Ex Libris and EBSCO complete 'streamlining' agreement

Ex Libris Group and EBSCO Information Services have announced an agreement to streamline libraries’ acquisition processes and optimise the experience of library patrons who are using Ex Libris solutions to access full-text content hosted on the EBSCOhost platform. The two companies have committed to expanding their collaboration to other areas as well.

According to the agreement, all print and electronic book and journal orders placed via an EBSCO online collection-development or ordering system will be automatically updated in the Ex Libris Alma library management service through EBSCO’s use of the Alma Real Time Acquisition application programming interface (API).

This first phase of the integration will streamline and further automate the acquisition process for libraries. In addition, EBSCO is making its proprietary linking technology available to Ex Libris to improve the accuracy of links from Ex Libris solutions to full text articles hosted on the EBSCOhost platform.
 
'I am excited about this agreement, which will benefit the many mutual customers of Ex Libris and EBSCO,' said Shlomi Kringel, corporate vice president for discovery and delivery solutions at Ex Libris. 'The importance of openness and the free exchange of data and services through APIs cannot be underestimated. A central element in our solutions’ strategy is the offer of truly open interfaces that enable collaborations such as this as a mean to deliver advanced services to our customers. I sincerely hope that this first step will lead to further collaboration between the two companies down the road.'
 
EBSCO’s executive vice president of product management and customer satisfaction, Stratton Lloyd, added: 'EBSCO is committed to partnerships that benefit our customers – we have more than 30 ILS Partnerships. We see system openness, cooperation and customer choice as critical for the library community. This is in line with the goals of building services and creating partnerships that allow libraries to choose and design the best custom solution for their organisation.

'We look at this partnership and the use of APIs as a starting point and step toward the two companies together creating greater customer choice through additional collaboration and system interoperability. In the end, vendor partnerships like this open the doors for libraries to take a best-of-breed approach in developing their services infrastructure.'