Ex Libris, part of Clarivate, is excited to announce that the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) will upgrade its e-resource management capabilities through Alma. The use of Alma Starter will better suit the expanding set of vast e-resources available at USTC, strengthen resource discovery through its seamless integration with Primo, and enable the library to take advantage of new artificial intelligence technologies in development across both services.
“Our selection of Alma Starter is based on the characteristics of the university’s academic collection, our need data governance needs, and its capabilities,” noted Mr. Jin Ning, the Acting Library Director. “Alma Starter comes with unique features in electronic resource management, metadata analysis and integration, technical support and updates, and an international community that will help the library enhance its resource and subject service capabilities to better support the university’s teaching and research.”
“USTC is a loyal Ex Libris customer that’s always been on the cusp of transformational change when it comes to resource management and discovery,” remarked Osher Gilinsky, Vice President of Sales Asia Pacific for Clarivate. “Their approach to add the Alma tools for ERM, to accompany Primo, is simply the next smart, logical step after previously using both MetaLib and Primo for discovery with the SFX link resolver.”
Alma as an ERM solution enables libraries to efficiently and effectively manage the complete lifecycle of electronic resources, delivering expanded capabilities well beyond what’s available through the SFX service. Central to managing e-resources with Alma is a rich e-resource knowledge base, which makes cataloging, updating, and management of electronic collections easier than before. In addition, the service comes with e-resource license, provider, and user management capabilities to simplify library staff responsibilities.
Alma Starter also delivers the benefits of a unified approach to resource discovery through Primo, provides intelligent recommendation services based on big data, and enables more informed decision-making through intelligent analytics. Libraries are also able to leverage the same open architecture and rich API interfaces of the Alma library service platform, used by over 2,500 libraries worldwide.
USTC will further be poised to take advantage of the latest library technology available to libraries through regular enhancements and further and enrichment of both Alma and Primo. The two Ex Libris flagship services have rich and well-defined product roadmaps, which includes continued advancements across both AI and Linked Open Data.
About the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC)
The University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) is a prominent university in China and enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide. It was established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in 1958 in Beijing, as a strategic action by the Chinese government, to meet China’s science and technology needs and increases the country’s international competitiveness. CAS integrated its resources with USTC, with the aim of educating top talent in cutting-edge, interdisciplinary science and technology. The establishment of USTC was hailed as “a great event in the history of education and science of China”. In 1970, USTC moved to its current location in Hefei, the capital of Anhui Province.
