2. Jubilee Day
10th Anniversary of NUKAT 20th Anniversary of VTLS in Poland Cooperation of Polish VTLS/Virtua Libraries
4 September 2012
Warsaw 
Jack Bazuzi
Managing Director
VTLS Europe

3. Notes on 20 Years of Cooperation
Then and Now
Notes on 20 Years of Cooperation
 with Polish Libraries

4. VTLS Has Three Core Businesses
Integrated Library Systems
Institutional Digital Repositories
RFID for Libraries

5. About VTLS More than 900 systems worldwide
Serving more than 3000 libraries worldwide
Financially sound, privately held, fast growing

6. About VTLS Over 30 years experience in library automation
ISO 9001 Registered Company
Over 30 years experience in library automation
Strong commitment to libraries
Active in NISO, ALA and IFLA…

7. Corporate Headquarters
Virginia Tech research park
Following VT incubation period
Independent, international, successful…

8. Corporate Offices Blacksburg, Virginia, USA Barcelona, Spain (EMEA)
New Delhi, India
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Melbourne, Australia

9. VTLS International Advantage
Office of International Operations
Local and regional representation
Globalized (not localized) software design
Multi-lingual UI
Multi-script input, display, storage - UNICODE
Close relationship with local operations
Local support
Local training
Frequent visits
Long term partnerships

10. VTLS has lead the industry in many things
MARC based system (1979)
Serials Holdings (1980’s)
Authority Control (late 1980s)
Unicode (1998)
RFID (2001)
FRBR (2003); FRBR SaaS (2009)
Commercial support of Open Source software for libraries:
Institutional Repositories (FEDORA) in 2004
VORTEX (OAH-PMH harvesting) in 2004
VALET for ETD’s (Web-submission) in 2005
Drupal integration (2011)
Consortium Database Architecture and Branding (2007)
VTLS Archival System (2008); Chamo (2009)
VITALMedia
Archive Management

11. Prestigious Virtua Customers
Hong Kong Public Library
Polish academic libraries [30]
Polish Union Catalog [NUKat]
Bibliotheca Alexandrina
Belgian University Collective
Swiss Library Collective [RERO]
All Tunisian University Libraries
Lund, Göteborg & Uppsala Universities
Casablanca Public Library
Queens Public Library

12. National Libraries Swiss National Library National Library of Wales
National Library of Pakistan
National Library of Slovakia
National Library of Azerbaijan
National Library of Malaysia
National Library of India
National Library of Ireland
National Library of Morocco

13. Comprehensive Suite of Products

14. Virtua Profiler 14

15. Language Editor Easy to use facility requiring no programming
Translate strings for multilingual support
Support of many languages simultaneously including right to left languages
Polish, Welsh, CJK, Arabic, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Urdu… 15

16. RDA Sandbox
Special program designed to provide tools by which libraries and librarians can practice creating MARC records following the RDA standard.
Participants have access to a Virtua database with over 250,000 MARC FRBRized linked records.
Participants are also be provided with a specially customized Virtua Cataloging Client that will allow them to create and modify their own RDA records in the shared database.
Open to all libraries worldwide

17. Three items of interest
Archives Management
Chamo
MozGo

18. Archives Management Developed with help of archivists of the NLW
Completely integrated in Virtua
Can also be used separately
ISAD (G) compliant

19. Archives Management Archives cataloguing is different
Archives, unlike printed material, cannot be described in isolation
An archive requires understanding of both its content and its context
Collocation is important [not just location]
Archival arrangement is displayed with multilevel descriptions

20. Material is nested and re-nested
Real links between records, not just display
Up to 26 levels
Similar to FRBR model

21. Tree display

22. 22

23. What is Chamo Discovery?
Discovery tool
Your database
Your repository
External sources
Social OPAC interface
Option to work with Drupal 23

24. Chamo Usher your library into the social media age
Why should my library care about social media
It’s a global phenomena
Social networking is the most popular online activity worldwide, surpassing ing and web searching

25. Chamo Example of features Facet based searching
User lists – basis for many workflows like weeding; binding etc.
User reviews, comments and ratings
Links to Google and other bibliographic enhancements
Relevancy ranking
Search crumbs
User Self Registration
User Updates of Contact Information
Social Tagging

26. Smart phones for smart libraries

27. A Look at VTLS in Poland

28. Polish Libraries in Early1990s
Libraries static edifices
Warehouses
Old buildings
Fragmented libraries
Dedicated and intelligent staff
Wishing to modernize but lacking resources 28

29. Provided incentive and funding
Enter Mellon Program
Provided incentive and funding
“Targeted funding” awarded to cogent proposals
Market economy and choice 29

30. Mellon Program Automated a number of important libraries immediately
More importantly it provided incentive for additional funding and other projects
Spark that lit the flame
Readily accepted with enthusiasm and hard work
Dr. Hollander
Mrs. Ewa Chrzan
Mrs. Ewa Lankosz
Dr. Czerminski

