University of Pretoria chooses WorldShare Management Services for its library

Johannesburg, 11 Sep 2015

Being one of South Africa's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher education, the University of Pretoria provides a refreshing mix of academic tradition and progressive vision. The latter is brought to life by means of world-class research that results in positive, tangible contributions to both local and global communities.

It is this vision which brought on a need for a new generation, library management system. After closely evaluating the different options available in South Africa and globally, the decision was made to award a tender to Sabinet for OCLC's WorldShare Management Services (WMS) in the university's libraries.

Fact sheet

Solution: WorldShare Management Services

Industry: Education

Provider: Sabinet Online

User: University of Pretoria

The library of the University of Pretoria is regarded as one of the best university libraries in South Africa. It provides a comprehensive information service for the university's approximately 39 000 undergraduate students, 25 000 postgraduates and 4 000 full time staff members.

The library focuses on supporting the learning needs of clients in the learning centre and providing customised research support via faculty libraries in order to facilitate information and knowledge solutions to the university's core business.

WMS offers libraries cost savings, workflow efficiencies and the ability to deliver new value to users. Many libraries today are looking at ways to change the way they operate and save time and money.

"The library strives to be the leader in the provision of solutions for information and knowledge challenges to academic excellence. We were looking for a new generation system that will support the strategy of the university and that will provide seamless access to all the content that the library makes available while streamlining internal processes and procedures," said Robert Moropa, Director: Department of Library Services, University of Pretoria.

WMS provides cloud-based library management and discovery applications in an integrated suite, offering librarians a comprehensive and cost-effective way to manage library workflows efficiently and improve end-users' access to library collections and services. The applications include acquisitions, circulation, licence management, metadata management, interlibrary loan, analytics and discovery.

"We are proud to be the sub-Saharan distributor of OCLC products and services. This partnership enables us to provide world-class products and services to institutions to assist them in providing seamless access to all the content they make available to their users, while streamlining internal processes and procedures," Rosalind Hattingh, Managing Director of Sabinet, commented.

WMS has the WorldCat database as its foundation. This co-operatively created database containing millions of items in all formats allows libraries to benefit from other libraries' efforts and to discover and share resources internationally. WMS further facilitates the sharing of data such as vendor records, publisher and knowledge base data, serials patterns and more, through a shared platform.

These are the benefits WMS will have for you and your library:

* Streamline and improve workflows;
* Realise significant cost savings;
* Manage print and electronic resources efficiently;
* Improve discovery for your users and visibility for your library; and
* Support and implementation are carried out locally.

More about WorldShare Management Services can be found on the OCLC Web site.

OCLC

Founded in 1967, OCLC is a non-profit, membership, computer library service and research organisation dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world's information and reducing library costs. More than 74 000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalogue, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world's largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat.org on the Web. For more information, visit the OCLC Web site.

Sabinet

With a sound performance history of over 30 years, Sabinet has firmly established itself as a leader in facilitating access to a wide spectrum of high-quality and credible information sources. Over the course of the last three decades, Sabinet has built a strong local and international reputation for providing Africa's information to the world and the world's information to Africa.

Sabinet's mission to support libraries' technical processes, promote resource sharing and enable access to information sources is underpinned by its dedication to the values of commitment, partnerships, understanding and support.

Sabinet's roots are in library support services, where it is recognised for providing central platforms for collaboration and resource sharing among libraries.

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