InfoTech Briefs: Innovative, SirsiDynix, Informa, Ingram Digital
RSSInnovative installations, sirsiDynix releases URSA 4.2., Ingram Digital debuts MyiLibrary Audio
Michael Rogers -- Library Journal, 06/10/2009
- Innovative signs three
- SirsiDynix releases URSA® 4.2.
- Informa Healthcare merging medical and pharmaceutical titles
- Ingram Digital debuts MyiLibrary Audio
Innovative has a new trio of domestic and international customers in both public and academic libraries. The vendor announced that the Sacramento Public Library, CA, University of Scranton, PA, and Australia’s University of Wollongong Library have all contracted for its products.
SirsiDynix has released the URSA® 4.2. (Universal Resource Sharing Application) automated interlibrary loan system. It “communicates with local circulation systems to provide self-service requests that save staff time and speed the delivery of materials to library users,” the vendor said. The system also includes a Reciprocal Borrowing module that enables staff to authenticate visiting patrons against their home library system, discover their current status, and if eligible for service, automatically create a new record for the user. Enhancements include web-based staff interface for reciprocal borrowing, All Partners option to show a user’s status at multiple partner sites, ability for staff to change pickup locations until an item is received at the borrowing library, editing by staff of patron barcodes at any time, and requests for items owned by the user’s library can be profiled to convert automatically to a hold, refer users to their own library’s catalog, or place the request at a partner library.
Informa Healthcare is merging its peer-reviewed medical titles with its pharmaceutical science titles to form one platform for drug discovery and clinical medicine on www.informahealthcare.com. The more than 170 journals will use the online content management and delivery system provided by Atypon Systems, Inc.—a platform provider for over 70 information providers including JSTOR, New England Journal of Medicine, and American Chemical Society. The new platform offers online trials, advanced search, alerting, and single article purchases. In addition, the Atypon system enables Informa Healthcare to integrate the online content of all the journals with a comprehensive archive service, giving pharmaceutical and health-care professionals one central source of information spanning the fields of medicine and pharmaceutical science. The beta site on the new platform is scheduled for release in summer 2009; the complete transition will continue to the end of the year.
Ingram Digital has debuted MyiLibrary Audio, an advanced audiobook offering for libraries. Featuring thousands of titles from more than 20 imprints from publishers such as Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Penguin, MyiLibrary Audio claims to be the first fully iPod-, iPod touch-, and iPhone-compatible solution tailored to the needs of library patrons that is also compatible with both WMA and MP3 devices. Audiobooks available through MyiLibrary Audio are accessed on Ingram Media Manager. All titles are downloadable. MyiLibrary Audio also offers full control over the lending period, as well as tools to help libraries alert patrons of title availability and gather feedback on current inventory.
