Information Today
Volume 19, Issue 2 — February 2002
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Fretwell-Downing Software Chosen by the California Digital Library

Fretwell-Downing, Inc. has announced that the University of California (UC) libraries will expand their Request interlibrary loan (ILL) service to include new user and staff functions. Scheduled to conclude by the middle of this year, the UC libraries will take this major step forward in campuswide resource sharing through a partnership between the California Digital Library (CDL) and Fretwell-Downing.

"Adding Fretwell-Downing's technology to the University of California's suite of interlibrary loan tools is a great way to share collections among the 10 UC campuses," said Beverlee French, the California Digital Library's interim university librarian. "Now a researcher or student at any campus will easily be able to request materials from any other campus, check the status of the request for print materials, and, where available, receive the items via online desktop delivery."

According to the announcement, the CDL selected Fretwell-Downing's services because it needed a system to provide all the functionality that its current ILL systems offered, plus a complete integration of all ILL work-flow processing.

Another feature created by Fretwell-Downing's software is the ability to let the UC library ILL staff handle growing volumes of loans and concentrate on service enhancements. Also, with the new OpenURL technology, the extended UC ILL services can include materials found in commercially produced article databases licensed by the California Digital Library. The combination of the Request service and OpenURL technology allows UC scholars, students, and staff to initiate a request directly from the commercial database search results screens.

As a digital "co-library" complementing the physical libraries of the University of California system, the CDL is committed not only to digital content, but also to using technology innovations to share library resources among the more than 315,000 members of the university community.

Source: Fretwell-Downing, Inc., Overland Park, KS, 888/649-6542; http://www.fdusa.com.

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