Libraries honored for innovation

BOWLING GREEN, O.—Innovative Interfaces Inc. has named Bowling Green State University Libraries a winner of a Be Innovative! Award for the libraries' use of a product from the Emeryville, Calif.-based company.

Among dozens of entries worldwide, BGSU placed second in the Most Innovative Use of e-Resource Products category—and won $500 in the process—for its implementation of an Electronic Resource Management system.

The system was developed to display and control access to research databases, said Kelly Broughton, co-interim dean of University Libraries and associate dean for assessment and technology.

The award has resulted from BGSU's implementation of the system from both public use and technical control standpoints, Broughton noted. For example, she said, the technology gives researchers at BGSU multiple ways to find databases, whether by title, subject or alphabetical listings. Previously, this access was accomplished by labor-intensive hand-coding in the html language.

Also, University Libraries are among the first to use the system to publicly display licensing information, such as authorized users and permitted uses, she said.

Leading the implementation were Mark Strang, data systems manager for Library Information Technology Services, and former staff member Christine Reineck. In May, Strang will present BGSU's award-winning use of the system at the Innovative Users Group annual conference in San Jose, Calif. The group is an international organization of member libraries that use Innovative Interfaces' integrated library software.

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(Posted May 02, 2007)