April 7, 2015
Migrating to a SaaS platform for resource management and discovery will deliver value for money and improve the user experience for Library staff and students
London, United Kingdom—April 7, 2015. Ex Libris® Group, a global leader in library automation services, is pleased to announce that the University of Surrey has selected the next-generation Alma® unified resource management solution and the Primo® discovery and delivery solution. Primo and Alma will replace multiple systems, including the Library’s Capita (Talis) library management system (LMS) and search system. Fully cloud-based, Primo and Alma will be monitored and supported 24/7 by Ex Libris experts, enabling the Library to move forward without hidden technical costs, and reallocate resources to improving user services. The open architecture on which Alma and Primo are built will also enable the University to integrate its campus-wide and external systems with library operations, providing greater business continuity.
”The limitations of our current LMS led to a proliferation of different library systems that students had to be familiar with,” commented Caroline Rock, Director of Library and Learning Support Services at the University of Surrey. ”Because of this, we were not achieving as much value for money from these systems, or the resources they provide access to, as we should. The lack of automation was not acceptable in a modern library environment and we were unable to move our staff to much more value-added tasks. When we reached the point where over 70 per cent of our expenditure was being managed and tracked via spreadsheets, we decided it was time for a new solution. Alma will provide a unified system to manage all materials regardless of format and specialist needs, and provide us with much more insightful usage data and financial forecasting than we could access before. More importantly, the streamlined workflows in Alma will free up staff time for user-facing services. Last but not least, as a result of the advanced search and ranking technology provided by Primo, the discovery experience of our user community will improve considerably.”
Koby Rosenthal, corporate VP and general manager of Ex Libris Europe, remarked: ”We are very pleased that Alma and Primo are the solutions of choice for the University of Surrey. Alma and Primo will assist the Library in helping to achieve the university’s academic goals, and we are looking forward to seeing how our solutions will help the Library to grow and develop in the future.”
About the University of Surrey
The University of Surrey is one of the UK’s leading professional, scientific and technological universities, with a world-class profile and a leading reputation in teaching and research. The University currently has just over 13,700 students (undergraduate and post-graduate) and just under 2,500 staff members. Most learning is based on the campus at Guildford in Surrey. Surrey’s origins can be traced back to 1891, since when they have maintained their commitment to first-rate academic activity and real-world solutions. Today, they remain true to these goals and aim to be in the world’s top 100 universities by 2017.
The University of Surry has leapt up the league tables for UK universities in recent years, achieving sixth place in the Guardian University Guide for 2015 and twelfth in the Good University Guide and Complete University Guide. The University of Surrey is committed to achieving excellence in research, breaking new ground and impacting economies and communities across the globe in fields such as sustainable energy; telecommunications—with a new 5G research centre opening in March 2015; space; and disease control and health—with a new School of Veterinary Science which accepts its first student cohort in September 2015. Their students are among the most satisfied in the UK, according to the influential National Student Survey. For more information, see: https://www.surrey.ac.uk/
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris is a leading provider of automation solutions for academic, national, and research libraries. Offering the only comprehensive product suite for electronic, digital, and print materials, Ex Libris provides efficient, user-friendly products that serve the needs of libraries today and will facilitate their transition into the future. Ex Libris maintains an impressive customer base consisting of thousands of sites in more than 90 countries on six continents.
Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with customers, Ex Libris enables libraries to maximize productivity and efficiency and, at the same time, greatly enhance the user experience. By empowering users to discover and obtain the information they need, libraries ensure their position as the bridge to knowledge.
