District of Columbia Public Library to Implement Systems in Six Branches

Norcross, Ga. – August 4, 2010. The Integrated Technology Group (ITG), the preferred North American partner of Dutch electronics manufacturer Dialoc ID, has performed the first U.S. installations of Dialoc’s EM/RFID Hybrid DiaMond loss prevention security system. ITG technicians installed Diamond security gates at the Benning Neighborhood Library and Northwest One Neighborhood Library branches, two of the 28-branch District of Columbia Public Library system. Additional DiaMond gate installations are scheduled for four more DCPL branches in the fall.

“No one else had the right product,” says Barbara Norland, Senior Librarian, Building Projects, for DCPL. “The ITG/Dialoc gates offered aesthetics, performance, and a great price,” she adds. “And our architects liked their transparent look a lot.”

Hybrid EM/RFID gates allow libraries to transition to RFID gradually, especially advantageous for those with large collections or with robust inter-library loan programs. DiaMond systems perform simultaneous electromagnetic (EM) and radio frequency identification (RFID) security detection and support nearly all EM security strips and all major 13.56 MHz RFID tags. Fabricated of scratch-proof acrylic, DiaMond pedestals are refined in design and add sophistication to any library environment.

Dialoc ID has been a world leader in the electronic article surveillance (EAS) field since 1977. Renown for reliability and superior technology, they have thousands of security systems installed in more than 35 countries worldwide.

“Dialoc offers superior technology coupled with very competitive prices,” says ITG President Shai Robkin. “We love being able to offer our customers that kind of real value. ITG always has sought solutions that allow libraries to have flexible choices, and DiaMond Hybrid EM/RFID systems are the ideal solution for so many libraries who know RFID is in their future. To perform the first installations of the DiaMond gates in the United States is very significant, and we’re proud to be leading the way, with Dialoc, in EM/RFID hybrid solutions for libraries,” he adds.

Barbara Norland concurs: “We feel that every library system will move to RFID, just like they moved to bar codes. In this cycle we could not get a full RFID implementation in our budget, but eventually we will. These things are cyclical—they go up and down. But they always come back.”

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About the Integrated Technology Group (ITG):
ITG (www.integratedtek.com) develops, markets, and supports library automation technologies that empower librarians to make operations more efficient and better serve their patrons. ITG's products include patron self-checkout, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Automated Materials Handling (AMH) systems, library materials security, and public computer reservation and print management solutions. With nearly 40 years’ experience in the library industry, ITG combines smart technology and progressive design to create standard solutions that can be easily customized to meet site-specific requirements. ITG, a division of Vernon Library Supplies, Inc., is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia.

Philip is a media archive and asset manager with nearly 20 years of stock library, postproduction and archive operations experience. He has managed large commercial film and video archives in their efforts to digitize, catalog, preserve and monetize content. He has successfully transitioned from a physical to digital archives in order to create transparency and access. Philip is fluent in the technical, operational and sales realms.

Most recently, he was the Director, Video Product Operations at National Geographic Digital Motion, an archive management and content licensing group within National Geographic Television based in Washington, DC. Prior to that he was the Director, Archive & Cataloguing at the National Geographic Film Library and led efforts to digitize, catalog and make accessible the video libraries assets to internal and external clients via web-based DAM (Digital Asset Management) tools.

Prior to National Geographic, Philip was the Manager, Post Production at Corbis Motion in New York City and provided management services for postproduction, mastering, archive vault services and order fulfillment for multiple sales offices. Before Corbis, Philip was the Film Operations Manager at Getty Images in New York City where he managed day-to-day operations supporting archive, post production and mastering operations. Highlights from his tenure with Getty Images include the consolidation of Image Bank, Archive Films and Energy Films archive operations into one facility and being an early adapter of HD mastering processes.

Philip has been active in the professional community and has participated as a panelist and presenter at various DAM and Archive events. He is a member of the Association Moving Image Archivists (AMIA), International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA) and the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). Philip is also an active blogger on DAM and media archive issues. His blog, “DAM Ideas" (http://www.spiegelams.com) covers the challenges of DAM, metadata, rights and other issues around the business challenges of successfully transitioning from a physical to digital archive.

August 4th, 2010
CONTACT:
Nathan Curulla
(888) 900-8944
sales@bywatersolutions.com

Goddard College Partners with ByWater Solutions for Koha Support and Implementation

ByWater Solutions, an open source community supporter and official Koha support company, announced today that Goddard College, of Plainfield, VT. has partnered with them for the implementation and support of their official Koha integrated library system installation.

ByWater Solutions will provide the Eliot D. Pratt Library of Goddard College with a full Koha Installation, data migration of their over 42,000 records, customization of their staff and public interface, 24/7 comprehensive support, and hosting services.

