Endeavor Announces Voyager Agreements

Information Today, Sept, 2000

Endeavor Information Systems has announced that The Open University (OU) in the U.K. and Patrick Henry College in Virginia will implement its Voyager integrated library management system.

The Open University

According to the announcement, the OU library will use Voyager to supply its 180,000 students, 13 regional offices, and 7,000 associate lecturers with integrated access to its electronic resources as well as to its own and other libraries' catalogs via an easy-to-use Web interface.

The CU educates students in the U.K. and in 43 countries around the world. A nontraditional school, The Open University's average student is 34 years old. The ages of graduates range from 18-94, and the youngest student is 11 years old. Most of OU's 180,000 students complete their courses from home each year. In addition to their studies, about 75 percent of OU students are employed full time.

The Open University was founded in 1969 as a distance-learning institution to provide access to university-level education regardless of the student's location or previous educational background. Originally, Open University's courses were complemented by BBC radio broadcasts. Today, they are more likely lobe accompanied with BBC television programs and are now further supported by multimedia and Internet-based resources and Internet-based conference facilities.

In the last 5 years, the library at The Open University has changed from one used primarily by faculty and course teams to a learning environment that the majority of students will never physically visit, but can easily access from home or from their workplace. Many students begin their studies with a foundation-level course that sometimes includes both a Windows and Internet introduction, and then provides the training material to help them become computer literate.

"We wanted a library and information-management system which would be appropriate to our very diverse user base, many of whom we will never be able to train face-to-face and who may be accessing the system via a wide range of browsers," said Ross Mackenzie, CU Library's systems manager. "The new system had to be straightforward to use, but also allow both simple and sophisticated searches."

"Our primary focus is to give libraries the local automation system they need," said Jane Burke, Endeavor's president and CEO. "The Open University is a unique case where the local system actually needs to be a global system to provide full access and the full library experience to the CU users.

"Open's students have a geographical challenge in visiting their library, so information must be delivered via networks. With Endeavor's commitment of access to information regardless of location or format, Open can offer an entire range of search options from a single access point," said Burke. "Endeavor understands the requirements of successful distance-learning programs. Working with The Open University is beneficial to help us continue to work with distance-learning strategies and to further develop ef-fective features for European libraries."

For more information on the Open University Library, visit http://www.open.ac.uk/library.> Patrick Henry College

Newly founded and scheduled to open this fall, Patrick Henry College is the first school in the U.S. targeted toward home-schooled students.

The library, currently under construction, will open with 15,000 volumes and a large selection of electronic databases to serve the inaugural student base. The college expects 100 students when the semester opens in October, with double that number expected next year.

Patrick Henry College is geared for students who were previously educated in the home, and uniquely implements a classic liberal arts curriculum including studies of the Bible, literature, debate, Latin, Western civilization, and history. Upperclassmen participate in an apprenticeship program in Washington. DC. by completing research on topics being discussed on Capitol Hill and by working with congressional staff members, think tanks, or policy-study centers.

"We were looking for a library system that would be a total information resource system-a flexible, interactive research tool that is as easy for students and professors to use as it is for the library staff," said George "Tad" Mindeman, director of library services at Patrick Henry College. "We wanted a campuswide resource instead of just a library tool. Our students will use these resources outside the classroom in their apprenticeship projects and Voyager gives them more functionality."

Bill Bloom, Patrick Henry's director of technology services, explained that the new campus is entirely wired: The on-campus apprenticeship work areas and the dorm rooms have phone and network plug-ins so students have access to the library's catalog and electronic resources from anywhere on campus at any time.

"Voyager and the client/server model are much more positioned in this industry for where the technology is leading," said Bloom. "The Web interface has been developed well for students to feel comfortable."