UB is one of the first SUNY institutions to take advantage of the SUNYConnect opportunity, a groundbreaking initiative to link all of the libraries in the 64-campus system, creating the largest library collection of any public university in the world.

Benefits of the linkage will include a common management system for all SUNY libraries, as well as improved services for SUNY's 373,000 students.

A joint initiative of the SUNY Provost's Office of Library and Information Services and the libraries in the system, SUNYConnect will integrate the newest technology-based library and information systems with more traditional library resources to provide an extensive, up-to-date teaching-and-learning environment-creating a virtual library for SUNY.

UB will be among the first SUNY institutions to install the ALEPH 500TM library management software from Ex Libris (USA), the first step in implementing SUNYConnect.

Other campuses that are part of the first wave of SUNYConnect are Stony Brook, Binghamton, Fredonia, Oswego and Tompkins-Cortland Community College.

Barbara von Wahlde, associate vice president for university libraries, called UB's participation in SUNYConnect "a great opportunity."

"We're really delighted to be participating in SUNYConnect," she said. "This has been a long time coming for statewide SUNY services. A few years ago, we ourselves looked for a new library management system, but when we learned that this was in the works, decided that this is what we needed. This is great for us."

Once installed, the ALEPH 500 software will provide the institutions with:

° A common circulation system, enabling students to access and borrow materials directly from any SUNY library

° A union catalog of library materials, allowing for searches of all SUNY library collections totaling more than 18 million volumes

° A World Wide Web gateway integrating access to many essential library resources

° Cost efficiencies made possible by a common library management system.

ALEPH 500 should be operational at some campuses by June 2001. All campuses should have the system installed by 2004.

Once in place, the system will allow a student at one SUNY campus to initiate a borrowing request from a library on another SUNY campus and receive the book within two days.

"SUNYConnect will integrate the newest technology-based library and information system with more traditional library resources," said Chancellor Robert L. King. "With SUNYConnect, students throughout the State University-from the smallest colleges to the largest research universities-will have access to the entire State University library collection around the clock."

The ALEPH 500 computer system also will organize and highlight journals and data available from online sources provided through the SUNY Office of Library and Information Services. SUNYConnect will identify other resources from the World Wide Web and will catalog and provide access to hundreds of online journals now available at SUNY libraries.

There are many advantages to participating in SUNYConnect, von Wahlde noted, but among the most attractive are sharing a management system with other SUNY institutions.

In addition, she said, "Regional storage is a priority in Western New York, so the fact that it's part of the project is appealing to us."

Potential future applications also hold a great deal of appeal, she said. "The City University of New York system also is buying same system, so New York State will be saturated with one very effective library system. This could lead to collaboration between SUNY and CUNY in the future, which would allow us to do more for New York State students and residents."

Judith Adams-Volpe, director of Lockwood Library, noted that many electronic products, such as databases and full-text resources, that UB presently offers on the Libraries' Web site now will be funded through SUNYConnect via a SUNY-wide license. Among them are the Associated Press Photo Archive; an expanded academic index of journal articles, many of them full-text, and the Gale Literature Resource Center offering full-text author information and literary criticism.

"Linking our libraries with this new computer-management system will give our students and faculty access to more books and periodicals than those housed at the best libraries in the country," said Peter D. Salins, SUNY provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs.

"SUNYConnect will enhance academic excellence by bringing the tremendous resources of all the State University's libraries to our 373,000 students."

In addition to installation of the ALEPH System, other projected features of SUNYConnect include a comprehensive collection of full-text, full-image and multimedia digital publications and services that will be available at anytime and from anywhere, a Web-based, information-literacy course, and shared regional storage and preservation facilities that will ease space pressures in individual libraries, allowing SUNY to avoid-or postpone in many cases-the costs of new or expanded local library facilities.

The Ex Libris ALEPH system is being used by 3 million users at 530 sites in 41 countries. Systems similar to the one being installed within SUNY exist in Ohio as OhioLink and as the Galileo system in Georgia. Ex Libris is a multi-national company with offices and customers located around the world.