"Any software is only as good as the services that it provides and a database is only as good as its retrieval system." Stated Clara Bruns, Director of Information Access at the Eliot D. Pratt Library. She continues; "The Open Source model means that we'll pay for the services that the system provides and programming as needed, rather than paying for the use of a private company's proprietary system. It's a different business model that seems more directly in line with what a system really is because a piece of software has no "intrinsic' value."

When asked about the open source model and how it fits with her library needs, Clara Bruns stated; "Open Source will give us more independence in the long run. With ILS vendors, the larger libraries and contracts determine what companies are offering and there is the risk that system ownership will change or that they no longer support a product. We are a small institution and are currently paying too much for a system that only marginally meets our needs."

She then went on to say that ByWater Solutions "met our criteria to find the most cost- effective solution for our library system and they have a great reputation with the libraries who have used their services."

“We are extremely excited to have the opportunity to work with Clara and the staff of Goddard College” stated Brendan Gallagher, CEO of ByWater Solutions. “Our two institutions share the same excitement and enthusiasm about open source, and we look forward to giving them the personalized levels of support that they deserve.”

The Eliot D. Pratt Library is targeted to go live by the end of 2010.

About Goddard College:
At Goddard you will encounter a unique learning environment where adult learners are encouraged to pursue their passions. Supported by expert faculty and dedicated staff, students seeking to complete a bachelor’s or a master’s degree individualize study that integrates personal interests, professional commitments and creative aspirations.
Goddard programs engage students in learning that is personally meaningful and socially responsive. Each person who comes to Goddard College enters a collaborative community that is committed to achieving academic excellence, deepening intellectual curiosity and developing the skills needed to promote social justice.
Goddard is nationally and internationally recognized for its leadership in educational innovation, its deep commitment to the ideals of democracy and for its active efforts to live consciously as stewards of the earth. For more information, please visit: www.goddard.edu

About Koha:
Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha’s OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies--XHTML, CSS and Javascript--making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: www.koha-community.org

About ByWater Solutions:
With over 10 years of experience, ByWater Solutions offers customized hosting, data migration, configuration, installation, training, support options and development of enterprise class open-source library systems. Offering a 24/7 technical helpline, ByWater Solutions’ clients have the support system they need to make their software work for them. ByWater Solutions pledges to share 100% of all developed code to the Koha community for the strengthening and advancement of the Koha ILS. For more information about ByWater Solutions, please visit: www.bywatersolutions.com

Integrated Technology Group adds another experienced librarian to its team

Norcross, Ga. – August 2, 2010. Bernadette Hill has joined ITG as its Northwest Region Account Manager. Hill is based in Seattle and will be serving ITG customers in Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Montana, and Western Canada.

She brings over 20 years P&L, entrepreneurial, software/hardware new market business development experience across multiple sectors including libraries, education, fiber-optic high-speed networks and information technology. Bernadette has held executive positions at Dynix, Ameritech, and Expanets, and is known for opening new markets and developing outstanding client relationships.

“It’s great that we have a strong core of experienced librarians here at ITG,” says CEO Shai Robkin. “Field-level experience is so very important when consulting, problem-solving, and planning for the future. Today’s libraries are charged with balancing increasing usage with shrinking budgets and no one understands that better than those who have been in the trenches.”

Hill received her MLS from the University Of Washington, Seattle, and began her career as a librarian at Kitsap Regional Library in Bremerton, WA. A former elementary school teacher, she later founded the K-12 business division of Dynix Library Systems (now SirsiDynix).

“Her unique experience with both libraries and information technology make her uniquely qualified to assess best practices and maximize ROI for ITG’s library clients,” says Ken Evans, ITG Vice President of Sales. “Bernadette understands our customers and the benefits that ITG products can deliver to them. That’s the kind of expertise libraries need to make smart decisions,” he notes.

“While I’ve had the opportunity to do a lot of interesting things over the past two decades, libraries have always been my first love,” says Hill. “I am delighted to be working again in the library world, particularly for a company that is so dedicated to customer service.”

Hill’s husband is a retired English professor and their daughter is an undergraduate at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, FL. Whenever possible, they enjoy travelling throughout the world. She also sits on the Board of Directors of the Lucina Foundation, whose mission is to find the underlying causes of serious diseases affecting women’s health.

About the Integrated Technology Group (ITG):
ITG (www.integratedtek.com) develops, markets, and supports library automation technologies that empower librarians to make operations more efficient and better serve their patrons. ITG's products include patron self-checkout, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Automated Materials Handling (AMH) systems, library materials security, and public computer reservation and print management solutions. With nearly 40 years’ experience in the library industry, ITG combines smart technology and progressive design to create standard solutions that can be easily customized to meet site-specific requirements. ITG, a division of Vernon Library Supplies, Inc., is headquartered in Norcross, Georgia.

