Ex Libris Announces Major MetaLib and SFX KnowledgeBase Enhancements

 September 2, 2007

Jerusalem, Israel

MetaLib KnowledgeBase, enhanced with significant databases, grows over 40% in the last year. SFX KnowledgeBase more than doubles e-book titles

Ex Libris Group is pleased to announce that the central knowledge bases (CKB) of the Company’s MetaLib® and SFX® e-products have grown dramatically during the last year.

The MetaLib CKB has increased by more than 40%, with approximately 170 new resource databases. Major additions to the CKB include such distinguished resources as the Dialog DataStar® databases, CABI databases, ISI Web of Knowledge CrossSearchSM, HeinOnline legal database, Alexander Street Press databases, and Taylor & Francis databases (the new interface). Ex Libris continues to expand the MetaLib CKB with important regional resources as well, including 50 new databases that support the Asian market.

Other exciting additions include Google Book Search—an online full-text book search service that users can add to their list of searchable print resources; the Matapihi digital collection, a free collaborative service that provides a window into the heritage collections of New Zealand’s archives, galleries, libraries, and museums; and the Bibliographie der deutschen Sprach—und Literaturwissenschaft, one of the most important bibliographic sources of information on German studies.  

More than 290,000 e-book titles have been added to the SFX KnowledgeBase, representing an e-book increase of 131% since 2005. The number of SFX object portfolios—the number of locations that SFX can point to for the electronic availability of full-text documents—has grown by over 51% in the last year.

“In addition to growing in quantity, the MetaLib CKB continues to support current and emerging industry standards,” explained Tal Ayalon, MetaLib knowledge base team leader. “Support of the Search/Retrieve via URL (SRU) protocol, NISO Metasearch XML Gateway (MXG), Web Service Definition Language (WSDL), and Dublin Core (DC) standard enable the MetaLib CKB to provide access to the highest quality databases available in the information market today. We continually work with information providers to support proprietary protocols as well—for example, the Gale HITS protocol.”

“An equally important aspect of the MetaLib CKB is our ongoing development of easy-to-use knowledge base tools that enable MetaLib customers to quickly create searchable configurations for their local resources,” noted Karen Groves, MetaLib product manager. “Using knowledge base tools, MetaLib customers can easily include many types of resources that are important to local users. MetaLib customers expand awareness of these local resources by contributing them to the MetaLib CKB for use by other customers—a benefit of our open, collaborative MetaLib user community.”

Nettie Lagace, product director for SFX and Verde, added, “SFX is a powerful, streamlined, and highly customizable product that has been designed according to customer specifications. Customers rely on SFX to provide successful OpenURL link resolution based on our KnowledgeBase, which includes more than 800,000 items. As e-book publishing increases, so will the ability of SFX to deliver those items.”  

About Ex Libris Group:
Ex Libris Group is a leading worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centers, and researchers, with installations around the globe. Ex Libris Group’s flagship ALEPH® 500 and Voyager® integrated library solutions are in use at over 3,000 sites worldwide. Other products from the Ex Libris suite, deployed at more than 1,300 sites, focus on the digital library and offer state-of-the-art, user-centric solutions for managing electronic resources and digital assets and providing informed access to them.