Cooperation with Aleph Poland
We want our users to experience their library as a provider of innovative services and attractive e-resources, with fully transparent implementation of our management and organizational tools. We always advise our customers to adapt third-party systems to the operations of their own library, and to design simple, straightforward user interfaces.
These were the guiding principles when we set up the Primo search engine, SFX link resolver and Hidden Automatic Navigator (HAN) at the library at Warminsko Mazurski University in Olsztyn, Poland.
Primo
Primo helps users search the library's entire collection of resources, both print and digital — including those contained in online subscription databases
The input field for the search function is on the library's internet home page, which makes it easy for any library user to get started.
Primo replaces the entire online catalog at Aleph. Placing orders, checking late-return fines, even extending due dates can now be handled directly in the browser.
And that's not all: Primo also provides array of completely new functionalities. Users can scroll through an inventory of books and other printed matter listed in the same order in which the materials are found on the shelves; export metadata into the bibliographic management system, and set up a state-of-the-art e-bookshelf to organize both physical and electronic library resources. All of these features are provided specifically to lighten the user's workload.
„Aleph and Primo complement one another perfectly, to meet all the needs of users and librarians alike.”
SFX
SFX is almost completely transparent — users generally don't even notice that the system providing access to full texts is a separate tool.
If the requested full text is available through a number of different links, the SFX window embedded in Primo lets users choose the desired source. What’s more, SFX provides user access to various other services, such as article summaries, quotations, and more – without requiring any new user login.
Detailed statistics are also compiled, to help librarians optimize digital resource purchasing and subscriptions.
„I am hoping that the simultaneous implementation of HAN and SFX will give us considerable support in choosing subscription online databases and full-text journals. This will help us streamline our purchases of digital resources which are not available under national licensing.”
HAN
One of the many tasks performed by our Hidden Automatic Navigator (HAN) software is the provision of online access to electronic full-text resources even to users who are not physically on campus.
Thanks to the integration of the two systems - HAN and Primo - users who are logged in on Primo are also logged in on HAN at the same time. This means the external user gains access to the full texts without having to log in repeatedly.
The login window, like all the other user interfaces, has been completely adapted to the layout of the library’s browser pages. Thanks to the friendly support from H+H Software GmbH, makers of the HAN software, the customization process was quick and trouble-free.
„Ever since we started using HAN at our library, our users no longer have to enter a lot of different passwords to access the various digital resources.
Our HAN system gives the library a multipurpose tool for regulating access to electronic resources, maintaining compliance with software licensing agreements, and managing all the different kinds of user permissions.”