| SIRSI Corp. has announced that the Yosemite Community
College District (YCCD), which comprises Modesto Junior College (MJC) and
Columbia College in northern California, has selected SIRSI's LINK to provide
an easy-to-use, integrated system for its libraries. According to the announcement,
the district joins more than 350 other academic and research libraries
worldwide that are now using a SIRSI system.
According to Larry Steuben, Columbia College Library's
dean of learning resources, and Tobin de Leon Clarke, MJC's interim dean
of learning resources, the ability of LINK's iLink Online Scholar's Portal
to provide a single online location for all types of electronic resources
will benefit both library users and staff.
"The MJC library collection has more than 120,000
items of the YCCD libraries' combined collection of 200,000 items, including
nursing and agriculture collections that are not available at the Columbia
College Library," Clarke said. "The LINK system will enable us easily to
share these resources with Columbia College, yet its flexibility allows
both libraries to operate autonomously. In addition, iLink will definitely
assist students in MJC's more than 60 online courses and 120 telecourses
with finding information resources."
Steuben noted that Columbia College's distance
education students will also benefit from iLink. "Our distance education
students need much more information than a traditional online catalog can
provide," he said. "Students who access the Columbia College Library from
remote locations need all the help they can get in choosing appropriate
materials for their research projects because they don't have the luxury
of coming into the library and physically browsing our collection. By providing
book jacket images, tables of contents, and lists of items related to their
search subject, iLink enables students to make better selections.
"By expanding off-site access, iLink also enables
libraries to make better use of their collections," Steuben said. "Every
library invests significantly in building its collection, yet library users
often are aware only of a small fraction of available resources. iLink
enables a library to centralize all types of resources such as catalog
holdings, electronic databases, and Web searching in a single online location,
where they are easily visible and accessible to users."
Established in 1964, the YCCD covers approximately
4,000 square miles, encompassing all of Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties
and parts of San Joaquin, Merced, Calaveras, and Santa Clara counties in
northern California. The YCCD libraries' combined collection of approximately
200,000 items serves MJC's 16,000 students and Columbia College's 4,000
students and is also available to local residents for walk-in use.
Source: SIRSI Corp., Huntsville, AL, 256/704-7000;
http://www.sirsi.com. |
