Queen's University
Negotiations for the system were finalized in April 2000, and the Queen's libraries implemented the Voyager 2000.1 software in less than 6 months. The Voyager software purchased by Queen's also includes Endeavor's Citation Server, Media Scheduling and Interlibrary Loan modules, and a Voyager 3M SelfCheck interface.

The Web- and Windows-based Voyager system replaces the NOTIS system that was in use at Queen's University since May 1988. Designed to enhance library service at Queen's University, Voyager offers the flexibility and range of functions that will provide the library with the best opportunity to integrate traditional book collections with expanding electronic resources, according to the announcement.
 

Cambridge University
The University of Cambridge Libraries will employ Voyager to manage over 7 million holdings. Cambridge also selected Endeavor's Universal Catalog for a de-duplicated database of bibliographic records, detailed holdings, and item information from the databases of the local libraries.

"Voyager is a long way ahead of other library systems," said Patricia Killiard, head of information technology services for Cambridge University Library. "I don't think any of the other systems we reviewed has the fully developed client/server architecture that we saw with Endeavor.

"Voyager has a strong system administration client," she said. "With a small system support team, we like to devote as muchtime as possible to supporting individual libraries, so we need a good systems administration module."

According to the announcement, other features in Voyager also outweighed the competition, including the integration of print, manuscript, and electronic materials, which are essential for managing the range of collections in Cambridge's libraries; support for non-MARC standards, including Encoded Archival Data (EAD); and Endeavor's published timetable for Unicode and non-Roman scripts, which is important for handling Cambridge's collections of Far East and Near East materials in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, and Hebrew.

"There are over 100,000 serials titles, including 36,000 titles within the University of Cambridge system, so checking in serials is a major issue. Voyager stood out with very sophisticated functionality in this area," said Killiard.
 

KSU Library
The KSU library will employ ENCompass as the unified user interface for the KSU Digital Library.

Karen Cole, associate dean of libraries for KSU, said: "We were looking for three distinct objectives in a digital collection system: It has to be able to organize, it has to have the capacity to index and display information in a sensible manner, and it has to provide an interface to bring the campus together at a higher level."

Cole explained that other systems did not have the capacity to deal with organization and indexing, and others did not have solutions for integrating local content, while ENCompass met both these needs. The 2001 development of commercial content into ENCompass was also a strong point for the university.

Cole said: "We saw that Endeavor has a strong architecture that complements our goals. Adding commercial content is a big part of our strategy. Endeavor has done more than just partner with Elsevier Science—they've shown that an ILS [integrated library system] vendor and publisher can work together. Endeavor does not have to build bridges with a publisher to make commercial content happen, it's already there. Endeavor and ENCompass are fully poised to allow the further integration of more commercial content past the Elsevier resources, something all libraries can appreciate."

The KSU Digital Libraries Program Task Force of library professionals, faculty, and IT staff only began their search in August 2000, with the goal of a university-wide system, not just a library system, to electronically acquire information, process it, and organize it in a way to make it available to all users, regardless of format. The task force looked for user-customizable collection presentation in a system that could represent a unified interface to the repositories created at KSU.

"The digital library represents the content of the university, who we are and what we're researching, access at all levels, and infrastructure, moving the library out of a silo of IT people and taking agendas forward on behalf of support areas," Cole said.

Source: Endeavor Information Systems, Des Plaines, IL, 800/762-6300, 847/296-2200; http://www.endinfosys.com.