[11586] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Re: Library automation preparation
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Forster)
Thu Aug 21 20:11:27 1997
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 1997 16:05:37 -0500
From: Forster <W.A.Forster@herts.ac.uk>
In-Reply-To: <9708190655.AA00742@tmcs.tm.tno.nl>
To: PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L@LISTSERV.UH.EDU>
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>In the UK you can contact Fenwood Systems for the Libero product. It is
>miles ahead of the Dynix Software, and for much better price.
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Thought I should add that FENWOOD have just signed the agreement to
distribute LIBERO in the UK and it will be exhibited for the first time at
LIBTECH INTERNATIONAL 97 on the 10 - 11 September.
Libtech is held on the Hatfield Campus of the University of Hertfordshire
(half an hour by train from central London) and accommodation is available
at the University.
For further details of LIBTECH see:
http://www.herts.ac.uk/Libtech/libtech.htm
and for details of LIBERO (from our newsletter) see below:
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COMPETITION FOR BIG SYSTEMS
Whilst large system suppliers invest heavily to develop new generation
software they face competition from scaleable systems able to meet the
needs of all sizes of library.
PC based systems using client server technology are expandable from a
single PC for schools or smaller corporate libraries to large networks
with hundreds of PCs for multi site university libraries. Highly
competitive on price they must, like all library systems, be judged by
their functionality.
On this basis LIBERO must be considered a serious new contender. LIBERO
was developed in New Zealand and has been installed in over one hundred
libraries in Australia. Since Spring this year it has been distributed in
Europe by LIB-IT in Germany who have now appointed Fenwood as their sole
UK distributor. It will be launched on the UK market by Fenwood at
Libtech International.
As one would expect modules for cataloguing, acquisitions, serials,
circulation and OPAC are all fully integrated but LIBERO has
bibliographic format independence, in other words it can process
different bibliographic formats in one database e.g. UKMarc, USMarc and
the German MAB2 format. This means a university library can load records
in 'foreign' formats without converting them at all.
It can import records from CD-ROM, Diskettes, other databases, download
from the Internet, Cut and Paste, etc. and comes with an open SQL and
ODBC interface, so that the library can export their data in any form
e.g. into a Word document, EXEL table, Statistic report, other database,
etc. It also supports multimedia including image, audio and video.
LIBERO has variable field length throughout the whole system and claims
to be the most affordable functional rich system available on the newest
technology with all its modules operating under Windows95/NT.
You can see LIBERO for the first time in the UK on Stand 213 on the
Ground Floor. Fenwood will also be exhibiting Ultranet, their highly
respected CD-ROM networking software for which they are the exclusive UK
distributor.
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Bill Forster, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, HATFIELD,
Hertfordshire AL10 9AD, UK.
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Tel: +44 1707-284681 Fax: +44 1707-284666 E-mail: W.A.Forster@herts.ac.uk
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On Tue, 19 Aug 1997, Martin Heine wrote:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> In the UK you can contact Fenwood Systems for the Libero product. It is miles
> ahead of the Dynix Software, and for much better price.
>
> Fenwood Systems Ltd.
> 2 Kingston Estate, Eastern Rd
> Aldershot, Hants,
> Tel +441252350001
>
> Martin Heine
>
>
> >
> > ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> > Please examine Endeavor's Voyager system. You will like it.
> >
> > On Fri, 15 Aug 1997, R.C Young wrote:
> >
> > > ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> > > On 11 Aug 1997 Amy Helfman wrote:
> > >
> > > > ...
> > > > The most recent version of the system we are most likely to
> > > > purchase (the library director feels that since there is no
> > > > perfect option, we should wait a few years longer before we
> > > > automate!!!) is a UNIX-based client-server setup.
> > > > ...
> > >
> > > ... about which this veteran of three library automation systems
> > > implementations
> > > batch system: 1971
> > > Geac 8000-based on-line real-time: 1981;
> > > Geac 9000-based ditto: 1991 (and still going strong)
> > > would like to say:
> > > a. the perfect system will never exist;
> > > b. even if it did, you would not be able to recognise it when
> > > you saw it if you'd not had the experience of running a
> > > less-than-perfect system!
> > >
> > > -- Bob Young
> > > Sub-Librarian, University of Sussex Library, Brighton BN1 9QL, UK
> > > Phone: +44 (0)1273 678160
> > > Fax: +44 (0)1273 678441 Email: r.c.young@sussex.ac.uk
> > >
> >
> > George F. Heise, Associate Director of Library Services
> > George T. Potter Library
> > Ramapo College of New Jersey
> > Mahwah, NJ 07430
> > Telephone: 201-529-7571
> >
>
