~ Agreement with Open Source Service Provider Designed to Offer Libraries Choice and Support for FOLIO Systems ~

IPSWICH, Mass. — May 31, 2018 — EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) and ALZAD Inc. have expanded their relationship to ensure libraries adopting the FOLIO Library Services Platform (LSP) will be able to rely on hosting and services support.

The agreement confirms ALZAD’s commitment to provide FOLIO implementation and support services backed by EBSCO hosting technology and data services. ALZAD Inc., located in Dubai, UAE and Cairo, Egypt and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia supports many institutions throughout the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region.

ALZAD’s CEO Kamal ElGazzar says the ALZAD Inc. team will work with EBSCO in supporting libraries across the region using FOLIO as their library services platform or looking to add FOLIO microservices or apps to their current systems. “Open source services will allow libraries to save on technology and put their efforts into customer support and service. By partnering with EBSCO, we can provide our expertise, combined with their services, and help libraries looking to integrate FOLIO to their institutions while providing continuous support. It is our pleasure to be the exclusive dealer of FOLIO implementation and support services backed by EBSCO hosting technology and data services in MENA region. I believe that ALZAD and EBSCO together can achieve more.”

EBSCO Senior Director of Product Management, Harry Kaplanian, says these agreements continue to give EBSCO the opportunity to create a high level of customer service standards. Kaplanian facilitates the FOLIO community in gaining consensus on the overall roadmap and future directions for the project. “As we move into the next steps in the FOLIO development, we want to continue creating partnerships with providers such as EBSCO and ALZAD Inc. These partnerships ensure that we can create technical support structures, migration plans and implementation goals for libraries worldwide. Service providers like ALZAD Inc. will be able to create the foundation libraries need to adopt open source technology like FOLIO.”

Since being announced in June 2016, FOLIO has formed a community, and librarians and developers have joined special interest groups that are actively creating an open source LSP that supports traditional resource management functionality that can be extended into emerging areas. FOLIO is being designed to be flexible to allow librarians to select the applications that best align with their workflow needs. The applications are modular and allow multiple vendors or libraries to contribute applications. Extensibility is an essential element allowing FOLIO to integrate with internal and external systems including university enterprise systems, institutional repositories, research management and discovery services. Development supports Linked Open Data to allow libraries to expand their reach, and FOLIO provides scalability through multi-tenancy. The service will support all formats natively and is based on a central knowledgebase. More information is available at www.folio.org.

About EBSCO Information Services
EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 11,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service™ (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 1,000,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.

About ALZAD Inc.
ALZAD Inc. is a diversified library turnkey solutions company in Middle East, as we are targeted by the key customers in the territory. ALZAD aims to facilitate the business environment through providing wide range of libraries services, products, and smart solutions. We aim to be your excellence knowledge partner and provide you distinctive services in a smart way using the latest and updated approaches and technology. Partnering with ALZAD Solutions for Koha or Folio will provide high quality open source, implementation and high-level support services. As of June 2014, ALZAD Inc. was founded in Dubai, UAE and becomes a major leader in Library, Information and Archiving sector in Middle East. For more information please visit: http://alzad.ae/

For more information, please contact:
Kathleen McEvoy
Vice President of Communications
(800) 653-2726 ext. 2594
kmcevoy@ebsco.com