Press Releases & News

Swets acquires ScholarlyStats from MPS Technologies

Sheffield University implements RFID-based self service facility in its new £23m Information Commons

Oxford University Goes Live with SFX

PCG unveils research into renewals trends

Swets acquires ScholarlyStats from MPS Technologies

Lisse, The Netherlands & London, United Kingdom (2 October 2007): Swets is pleased to announce that it has acquired exclusive rights to ScholarlyStats from MPS Technologies (MPST). MPS Technologies will continue to operate ScholarlyStats for Swets and to develop the service, ensuring continuity for existing customers.

 ScholarlyStats is a sophisticated Web-based portal that eases the burden of collecting, consolidating and analyzing e-journal usage statistics from multiple sources. Supplied in COUNTER compliant format, usage reports may be viewed and downloaded by libraries via a single, intuitive interface, thus freeing their staff to focus on other duties and facilitating more accurate collection decisions.

 MPST launched ScholarlyStats in 2005 and the product has experienced rapid adoption on a global scale. ScholarlyStats won Library Product of the Year at the 2006 International Information Industry Awards. Working closely with MPS Technologies as a Global Sales Partner since the start of 2006, Swets developed a leading channel position, demonstrating its strength in bringing new technologies to the marketplace. Swets is extremely enthused about incorporating the product fully into its extensive portfolio and the untapped potential it holds.

Although Swets has acquired the product, it will be ‘business as usual' for the existing customers and business partners of MPST. MPST will serve as an outsourcing partner for Swets and will continue to gather and process the usage statistics. Customers will still access and utilize ScholarlyStats through the same portal, www.scholarlystats.com , and the statistics will continue to be reported in the same format. 

http://www.mpstechnologies.com/

MPS Technologies provides a range of technology-driven products and services specifically to support the information industry. Services include BookStore – the eBook platform, ContentStore delivering journal and database content and PublisherStats providing usage statistics analysis for publishers. MPS Technologies is a Macmillan India company, part of the Macmillan group and has offices in London, Boston, New York, Basingstoke, Hamburg and Delhi.

Sheffield University implements RFID-based self service facility in its new £23m Information Commons

2nd October 2007, Birmingham, UK: The University of Sheffield's impressive £23 million state-of-the-art building implements the 3M SelfCheck System, enabling students to fast-check out items without the aid of library staff. The Information Commons staff also benefit, as they can devote more time to supporting students.

The new library accommodates 100,000 volumes of reference and short loan books, 500 PCs, across 7 levels and 7,800 square metres of space. For this innovative learning space, Talis' partnership with 3M via the Talis Additions programme has been the ideal solution, ensuring compatibility between the Talis Library Management System and the 3M devices using the Talis Bridge connecting software.

As the Information Commons is open 24-7, students are able to continue to check-out items through the easy-to-use touch screen interface during the un-staffed hours of the day. The vision for this new building grew out of a joint requirement by the University Library and Corporate Information and Computing Services (CICS) for additional study space on the central campus. The University Library has a total of eight libraries across the campus, meeting the needs of 24,000 students, and providing support for 21st century learning and research.

Martin Lewis, Director of Library Services at The University of Sheffield commented “The Information Commons building represents a huge investment in the student experience by The University of Sheffield. Implementing RFID services there was a logical move for us.” Library Systems Manager Andy Bussey added “We already had extensive experience of working with the Talis LMS and 3M SelfCheck at our other sites, and we were keen to take the opportunity of this superb new building to move to RFID technology.”

Oxford University Goes Live with SFX

Oxford, 3 October 2007: Ex Libris (UK) is pleased to announce that following an extremely rapid implementation process, the Company's award-winning SFX link resolver is now operational at the Oxford University Library Services (OULS). OULS has introduced SFX to manage the university's extremely large e-collection – consisting of over 22,500 e-journals and an extensive collection of e-books.

The Times Higher World University Rankings 2006 ( http://www.thes.co.uk/worldrankings/ ) cites Oxford University as one of the top ten universities worldwide. With the addition of the OULS to the Ex Libris customer community, the Company's solutions are now running at all of the top ten universities in this ranking. OULS has chosen to implement the well established SFX subscription service, in which Ex Libris provides all product hardware, software, and system support and maintenance. The service greatly reduces staff resources that were previously allocated to supporting e-resource management, so now the same library staff can focus on customizing SFX to conform to the unique workflows and look-and-feel guidelines of the OULS.

Alice Keller, Head of Collection Management at the OULS, said: “After making dramatic improvements to the collection of e-journals at Oxford University — both current and back files — during the last three years, it was time to make analogous improvements to the discovery and access tool. I am confident that SFX offers great advantages compared to the previous system. It is encouraging to see that electronic resources are becoming more and more straightforward to use.”

PCG unveils research into renewals trends

http://www.publishingtechnology.com/news/

Publishers Communication Group (PCG), the leading provider of research, sales and marketing services to scholarly and professional publishers, has recently published its latest research report, an analysis of journal renewal trends in the scholarly information sector over the last four years.

Libraries in North and South America, Europe, Africa and Australia were surveyed to harvest data about cancellation decisions taken over the last four years. Over 22,000 lapsed subscriptions are included in these results, representing over 60 different publishers in the STM, Social Sciences, and Humanities. The results have been collated and analysed by PCG's publishing consultants to provide a comprehensive overview of current trends in renewals of journal subscriptions by academic, corporate and medical libraries. Such data is key to scholarly publishers' ability to develop successful sales, marketing, and editorial strategies; the findings of PCG's previous reports Trends in Journal Subscription Renewal and Cancellation 2005-2006 have contributed to improved segmentation and targeting, different pricing models, and adjustments to sales cycles and editorial strategies.

Key findings of the telephone surveys include:

• The shift to e-only subscriptions continues to be a dominant trend for libraries around the world. This year, one in four print subscriptions was cancelled in favour of online access; it is critical for publishers to understand whether this access is via e-only subscription or through a third-party embargoed database.
• The increasing importance of faculty recommendations in librarians' decisions to retain or cancel subscriptions: the rate of subscriptions cancelled following faculty input has grown from 5% four years ago to 10% this year. During the 2006-2007 cycle, it was the third most important factor provided to explain a cancellation.
• Better usage statistics are contributing to more informed collection management, with a steady 20% of librarians noting that most cancellations are based on usage data.
• Renewals campaigns are increasingly essential, with an increasing share of pending subscriptions: this year, 13% of librarians reported that they needed further assistance in order to process their renewal or that a final decision had not been reached yet. Incentives offered by publishers are key to retaining pending subscriptions.