Press Release: Lyrasis [June 22, 2011]
LYRASIS Technology Services announces Discovery and Delivery Software expansionCopyright (c) 2011 Lyrasis

Summary LYRASIS Technology Services added the LYRASIS Discovery Layer Service to its array of services. The DLS, a hosted solution, provides libraries with a single search box for patrons to access a wide range of print and electronic information resources. Leveraging the latest advances in discovery technology from Index Data, the LYRASIS DLS will retrieve, de-dupe and rank results from a variety of resources, offering member libraries one-stop access to online content from journals and database providers in a responsive and facet-enabled interface. To further enhance the Discovery Layer Service, LYRASIS is working with Relais International, who provides sophisticated systems and software to automate and streamline operations in ILL and Document Delivery services.

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Atlanta, GA, — June 22, 2011 — LYRASIS Technology Services (LTS) is proud to add the LYRASIS Discovery Layer Service (DLS) to its array of services. The DLS, a hosted solution, provides libraries with a single search box for patrons to access a wide range of print and electronic information resources.

Leveraging the latest advances in discovery technology from Index Data, the LYRASIS DLS will retrieve, de-dupe and rank results from a variety of resources, offering member libraries one-stop access to online content from journals and database providers in a responsive and facet-enabled interface. With the option of seamless integration with the Relais International delivery and material-handling back-end, this product is a single point of access to all of the library's information offerings, priced to allow budget-constrained libraries to take better advantage of their existing resources and subscriptions.

LYRASIS has selected Index Data as the technology provider for the DLS because the company is known for building powerful technologies in support of information retrieval, used behind the scenes by some of the most important organizations in the industry. Index Data's continuing objective to provide easy access to information, no matter where or how it is made available, aligns well with the LYRASIS mission of collaboration, creative solutions and leadership for libraries.

To further enhance the Discovery Layer Service, LYRASIS is working with Relais International, who provides sophisticated systems and software to automate and streamline operations in ILL and Document Delivery services. LYRASIS is offering these related services in the continued effort to provide member libraries with options that help them expand information access for their constituencies while controlling costs in the face of economic and operational challenges.

The LYRASIS Discovery Layer Service, offered as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription, can be configured for consortia and single-site libraries. With a "tiered configuration" multiple libraries or library branches can set up search targets for subscriptions held in common, while allowing each library or branch to add and customize search targets to meet the needs of their patrons. Consortia can also take advantage of the automated request-handling system from Relais International that allows patrons to view real-time status displays of copies in consortia members' catalogs and make requests for those items.

The LYRASIS family of SaaS discovery and delivery services, all designed with the ease of installation and operation in mind, meet a variety of library needs:

LYRASIS Discover Layer Service:

•The LYRASIS Discovery Layer for Single-Site Libraries provides a single discovery interface to optimize the user's ability to discover material in the library's catalog and selected electronic resources, both subscription and freely available.
•The LYRASIS Discovery Layer for Multiple-Site Libraries is for groups of libraries or library consortia where there are multiple catalogs and/or layers of subscription and free databases to be managed amongst a group for optimization of discovery. Library groups can choose to add the real-time item status display and patron-initiated requesting feature from Relais International.
Relais International DLS-Related Services:

•RELAIS ILL converts libraries' ILL operations into a more streamlined, efficient service by automating the routine tasks, supporting unmediated services and fully integrating ILL with delivery of documents to the requester.
•Relais Express converts paper documents to electronic format, or uses existing electronic documents, and delivers them to users or to other libraries.
•The Relais Scanning Workstation is a completely integrated and ergonomically efficient work environment for scanning superior quality documents with Relais ILL and Relais Express.
•Relais D2D seamlessly integrates the discovery experience with request management, circulation interoperability and delivery, irrespective of the multiple ILS used by the participating libraries within the consortium. D2D optimizes the user's ability to discover items of interest in library catalogs and get immediate access to, or request delivery of, the material with minimal or no intervention by staff.
"Single search box discovery tools have become important ways for patrons to find licensed and open access content curated by libraries. LYRASIS is excited to offer these options that will expand the ability of a greater number of library members to provide the benefits of these technologies to their users," stated Peter Murray, Assistant Director of Technology Services Development, LYRASIS Technology Services.