31. Early Challenges Connections to computer networks
Preparation of rules for creating authority files
Construction of authority files
Preparation of unified cataloging rules
Staff training

32. Cooperative Members 1992 Warsaw University Library (BUW)
Jagiellonian Library (BJ)
Gdańsk University Library BGUG)
University of Mining and Metallurgy Library (BGAGH)

33. Began building authority file
Chose USMARC format
Standardization of headings
Names [personal, corporate, uniform and series titles]
Subject [KABA*]
Ensured consistency of data
Ability to search and exchange
*Compatible with LCSH & RAMEAU

34. If you build it, they will come
At first VTLS libraries only
Grew to include others
500 librarians, 27 libraries
Using various software [VTLS, Horizon, Aleph, Prolib
Many participating passively

35. Enter VTLS
During intro to VTLS at Jagiellonian University Library [fall 1991]
First in “Authority Control”
What is that!
Voice of a quiet lady in the back of the room explained
Anna Paluszkiewicz spoke and everyone listened
Ania went on speaking with others listening for a long time
Until she passed away in January 2004 35

36. Enter VTLS
November 1992 Gdansk, Warsaw and Krakow university libraries – first contracts
Training teams came to Poland
Visits to Blacksburg followed 36

37. Enter NUKAT Authority catalog first Bibliographic catalog followed
Ensured quality and purity
Not the largest catalog we work with, but the purist 37

38. Enter NUKAT
It was Ania Paluszkiewicz who insisted on building this strong foundation
Met with some resistance & delay
Had many entries for a single author…
Ania: to keep it as is would cause more problems than no catalog 38

39. Union Catalog 1996 Proposed by Anna Paluszkiewicz
1997 Mellon Foundation indicated interest in creating a “national catalog”
1998 work on NUKAT began
National Library
VTLS Libraries [gang of four]
Horizon Libraries [Łodź, Toruń, and Poznań]
1998 Mellon Foundation awarded grant

40. Union Catalog [2] Happy ending?
Disagreement on use of unified cataloging rules and the use of authority file
Delays, several meetings ensued
Do you want to be happy or do you want to be right?
Compromise: collect data w/o authority control in a separate temporary database

41. Union Catalog [3] 12 primary selection criteria MARC21 format
auth-bib links,
Independent treatment of authority records,
Use of different character sets – ISO6937/2, ALA, UTF8…
Plurality of SH schemas [KABA, BN, MeSH…]
Z39.50 protocol …

42. Union Catalog [4] No commercial system was found Virtua came closest
March 2001Virtua modifications began
2 August 2001 SUN Enterprise 450 arrived
3 August 2001 Virtua testbed installed
May 2002 new Virtua delivered
600 letters exchanged 

47. Happy Ending? Yes Today NUKAT enjoys wide loyalty and many followers
Libraries transformed
No longer bricks and mortar but beautiful buildings with inviting spaces
With finding tools and connections to the world of scholarship

48. Advantages - a reminder…

49. Advantages - a reminder…
Strong local presence
VTLS Inc.
VTLS Europe S.L.
VTLS Americas Ltda.
VTLS Technologies Sdn Bhd
VTLS India
VTLS Australia

50. Advantages - a reminder…
Quality control – ISO9000 compliant:
Smoother library operations
Improved usability
On-time deliveries
Higher customer satisfaction
Improved value
Continual improvement

51. Advantages - a reminder…
Superior design
Completely new generation ILS
True client-server architecture
Clients to optimize productivity
Portals to optimize access
Full utilization of ORACLE
Web services enabled
Data dictionary
Written in C++

52. Advantages - a reminder…
Flexible
Virtua configured in a variety of ways to meet your needs
Easy system management
Personalized web interfaces
Open
Complies with all major standards
Object oriented design provides openness and easy changes
Scalable
Grows to meet your changing needs
Runs 1-2 user systems and was used to benchmark OCLC’s new WorldCAT (>45 million records) 52

53. Advantages - a reminder…
Quick installations
Weeks not months (or years)
Quick upgrades
Days not weeks (months)
Why is “quick” important?
Take immediate advantage of new features
Efficient use of staff time 53

54. Advantages - a reminder…
Partnership approach to solutions
Field testing
Users groups
Discovery tools partners
Delivery tools partners
Operations partners
Development partners

55. Advantages - a reminder…
Multiple product lines
Assures major changes in any one market don’t derail the company
Global approach to information
UNICODE enabled
Multi-lingual, multi-script, bi-directional

56. Advantages - a reminder…
Customer Service is IMPORTANT!
Focus on helping customers
Training programs in place – including training guides
Well documented (electronically searchable manuals)

57. Advantages - a reminder…
Dedicated
30 years in business
26 years private company with same ownership
Long term consistency in management
VTLS is strong and financially sound
Strong R & D program
Not as focused on profit
Can invest as needed to stimulate growth
Here for the long term…