that supports natural-language searching for scientific formulas and provides users with the ability to store and show html markup allowing display of scientific formulas. The new database architecture means Article names, Abstracts, and Key Phrase Headings within citations will contain scientific formulas. With natural-language searching, researchers will find it easier to locate relevant information within their searches, e.g., those searching for files related to water are now able to enter “H20” to return the desired records. Lastly, EBSCO’s EMpact Sales™ unit has become the exclusive sales and marketing representative forMulti-Science Publishing Co Ltd. According to the agreement, EMpact will promote scientific journals that concentrate on energy, acoustics, and engineering disciplines for Multi-Science, in both print and electronic format, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and China.
SirsiDynix has launched a Strategic Partnership Program designed to increase interactions between the its engineering and leading customers by allowing them to have direct input into the product design process and provide feedback throughout product implementation. While many software companies involve customers in beta programs to test products before they are released, SirsiDynix said these programs are “after-the-fact events—customers are beta testing products that have already been designed and developed and any changes made on the basis of the beta program feedback are going to be limited in scope. The SirsiDynix® Strategic Partner Program moves the customer interaction from being ‘after the fact’ to being integrated into the software development cycle.” The first project to run under the auspices of the new Strategic Partner Program will be the SirsiDynix® Symphony® Web Services Community Technology Preview.
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