~ Top-Ranked New University in the United Kingdom Chooses EBSCO Discovery Service™ ~

IPSWICH, Mass. —August 3, 2010 — Bournemouth University has chosen EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) from EBSCO Publishing as its discovery solution—bringing a single search box to the library collection. Believing that single search discovery tools are essential for the continued success and viability of libraries, the university began looking at discovery options to replace its federated search system. Bournemouth selected EDS after a detailed review of the service, determining that EBSCO Discovery Service met the university’s long term plan for a single source for the discovery of all library resources.

Bournemouth had been using a federated search system and saw it as a solution to some of the issues facing libraries, however, the challenges of discovery and content retrieval for end users remained. In order to fill the gaps Bournemouth turned to discovery solutions—evaluating the commercial services available, speaking with colleagues at other libraries and becoming a beta partner for EBSCO Discovery Service.

Chris Spencer, library procurement and systems development manager at Bournemouth University says having a single source for the discovery of all library resources has long been an aspiration for Bournemouth University. “It is important to be able to provide a single source of access for all resource formats and for the diverse user groups within a university. For example, the integration of the Institutional Repository is an important requirement for our research community, whilst in the future it may be important to be able to provide guest access in a controlled way for the local community or alumni.”

The university will maintain mySearch, the name of its outgoing federated search service for the new discovery tool. mySearch will serve as an important part of the library website bringing library content into the virtual learning environment (VLE) via direct links to EDS and quick search boxes. The library’s chat widget will also be added to EBSCO Discovery Service.

Bournemouth will add more resources to the result list by pairing EDS with the optional EBSCOhost Integrated Search™ (EHIS). EHIS is a complement to EBSCO Discovery Service extending the discovery experience to external resources that are not made available for local harvesting. Bournemouth also has more than 20 databases on EBSCOhost® and uses EBSCO A-to-Z® and LinkSource® in addition to using EBSCO Information Services as its subscription agent.

Spencer says the university’s relationship with EBSCO, both before and during the beta partnership, impacted the decision to go with EBSCO Discovery Service. “EBSCO has an understanding of our requirements and the suite of products we license integrates seamlessly with minimal administration. EBSCO’s position in the library services market and its established relationships with publishers were also important factors.”

Spencer says he expects EDS to continue to develop and keep abreast of future changes in library services. Continued development of EBSCOadmin®, the administrative tool within EBSCOhost, is also expected to add to the existing customization options offered with EBSCO Discovery Service. Spencer also expects the EDS base index to continue to expand reducing the need for federated connectors.

EBSCO Discovery Service creates a unified, customized index of an institution’s information resources, and an easy, yet powerful means of accessing all of that content from a single search box—searching made even more powerful because of the quality of metadata and depth and breadth of coverage.

The Base Index for EBSCO Discovery Service forms the foundation upon which each EDS subscribing library builds out its custom collection. Beginning with the Base Index, each institution extends the reach of EDS by adding appropriate resources including its catalog, institutional repositories, EBSCOhost and other databases, and additional content sources to which it subscribes. It is this combination that allows a single, comprehensive, custom solution for discovering the value of any library’s collection.

The EDS Base Index is comprised of metadata from the world’s foremost information providers. At present, the EDS Base Index represents content from approximately 20,000 providers in addition to metadata from another 70,000 book publishers. Although constantly growing, today the EDS Base Index provides metadata for nearly 50,000 Magazines & Journals, approximately 825,000 CDs & DVDs, nearly six million books and hundreds of thousands of additional information sources from various source-types.

Bournemouth University has been rated the United Kingdom's number one new university by The Guardian University Guide for both 2009 and 2010.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the world’s premier database aggregator, offering a suite of more than 300 full-text and secondary research databases. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals, magazines, books, monographs, reports and various other publication types from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). The company’s product lines include proprietary databases such as Academic Search™, Business Source®, CINAHL®, DynaMed™, Literary Reference Center™, MasterFILE™, NoveList®, SocINDEX™ and SPORTDiscus™ as well as dozens of leading licensed databases such as ATLA Religion Database™, EconLit, Inspec®, MEDLINE®, MLA International Bibliography, The Philosopher’s Index™, PsycARTICLES® and PsycINFO®. Databases are powered by EBSCOhost®, the most-used for-fee electronic resource in libraries around the world. EBSCO is the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ a core collection of locally-indexed metadata creating a unified index of an institution’s resources within a single, customizable search point providing everything the researcher needs in one place—fast, simple access to the library’s full text content, deeper indexing and more full-text searching of more journals and magazines than any other discovery service (www.ebscohost.com/discovery). For more information, visit the EBSCO Publishing Web site at: www.ebscohost.com, or contact: information@ebscohost.com.

EBSCO Publishing is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., one of the largest privately held companies in the United States.
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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com