Stellenbosch University—First South African Customer to Choose Ex Libris Alma for Optimizing Library Services
LONDON, UK, June 8, 2016 – Ex Libris®, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that South Africa’s Stellenbosch University (SU) has chosen the Ex Libris Alma® resource management service to complement the library’s Ex Libris Primo® discovery and delivery solution. This investment will help the university control costs and maintain its ranking as one of the three leading research-intensive academic institutions in Africa.
The SU Library and Information Service has set a strategy based on the principles of collaboration and access to global information resources. To manage its large and growing print and electronic resource collection and fulfill users’ expectations, SU understood that its current library systems needed to be updated.
Alma and Primo are ideally suited to support this strategy through their open, collaborative-oriented system architecture. In light of the Ex Libris reputation for releasing products after conducting thorough research and development and working closely with top academic institutions, the university opted for Alma, the most mature library services platform on the market.
Since 2000, Stellenbosch University has been using the Ex Libris Aleph® integrated library system shared with the regional Cape Library Consortium (CALICO). Subsequently, SU added the Ex Libris SFX® OpenURL link resolver and bX® recommender service.
Library and Information Service Senior Director Ellen Tise explained, “The selection of Primo and Alma represents a strategically important move for Stellenbosch University as it continually seeks to improve its library services offering to students and researchers. Now more than ever, we need systems that support the library’s budgetary, e-resource management, and information-discovery processes. In the current economic climate, best-of-breed systems are required for libraries to optimally manage print and electronic resources and at the same time make full resource discovery possible. We need systems that interact with both open and proprietary information resources and help us manage and share our own institutional research output.”
The move to Alma will enable SU to unify its resource management, including license management, and to gain efficiencies through the workflow support that a modern task-oriented platform offers. Additionally, Ex Libris industry-standard APIs will facilitate the integration of Alma within the larger campus information and communications technology (ICT) ecosystem, while the migration to a cloud system will reduce the demand on local system administrators.
Ex Libris President Matti Shem Tov said, “I am delighted that such an influential institution, ranked as one of the top universities in South Africa, has chosen to move to Alma. As early as 2000, Stellenbosch University became one of our first customers in South Africa and is now leading the way once again. Ex Libris is proud to contribute to South African academic excellence, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with the university and its outstanding professional library staff.
About Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch University (SU) is a publically funded institution of higher education in South Africa, ranked eleventh among BRICS universities in the Times Higher Education BRICS & Emerging Economies Rankings 2016 and third in Africa. The school’s 10 faculties are based on five campuses, with the main campus in Stellenbosch. As a research-focused university, Stellenbosch continuously strives for excellence in research, postgraduate study, and innovation and places a strong emphasis on the development of future generations of academics. The SU Library serves as a research and innovation hub by supporting research focus areas through the acquisition, creation, dissemination, and preservation of the full spectrum of relevant material. The main library and faculty libraries are vibrant, flexible, and technology-rich physical and virtual spaces that promote innovation, collaboration, and easy access to expert library staff, networking opportunities, and quiet study. For more information about Stellenbosch University, see its website and join it on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
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.
About ProQuest (http://www.proquest.com)
ProQuest connects people with vetted, reliable information. Key to serious research, the company’s products are a gateway to the world’s knowledge including dissertations, governmental and cultural archives, news, historical collections and ebooks. ProQuest technologies serve users across the critical points in research, helping them discover, access, share, create and manage information.
The company’s cloud-based technologies offer flexible solutions for librarians, students and researchers through the ProQuest®, Bowker®, Coutts® information services, Dialog®, ebrary®, EBL™, and SIPX® businesses – and notable research tools such as the Summon® discovery service, the RefWorks® citation and reference management platform, MyiLibrary® ebook platform, the Pivot® research development tool and Intota™. The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, with offices around the world.