A major step
for both parties, this agreement signals the growing
recognition of the ALEPH system in the People's Republic of
China and will constitute the second Chinese installation,
after Beijing Normal University. A key factor in NLC's
selection of ALEPH was the system's compliance with the
Chinese market's special script-related needs in the areas of
indexing, word
ordering, and English transliteration.
The NLC, one of the most important
libraries in Asia, is the fifth largest library in the world,
after the Library of Congress, the Russian State Library (also
an ALEPH site), and the national libraries of the United
Kingdom and France.
 Standardisation, digitization, and
networking
Formerly known as the Beijing
Library, the NLC was established in 1906. It is a
comprehensive research library and national repository of
publications. The NLC also plays a leading role in the
standardisation, digitization, and networking of the library
communities in China. Spanning a floor space of 170,000 square
meters, the library offers a collection of well over 22
million volumes, of which 1.6 million are ancient monographs
and another 270,000 are rare books. In addition, it houses a
unique historic treasure of 35,000 scripted turtle shells and
animal bones. Open to the public every day of the year, with
online services available 24 hours a day, the library lays
claim to the largest collection of Chinese books in the world,
and of foreign-language materials in the country.
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In her address during the signing
ceremony, Professor Sun Beixin, Deputy Director of the NLC and
Vice President of the China Society for Library Science,
commented, "We decided, after evaluating the available library
systems thoroughly and weighing all the important technical
and commercial elements, that ALEPH 500 will best meet our
requirements. We are also fully confident that Ex Libris will
be a good, reliable partner for the NLC and will help us equip
this institution for the twenty-first century. Our choice is
very significant not only for the NLC and other libraries in
China but also for other libraries in the world that deal with
Chinese-language materials."
Ex Libris is a leading world wide
developer of high-performance applications for libraries,
information centres, and researchers. A multinational company,
Ex Libris has offices around the world. ALEPH, the Ex Libris
integrated library solution, has been installed at over 600
sites in 44 countries. Other Ex Libris software products
include MetaLib, an information portal for library collections
that provides libraries, institutions, and consortia with a
standardised user interface; SFX, a context-sensitive
reference linking solution for heterogeneous electronic
resources in the scholarly information environment; and
DigiTool, a solution for constructing digital collections as
components of an overall digital
strategy.
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