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Horizon Information Management System Success Stories  Serving Users Worldwide at Linda Hall Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology Sharing Resources, Sharing Success Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) Joe Barnhart Bee County Library Making a Difference in Rural America Joe Barnhart Bee County Library , Beeville, TX Improving User Services through Technology The Indianapolis Marion County Public Library (IMCPL)  Serving Users Worldwide at Linda Hall How does your library serve users who never actually visit the library? What if 80 percent of your users were non-residents who accessed your library remotely? That's the challenge facing Kansas City's Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering, and Technology. The Linda Hall Library is a premier science and technology library, the largest privately funded library of its kind in the world. As such, it attracts users from around the world. "The Linda Hall has such a strong collection that we serve people far beyond our region," notes Library President C. Lee Jones. "As a matter of fact, only 20 percent of our use comes from our region. That means that the people who use our library most are coming in electronically and their first look at us is through the Horizon product." First impressions do matter and users and staff like what they see with Horizon. In fact, Horizon is seen as a significant key to their success. "There is a good interface between the product and our interlibrary loan and document delivery systems," observes Jones. Additionally, the open architecture of Horizon helps the library integrate digital files of scientific papers into their catalog. The Horizon Serials Control module has also proven essential to Linda Hall's operation. "We live and die on current information; periodicals are our most important information source," remarks Jones. "The vast majority of our users visiting us electronically come in search of periodical literature." The Horizon Serials Control module helps the library receive, manage, and make that collection readily available to users. To test just how effective Horizon was, a team of consultants recently evaluated Linda Hall's services. "The evaluation included calling clients throughout the United States and in several foreign countries to ask them to rate how easy or difficult it was to find journals and other information through the library's web-based catalog. "Uniformly and without exception," says Jones, "these clients observed that it was quite easy to find information and they described the interface between the catalog and the requesting system as smooth." Need to give access to users outside your area? With Horizon, it's no problem. A strong collection, dedicated services, and the right technology have made the Linda Hall Library a valuable resource for a global community. Sharing Resources, Sharing Success In 1997, the state of Utah developed a plan to revitalize the state's academic library system. The academic needs of the state were far outstripping the ability of the library systems to keep up. The goal was to move Utah to the forefront of library service and technology by creating a common system that would enable all of the member libraries to share resources and information. The key to moving this vision forward was the announcement by the governor of a partnership between the Utah Academic Library Consortium (UALC) and Dynix. The 14 libraries that make up UALC range from small college libraries in rural communities to large academic research libraries. The system serves over 150,000 students with more than 8 million volumes. The principal goal of the partnership was to facilitate resource sharing. After implementing the Horizon system, these libraries have combined their vast information resources and made it easier to access these materials statewide. Horizon has also made it easier to manage periodicals. Periodicals provide libraries with a lifeline to current information. But with limited resources, pricey periodicals are often the first casualties of budget cuts. Thanks to Horizon and the new resource sharing capabilities of UALC, students can find the article they're looking for and have it faxed to their local campus library. Information that took weeks to retrieve now takes two to four days. And UALC libraries no longer need to maintain the same journal titles in different locations. The success of the system has not gone unnoticed. In 2000, Wayne Peay, Director of the Eccles Health Sciences Library at the University of Utah and a driving force in UALC, received national recognition from the American Library Association and the Association of Library Trustees for the success of UALC. Neighboring states are also taking note. The consortium now includes several university libraries in Nevada. But Peay and his team are not through yet. UALC is already taking advantage of the advances in the Horizon system, such as broadcast searching across all the consortium libraries simultaneously to request an interlibrary loan on the spot and seamless integration with EBSCO and Google to search across databases and indexes. "We recognize that students and faculty work hard," says Peay "and we want to make our libraries a kind of refuge for them. Their work is significant and providing these kinds of services and seamless integration is what we're aiming for." Joe Barnhart Bee County Library Making a Difference in Rural America Can an information management system change rural Texas communities for the better? Jo Ann Oliphant, Director of the Joe Barnhart Bee County Library in Beeville, Texas thinks so. The Joe Barnhart Bee County Library is a multi-type consortium serving two public libraries and nine schools across two rural counties. The library is out to prove that small town libraries can deliver world-class services. "Horizon has been an excellent choice for the consortium. One of the reasons we chose to go with Horizon was the ease of letting our users have their own choices, but still maintaining our control. Our libraries don't all have to look alike. Horizon is not a cookie-cutter solution," says Oliphant. "Horizon gives each library the flexibility to have its own policies and yet still maintain a single bibliographic database for resource sharing and efficient acquisitions. When I do authority work at my library, it shows up at the school district library as well, so we do not have to duplicate work." "We are a state-of-the-art library. Working together, our small libraries provide a broad range of high-tech services to our users. Working with Horizon, our digital identification system allows users easy self-checkout. Our users also enjoy being able to search the catalog and place holds from home." "Horizon Home Service helps us serve our users in outlying communities where there isn't public transportation. We can bring books to them that are more tailored to their tastes." What do Bee County users think of these services? Do they make a difference? "I think we are eliminating a divide in Bee County because of all we've been able to do with our system. Horizon has given us a chance to eliminate an economic divide. We've been able to involve many users who were a little scared and a little timid." "Our circulation is up 30 to 40 percent. That's a significant indication that our users use the system. Many of them call in and say they prefer Horizon Telephone Messaging. They prefer the fact that they can place their own holds at home. They enjoy not having to commute into the central library. That helps everyone. Our users walk in and smile. . .and. . .it's hot! Dynix has made us a showplace." Improving User Services through Technology The Indianapolis Marion County Public Library (IMCPL) is a busy place. Serving over a million people through its 23 branches, the library has 750,000 titles and annual circulation of 10 million. In addition, the library processes about 30,000 holds a year. Keeping pace using their old mainframe system was becoming impossible. "We wanted to get away from the old mainframe system," says Debra Champ, Technology and Information Services Area Director. "We needed a system with more shelf life and a client/server architecture." Despite the library's need for newer technology, the main concern was functionality. They needed a system that could handle their large circulation demands and one that could efficiently process their volume of hold requests. After a two-year search, IMCPL chose Horizon from Dynix. "Horizon could handle our core functions," says Champ. "Circulation and holds functionality in Horizon is excellent." Also cited as primary reasons for choosing Horizon were its open architecture and the ability to customize the product through the SQL back end. "We evaluated various systems against a long line of criteria—the ability to create an Internet library being one of the biggest," says Ed Szynaka, Library Director. "Horizon met our need for a flexible, open system. The staff at Dynix understood our needs as a public library with a huge circulation and they are committed to meeting our needs in the future." Thanks to Horizon, efficiency at the library has increased dramatically. "We're now able to process books in about three weeks," says Champ. Before Horizon, the process took nearly six months. Horizon Information Portal has also been a boost to efficiency. "Horizon Information Portal has been a big improvement," Champ continues. "Searches are much faster and we can customize the look and feel to match our web page without compromising the core product." However, the biggest advantage of switching to Horizon, according to Champ, has been the improvement of user services. "The user services in Horizon are phenomenal," says Champ. By allowing users to do things themselves, both at home and at the library, lines at the circulation desk have been reduced and many other improvements have been made. "Users can make online renewals, place holds and even personalize their environment," says Champ. "The only time they have to come into the library is to pick up or return a book." |
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