About LYRASIS
Created in April 2009 by the merger of PALINET and SOLINET and joined shortly thereafter by NELINET, LYRASIS is the nation's largest regional membership organization serving libraries and information professionals — providing opportunities for networking and collaboration, offering innovative solutions and delivering significant cost savings through group purchasing for products and services. For more information, please visit www.lyrasis.org.

About Index Data
Index Data is a software development and consulting enterprise headquartered in Copenhagen and the United States, with offices in several countries. They are experts in networked information retrieval and management based on open standards, and have a seventeen-year history of releasing advanced software components as open source. Their mission is to use their skills and creativity to build bridges between people, technologies and organizations, and to empower information providers to deliver better, more integrated services. For more information, please visit www.indexdata.com.

About Relais International
Relais International Inc is based in Ottawa, Canada and has been selling systems to support interlibrary loan and document delivery services since 1996. Relais International (www.relais-intl.com) assists libraries in implementing intelligent and automated methods to support the delivery of documents. Relais products range from scanning stations through to fully integrated request management, scanning and delivery software suitable for a single library through to a consortium.

Publication Year: 2011
Type of Material: Press Release
Issue: June 22, 2011
Publisher: Lyrasis
Company: Lyrasis

Permalink: http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=15831
Record Number: 15831
Last Update: 2011-06-22 13:15:23
Date Created: 2011-06-22 13:13:34

~Agreement between Goodreads and EBSCO Publishing’s NoveList Division Brings Social Networking Elements into NoveList Products ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — June 22, 2011 — NoveList, a division of EBSCO Publishing, will begin incorporating reader ratings and book reviews from Goodreads into NoveList products thanks to a new agreement between the companies. The agreement leverages the content of Goodreads, the largest social network for readers, adding additional content to the most popular readers’ advisory service available.

The agreement brings together two companies that are dedicated to fostering a love of reading while sharing a belief that libraries have a key role to play in a community of readers. Goodreads has more than five million members and polls indicate Goodreads members have strong ties to libraries. In one poll, thirty percent of the nearly 17,000 respondents indicated that they went to the library for more of their books, eclipsing brick and mortar chain bookstores (twenty-two percent) and online stores (eighteen percent).

Independent market research indicated that NoveList is the most highly-rated readers’ advisory resource in public libraries. NoveList Select allows libraries to add NoveList content into library catalogs allowing users to leverage the library catalog to discover new books and similar titles in the library’s collection. The agreement now allows Goodreads content to be incorporated into that same user experience.

Vice President of Business Development at Goodreads, Kyusik Chung, says this agreement is the company’s first product specifically for libraries. “At Goodreads, we are passionate about helping people discover the next book they should read. The NoveList and NoveList Select products are the premier tools that libraries use to help patrons choose their next book. EBSCO Publishing is the ideal integration partner as we offer our 11 million book reviews and 110 million ratings to librarians and their patrons.”

NoveList founder Duncan Smith says the agreement brings together resources that are well matched to provide an even greater service to librarians and readers alike. “Goodreads and NoveList not only share an interest in reading and reading recommendations but recognize and value the role that libraries play in supporting and sustaining reading in their communities. I’m looking forward to not only having Goodreads’ ratings and excellent reviews in all of our products but continuing to work with them and our customers on how this relationship can best help libraries meet the needs of their readers.”

The partnership between NoveList and Goodreads not only provides additional information for readers searching the library catalog, the added information will help librarians answer one of their most frequently asked questions—what do I read next? Smith says librarians are always being asked for their recommendations. “With Goodreads we can point the user to thousands of readers who have read and commented on the books readers are considering.”

