SHARED CATALOG AT APPALACHIAN COLLEGE ASSOCIATION KICKS OFF WITH ELEVEN LIBRARIES

MARCH 16, 2004

Emeryville, CA—Innovative Interfaces, the world’s leading provider of Web-powered, Java-based automated library systems, announced today that a group of eleven Appalachian College Association (ACA) libraries has launched its first shared catalog with Millennium. The ACA Central Library, a subscription library owned and operated by the ACA, will serve as the systems office.

The ACA is composed of private religious liberal arts colleges spread throughout the central Appalachian Mountains. It functions much like a distributed university library through its use of cross-institutional departments. Eighteen months ago, Central Library Director Tony Krug approached Innovative Customer Sales Consultant Katja Moos, reporting that many ACA libraries were on different automation systems without a union catalog, and expressing his enthusiasm for Millennium.

Maryville College, an Innovative customer since 1995 and a member of the ACA, stepped forward to make the shared catalog a reality. The College upgraded to Millennium’s Alpha DS10 server, and moved it to the ACA Central Library where it will act as the host server. Maryville and the following ten libraries will launch the shared catalog:

• Alderson-Broaddus College (Philippi, West Virginia)
• Cumberland College (Williamsburg, Kentucky)
• Davis and Elkins College (Elkins, West Virginia)
• Ferrum College (Ferrum, Virginia)
• Lindsey Wilson College (Columbia, Kentucky)
• Alice Lloyd College (Pippa Passes, Kentucky)
• Ohio Valley College (Vienna, West Virginia)
• Tennessee Wesleyan College (Athens, Tennessee)
• University of Charleston (Charleston, West Virginia)
• Union College (Barbourville, Kentucky)

This group is replacing nine current systems: Dynix, VTLS Classic, Micro-VTLS, Geac, TLC, Gaylord Galaxy, GLAS/EOSi, and Endeavor Voyager. Of the remaining 23 ACA libraries, twelve have notified the ACA Office that they are interested in joining the shared catalog when funding becomes available.

“Millennium was their dream system; it’s great for these libraries to have such a first-rate product,” said Moos.

Why Millennium?
Millennium was selected for many reasons, including:

• It is a trusted tool at ACA libraries;
• Database scoping allows a cost-effective solution for a large, distributed library system; and
• Innovative’s comprehensive customer service is an exact fit for a large system where there are few technical service librarians or systems administrators.

The ACA systems team explored alternative ILS systems and quickly realized that the other systems would require purchasing and maintaining multiple databases. “The Endeavor option would have been six times as expensive,” said Dr. Krug. Furthermore, Millennium’s scoping ability will partition the database so that each library’s Web OPAC appears autonomous to student users. Since ACA libraries are up to 600 miles apart, students would have no access to remote items displayed in a non-partitioned OPAC.

Future Plans
“A lot of excitement and enthusiasm is building around this effort because the shared catalog allows us to explore new possibilities for more extensive collaboration at all levels, ” said Dr. Krug. “The vision is that the shared catalog can be a centerpiece for even tighter cooperation among the libraries. We are just beginning to explore its possibilities.”

About Innovative
Celebrating 25 years of partnership with the library community, Innovative Interfaces (www.iii.com) is the leader in providing Web-powered, Java-based automated library systems. Its flagship product offering, Millennium, is an acknowledged market leader installed in thousands of libraries in 39 countries around the world. The company is headquartered in Emeryville, California, with offices in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Korea, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United Kingdom.