Information Today
Volume 19, Issue 2 — February 2002
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Yosemite Community College District Selects SIRSI

SIRSI Corp. has announced that the Yosemite Community College District (YCCD), which comprises Modesto Junior College (MJC) and Columbia College in northern California, has selected SIRSI's LINK to provide an easy-to-use, integrated system for its libraries. According to the announcement, the district joins more than 350 other academic and research libraries worldwide that are now using a SIRSI system.

According to Larry Steuben, Columbia College Library's dean of learning resources, and Tobin de Leon Clarke, MJC's interim dean of learning resources, the ability of LINK's iLink Online Scholar's Portal to provide a single online location for all types of electronic resources will benefit both library users and staff.

"The MJC library collection has more than 120,000 items of the YCCD libraries' combined collection of 200,000 items, including nursing and agriculture collections that are not available at the Columbia College Library," Clarke said. "The LINK system will enable us easily to share these resources with Columbia College, yet its flexibility allows both libraries to operate autonomously. In addition, iLink will definitely assist students in MJC's more than 60 online courses and 120 telecourses with finding information resources."

Steuben noted that Columbia College's distance education students will also benefit from iLink. "Our distance education students need much more information than a traditional online catalog can provide," he said. "Students who access the Columbia College Library from remote locations need all the help they can get in choosing appropriate materials for their research projects because they don't have the luxury of coming into the library and physically browsing our collection. By providing book jacket images, tables of contents, and lists of items related to their search subject, iLink enables students to make better selections.

"By expanding off-site access, iLink also enables libraries to make better use of their collections," Steuben said. "Every library invests significantly in building its collection, yet library users often are aware only of a small fraction of available resources. iLink enables a library to centralize all types of resources such as catalog holdings, electronic databases, and Web searching in a single online location, where they are easily visible and accessible to users."

Established in 1964, the YCCD covers approximately 4,000 square miles, encompassing all of Tuolumne and Stanislaus counties and parts of San Joaquin, Merced, Calaveras, and Santa Clara counties in northern California. The YCCD libraries' combined collection of approximately 200,000 items serves MJC's 16,000 students and Columbia College's 4,000 students and is also available to local residents for walk-in use.

Source: SIRSI Corp., Huntsville, AL, 256/704-7000; http://www.sirsi.com.

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