June 19, 2006
The Next-generation, User-centric Discovery and Delivery
Newton, MA—June 19, 2009. The Ex Libris™ Group today announced that two prominent institutions, Vanderbilt University and the University of Minnesota, will partner with the company to bring to market its newest product offering, Primo.
Primo presents library users with a new paradigm—a single unified solution for the discovery and delivery of all local and remote scholarly information resources, including books, journals, articles, images, and other digital content. By doing so, Primo answers the librarys need to provide patrons with an up-to-date level of services and experiences focused on user expectations for quick and efficient discovery and delivery of what they need, and where and when they need it.
A recent OCLC survey shows that only 30% of students turn to library websites when searching for scholarly information sources and only 2% begin their searches at library sites. Reports published by the Library of Congress and the University of California attribute this phenomenon to the shortcomings of existing library systems, emphasizing the need for new solutions that will address changing user needs and the growth of information resources.
Libraries are serving a new generation of users, with expectations that are derived from their overall Internet experience, explains Oren Beit-Arie, Chief Strategy Officer at Ex Libris. Libraries are looking to step up to the standards set by widely-used tools, such as Google, Amazon, and Flickr, and provide users with simple, yet powerful tools to discover and access relevant resources wherever and whenever needed, along with self-service and collaborative capabilities. Primo decouples the user experience from back-end system infrastructure regardless of the ILS vendor.
The University of Minnesota and Vanderbilt University join hbz, the University Library Center of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germanys largest state, which has collaborated with Ex Libris since the earliest stages of Primos development. Hans Ollig, head of hbz, states, “The Primo Publishing Platform represents a key component in our Tri-National Catalogue project of over 60 million records. We will use it to extract, normalize and enrich ALEPH, DigiTool and other records from a variety of sources.”
Today’s library catalog no longer meets the expectations of users accustomed to Internet search engines, says Eric Celeste, Associate University Librarian for Information Technology at University of Minnesota. Libraries have built complex back-end systems to meet our business process requirements, but we now realize that this architecture does not facilitate the research process of our users. We need a catalog that draws on the riches of our processing but remains separate enough to benefit from new indexing and retrieval techniques. Primo will win researchers back to the library by providing fast and sophisticated results that highlight the millions of resources we provide. We are excited to be working with Ex Libris, a company that understands libraries and how we must grow, to build the next generation of library catalog, fully integrated with our existing library systems.
The need for Primo is driven by end-user requirements, adds Paul Gherman, University Librarian at Vanderbilt University. We look forward to working with the Primo team to provide our users with an advanced discovery and delivery experience that incorporates the searching of local library resources combined with metasearching across our remote electronic and digital assets, including our unique TV News Archives.
Ex Libris will unveil Primo at the 2006 ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans. Early delivery to partners will be by end of 2006. The product will be presented at the Ex Libris booth #1860, as well as at two seminar sessions that will take place on Saturday, June 24 and Monday, June 26. Registration to the seminars is free but subject to space limitations.
About Primo:
Primo enhances existing library solutions by providing users with a unified presentation of the exact information they need, where and when they want it. Drawing on the latest in search technologies and web 2.0 models such as social computing and content mashup, Primo goes beyond existing search engine tools, enabling libraries to take full advantage of their unique ability to provide access to physical and electronic information resources.
Primo presents users with rich, relevant information accompanied by situation-specific delivery options that they can act on. By normalizing and enhancing search result data, Primo helps users make the most of the plethora of search query matches.
Primo maximizes system flexibility and minimizes total cost of ownership by providing institutions with a solution that leverages existing library applications. Users are freed from the constraints of existing information silos—optimizing discovery and delivery across all institutional resources—as Primo decouples the user experience from back-end system infrastructure.
For additional information on Primo, please see https://exlibrisgroup.com/primo.htm.
About Ex Libris:
Ex Libris is a leading worldwide developer and provider of high-performance applications for libraries, information centers, and researchers. Primo, a unified solution for the discovery and delivery of all local and remote information assets, is the latest addition to the Ex Libris product line. ALEPH®, the Ex Libris integrated library solution, has been installed at over 1500 sites in 62 countries. MetaLib®, the information portal for library collections, and SFX®, the context-sensitive linking solution for heterogeneous electronic resources in the scholarly information environment, have collectively been purchased by more than 950 institutions in 36 countries. DigiTool®, a solution for the construction of digital collections, and Verde®, the electronic resource management (ERM) system, complete the Ex Libris product suite.
