January 20, 2017
The University will eliminate software silos and gain operational efficiency
Chicago, IL—January 20, 2017. Ex Libris®, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that Washington and Lee University (W&L) has selected the Ex Libris Alma® library management service and the Ex Libris Primo® discovery and delivery platform. The University is the eighth institution in Virginia to adopt both solutions. Replacing the Innovative Millennium library system, Alma and Primo will increase workflow efficiencies, improve analytics to support collection development and decision making, and allow W&L to leverage the Ex Libris open API environment to provide additional services to the Washington and Lee community.
Washington and Lee’s University Library, which consists of an undergraduate library, a science library, and a law library, must accommodate disparate research needs and expectations. W&L chose the Alma and Primo solutions because they support these different needs in ways that other systems do not. In particular, Alma and Primo will provide a unified system for managing electronic resources together with other material types without affecting the discoverability of the libraries’ extensive print collections.
A major factor in W&L’s decision to adopt Alma and Primo was their software-as-a-service model, which lowers maintenance costs and spares libraries from having to do regular updates and backups. Instead, library staff can focus on their areas of expertise, including electronic resource management, acquisitions, and cataloging.
The selection of Primo will enable the law library to maintain a customized search interface that differs from that of the undergraduate library. The sophisticated yet intuitive Primo search interface will give W&L faculty and students easy access to both print and electronic resources.
John Tombarge, university librarian at Washington and Lee University, explained, ”Alma and Primo will provide us with the best possible platform to help us reach our strategic goals. With these integrated solutions, we will enjoy unified resource management and enhanced collection discoverability, while our staff will have more time for assisting students and researchers.”
”We are pleased that Washington and Lee University is joining our ever-growing Alma and Primo customer community in Virginia,” commented Eric Hines, president of Ex Libris North America. ”With libraries that require customizability, flexibility, and extensibility to fulfill the needs of faculty and students, the University has made a wise choice in Alma and Primo, which were designed with these three aspects in mind. I invite Washington and Lee to take an active role in our customer community and contribute new ideas for further extending our solutions.”
About Washington and Lee University
Founded in 1749, Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts university in Lexington, Virginia. In 1796, George Washington endowed the school with a gift of stock, one of the largest gifts to an educational institution at the time. In appreciation, the trustees renamed the school for the first president of the United States. In 1865, General Robert E. Lee accepted the role of president of the college and served until his death in 1870. The college was then renamed as Washington and Lee University. The ninth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, Washington and Lee is the second-oldest such institution in Virginia. To learn more, visit the W&L website at https://www.wlu.edu/.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for higher education. Offering SaaS solutions for the management and discovery of the full spectrum of library and scholarly materials, as well as mobile campus solutions driving student engagement and success, Ex Libris serves thousands of customers in 90 countries. For more information about Ex Libris, see our website, and join us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