Dr. Mary K. Chelton is a professor at the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies at Queens College in New York. Chelton, a noted researcher and advocate for readers’ advisory service whose students are studying the use of social technologies in readers’ advisory says, “Goodreads and NoveList are two sides of the same coin with the reader's voice at the center. Combining their different but mutually reinforcing strengths for readers and the librarians serving them can only be a cause for celebration.”

Barry Trott, the head of adult services at Williamsburg Regional Library in Virginia says the combined resources serve both readers’ advisory professionals and readers. “The combination of NoveList and Goodreads is a great match. It combines the potency of expertise from librarians and literature professionals with the benefits of collaborative reader crowdsourcing. This will offer new opportunities for readers' advisors and readers to build on each other's strengths. I am excited about the possibilities that this coming together presents.” Williamsburg is an innovative library that is already using social technologies to reach readers. Williamsburg’s Blogging for a Good Book blog won ALA’s Louis Shore Award in 2009 and has also been referred to as the future of book reviewing. Williamsburg staff members have also authored several standard readers’ advisory print resources for Libraries Unlimited.

More information is available at www.ebscohost.com/novelist.

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost®, the world’s premier for-fee online research service, including full-text databases, subject indexes, point-of-care medical reference, historical digital archives, and e-books. The company provides more than 300 databases and nearly 300,000 e-books. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS), which provides each institution with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full-text searching of 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.

About Goodreads
Goodreads is the largest social network for readers in the world. They have more than 5 million members who discover 100,000 new books to read each day and have added more than 160 million books to their shelves. A place for casual readers and bona-fide bookworms alike, Goodreads members recommend books, compare what they are reading, keep track of what they've read and would like to read, form book clubs and much more. Goodreads' mission is to get people excited about reading. Along the way, they plan to improve the process of reading and learning throughout the world. www.goodreads.com.

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For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Public Relations Manager
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

Bethesda, MD – June 22, 2011 -For over two years, LibLime has worked with Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO), to build an ILS specifically for academic libraries. LibLime Academic Koha is the result. Designed, tested and used by academic librarians, LibLime Academic Koha offers the right platform for making an ILS be all that it can be. With LibLime and WALDO, academic librarians have the opportunity to work with like-minded professionals toward a shared goal of designing software that works for them.

With the end of the school year fresh in every academic librarian’s mind – LibLime wants to let you know about several features available in LibLime Academic Koha that can make the semester transition easier. These features are now completed, tested and documented. They are available in the LibLime Academic Koha Release 4.6. Come join the LibLime academic development partnership and start to take advantage of these beneficial tools and the open development project.

Batch Patron upload and editing:
– Upload a file (csv or other standard) of patron records
– Match existing records – establish over-write rules if desired
Update patron records in bulk:
– change all sophomores to junior status, for example
– change an expiration date on a large set of patron records
Lost item handling:
– retain a link between a lost item and the last borrowing patron – even after fines are paid
– if the item is found, apply a credit to the patron account according to library policy
Replacement fees:
– establish and maintain replacement fees at the item type level – providing additional nuance and specificity to the fines charged when replacing an item to ensure maximum expense recovery; choose if fees are refunded when item is returned

About WALDO
Westchester Academic Library Directors Organization (WALDO) is a membership organization supporting the procurement & administration of electronic information services for libraries since 1982. Supporting over 900 member libraries, WALDO offers consortial discounts for over 5,000 products and services. For more information, please visit WALDO at www.waldolib.org or contact Rob Karen at rob@waldolib.org or (800) 326-6495 ext. 1. Other advantages of choosing a LibLime solution through WALDO include volume discounts, standard contracts, consolidated renewal and centralized billing. Participation in the LibLime discounts through WALDO is available to all WALDO members.

About LibLime, a division of PTFS
LibLime, a division of PTFS, is the global leader in professional Koha support. LibLime’s robust staff of programmers, data specialists, librarians, system administrators and project managers, provides first class consulting, implementation, data migration, training, development, and maintenance/hosting services for Koha in libraries of all types and sizes. PTFS is the developer of the world’s leading digital content management software, ArchivalWare, and also specializes in library staffing requirements, digitization, and systems integration. For more information, see liblime.com or ptfs.com or archivalware.net.

