Infor Library and Information Solutions

Infor Announces First UK Sale of Medialab's My Discoveries™ Solution

Bristol, UK, January 14, 2008. Infor, the exclusive distributor of Medialab’s AquaBrowser Library in Great Britain and Republic of Ireland, today announced that Croydon College has chosen Medialab’s My Discoveries™ solution to further enhance the library’s offerings to its users. Croydon College is the first library in the UK to have ordered My Discoveries™ the new Social Library Experience delivered by Medialab Solutions’ AquaBrowser™.

My Discoveries™ gives the user space to contribute their own knowledge and opinions on library materials and services.  By reviewing, tagging and networking, the user takes an active role in the catalogue - an experience beneficial for the user and the library.  Everyone in the community can contribute and share their knowledge through AquaBrowser™.

"We are delighted that Croydon College has chosen MyDiscoveries," said Steve Barker, General Manager Infor Library Division in the UK. "MyDiscoveries works seamlessly with third-party applications, such as Infor’s Vubis Smart as well as other integrated library systems and Web OPACs. With MyDiscoveries, Croydon library users can share information, ideas and thoughts and enjoy a truly enhanced user experience. This addition to their existing Vubis Smart, AquaBrowser and V-spaces implementations, brings further Web 2.0 type solutions to their users. "

Croydon College has experienced an astonishing 472% increase in online usage of the library service in the 2006-2007 academic year following its adoption of AquaBrowser™, the leading faceted search platform for libraries around the world.  Early indications suggest a further increase will take place again this year.

"Working with Infor, Bowker and Medialab, we have been able to revolutionize the level of service that we can offer to our library users," said Thomas Butler, library operations manager for the Croydon College Library.  "Our experience of using AquaBrowser™ - and, more importantly, our users’ experience - has been excellent, with students and staff finding the system very easy to use and navigate."

To give the library a great jump start, My Discoveries™ will be pre-populated with LibraryThing™ tags and ratings.  LibraryThing’s™ rich data includes more than 17 million tags and 2 million ratings on over 13 million books.  AquaBrowser™ makes the most of this rich data because it is the only library search solution of its kind that fully integrates user tags into the search, the discovery and the refine elements.

About AquaBrowser

AquaBrowser’s™ mission is to help the library play a central role in the provision and safeguarding of knowledge.  AquaBrowser™ Library, the world leader in visual faceted searching, helps the library take centre stage by opening up all of its resources to the community.  My Discoveries™ was created to take the next step: to give a role and a voice to the community, and to connect the people who create, organise and use the library’s resources, inside and outside the library.

About Infor Library and Information Solutions

Infor Library and Information Solutions offers libraries and information centers a suite of automation products, including an information portal and federated search application (V-spaces), an Open URL solution (V-link), and Integrated Library System (Vubis Smart), and an Electronic Resources Management System (V-sources).  Our organization has been at the forefront of library technology for three decades and has a rich history of providing innovative solutions to information centers and libraries worldwide.  For more information about our products, visit www.vubis-smart.com