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New York, N.Y. - November 16, 2007 - The Croydon College Library in Croydon, U.K. has experienced an astonishing 472% increase in online usage of the library service in the 2006-2007 academic year and early indications suggest a further increase will take place again this year.
The staggering growth started in the Autumn 2006 academic term, and continued through the Spring and Summer periods, following the library’s adoption of AquaBrowser, the leading visual faceted search platform for libraries around the world. AquaBrowser was created by Medialab Solutions, an Amsterdam-based company that was acquired by Bowker earlier this year.
“Working with Bowker and Medialab, we have been able to revolutionize the level of service that we can offer to our library users,” said Thomas Butler, library operations manager for the Croydon College Library. “Our experience of using AquaBrowser -- and, more importantly, our users’ experience -- has been excellent, with students and staff finding the system very easy to use and navigate.”
According to Butler, Croydon is currently working with Medialab on a variety of Web 2.0 offerings that will further enhance their online services and create an even more personalized user experience for library patrons.
“We are delighted to partner with the Croydon College Library and are gratified that the implementation of our visual AquaBrowser search and discovery experience has resulted in such a substantial boost in the volume of usage of the library’s services,” said Bastiaan Zwaan, CEO of Medialab. “We look forward to working closely with Croydon’s staff in the coming months as we introduce some exciting new features and functionality to the AquaBrowser platform, such as the integration of Bowker’s Syndetics ICE, a powerful tool to search all Syndetics content on a library’s online catalogs.”
About Medialab Solutions & Aquabrowser
AquaBrowser
is the world leader in visual faceted search that connects to any number
of data sources. Its creators at Medialab Solutions, a Bowker company,
focus all efforts toward creating successful searching solutions with
invigorating passion to maintain all libraries as superior sources
of information and knowledge. AquaBrowser can be found in libraries
around the world, including over 130 library systems in the USA,
libraries in the UK, Germany, Belgium, Spain and Italy and 80% of
all public libraries the Netherlands. Today, nearly 2,000 library
locations are serving over 60 million citizens worldwide with the
visual AquaBrowser search and discovery experience. For more
information about the company or to contact us, access
www.aquabrowser.com. About Bowker
Bowker is
the world's leading source for bibliographic information.
The company provides searching, analytical, promotional, and
ordering services to publishers, booksellers, libraries, and
patrons through national and international brands, including: Books
In Print®, Global Books In Print®, Syndetic Solutions™,
Pubnet®, PubEasy®, PubTrack™, AquaBrowser®, and more. In the U.S.,
Australia and Puerto Rico, Bowker is also the exclusive ISBN and
SAN Agency and a DOI registration agency for the publishing
industry. Bowker is headquartered in New Providence, New Jersey,
with operations in East Grinstead, England, and Port Melbourne,
Australia. For more company details, please visit
www.Bowker.com.
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