~ Full-Text Searching from SciVerse ScienceDirect Will Complement Subject Indexing and Abstracts Already Available in EDS for All Elsevier Journals ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — June 22, 2011— Full text from SciVerse ScienceDirect is being added to EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) thanks to a new agreement from Elsevier and EBSCO Publishing (EBSCO). ScienceDirect, part of the SciVerse suite of search and discovery products provided by Elsevier, is a leading full-text scientific database with journal articles and book chapters from more than 2,000 peer-reviewed journals and 20,000 books and major reference works. ScienceDirect currently includes more than 10.5 million articles and chapters with nearly 500,000 added every year.

“We recognize that our users are accessing information in many different ways,” says Yukun Harsono, Senior Vice President, Search & Discovery, Academic and Government Markets at Elsevier. “The addition of full-text articles and eBook chapters from SciVerse ScienceDirect to EBSCO Discovery Service stems from our continuous commitment to ensure that the content we provide is available and easily found through the discovery platforms our customers use.”

President of EBSCO Publishing Tim Collins says the size and the scope of the content that ScienceDirect indexing provides combined with the ease of search that EBSCO Discovery Service offers end users should make a significant difference for researchers. “We have seen impressive usage statistics for content providers once they are searchable in EBSCO Discovery Service. Adding full text searching from Elsevier means EDS now has full text searching for the largest journal publishers in the world. EBSCO believes strongly that the best discovery experience is one that combines full text searching with searching of high quality subject indexing from controlled vocabularies. EDS is the only service with that approach.”

Elsevier joins a growing list of publishers and other content partners that are taking part in EDS to bring more visibility to their content. Partners include the world’s largest scholarly journal & book publishers including Elsevier, Wiley Blackwell, Springer Science & Business Media, Taylor & Francis Informa, Sage Publications, and thousands of others. Partners also include content providers, such as LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters (Web of Science), JSTOR, ARTstor, Credo Reference, Oxford University Press, World Book, ABC-CLIO, and many others.

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.

EBSCO Discovery Service is quickly becoming the discovery selection for many libraries (www.ebscohost.com/discovery/eds-news), and an obvious partner for content providers. Because the service builds on the foundation provided by the EBSCOhost platform, libraries gain a full user experience for discovering their collections/OPAC—which is not typical in the discovery space. Further still, in the many universities and other libraries where EBSCOhost is the most-used platform for premium research, users are not asked to change their pathways or habits for searching. There’s simply more to discover on the familiar EBSCOhost platform, and the same can be said for library administrators who can leverage their previous work with EBSCOadmin.

About Elsevier
Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet (www.thelancet.com) and Cell (www.cell.com), and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier’s online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect (www.sciencedirect.com), SciVerse Scopus (www.scopus.com), Reaxys (www.reaxys.com), MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com) and Nursing Consult (www.nursingconsult.com), which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite (www.scival.com) and MEDai’s Pinpoint Review (www.medai.com), which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier (www.elsevier.com) employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC (www.reedelsevier.com), a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

About EBSCO Publishing
EBSCO Publishing is the producer of EBSCOhost, the world’s premier for-fee online research service, including full-text databases, subject indexes, point-of-care medical reference, historical digital archives, and e-books. The company provides more than 300 databases and nearly 300,000 e-books. Through a library of tens of thousands of full-text journals and magazines from renowned publishers, EBSCO serves the content needs of all researchers (Academic, Medical, K-12, Public Library, Corporate, Government, etc.). EBSCO is also the provider of EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS), which provides institutions with a fast, single search box for its entire collection, offering deeper indexing and more full-text searching of 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
EBSCO Publishing
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebscohost.com

For Elsevier:
Sandra Plasse
(212) 752-8338
splasse@psbpr.com