Tokyo, November 01, 2010
Fujitsu and Teikyo University today announced the recent launch of a Software as a Service (SaaS)-based library portal site for university students and faculty in Japan, with the aim of implementing a next-generation library that helps build up motivation for study in students and supports the development of further research by faculty.
The new portal site integrates the search sites for the library's catalog of books, e-books, and e-journals—which were previously available separately—and makes it possible to perform comprehensive cross-searches of catalogues and a wide variety of academic resource databases from each of the university's campuses, other universities, nearby libraries, and e-journal publishers, thus improving user-friendliness.
The utilization of Fujitsu's Ufinity academic portal SaaS, which can be quickly deployed without the need to purchase servers and other new system equipment, enabled the system to be built within a short time span of one month.
Background
In recent years, the scope of responsibilities of university libraries is not only limited to managing the library's catalog of books, but has also expanded to taking care of e-books and other academic resources that are scattered around the Internet. As a result, there is an increasing demand for university libraries to coordinate the delivery of all of these academic resources according to the diverse needs of students and faculty.
In May 2010, Teikyo University deployed Fujitsu's iLiswave-J V2 solution package for university libraries, which handles tasks such as catalog management, enabling the university to combine each of the existing library systems for each of its four campuses. In addition, by linking the system with Lib.pro, an e-book borrowing service for libraries provided by iNEO, the university was able to develop a system that can comprehensively search through its catalogues of both books and e-books. In order to further enhance the system's functionality, the university also deployed Fujitsu's SaaS-based Ufinity academic portal cloud service to provide cross-search capabilities with public libraries, the libraries of other universities, as well as databases offered by e-journal publishers.
The new portal site provides a service allowing the university faculty and the entire student body of 20,000, to perform comprehensive literature searches across the catalogs of books, e-books, and e-journals from each of Teikyo University's campuses, as well as those of other universities, public libraries, in addition to databases offered by e-journal publishers. From the search engine screen, users can access detailed information about each result, as well as submit interlibrary loan requests through the library of Teikyo University to other universities or access websites to purchase items over the Internet, should a resource be unavailable at Teikyo University.
By employing Ufinity's community features to allow members of a seminar or laboratory to share information with one another or by structuring massive amounts of academic data on the Internet utilizing the expertise of library staff and providing it in the form of useful information to faculty and students in each academic department, Teikyo University intends to deliver a shared portal to support learning and research.
The portal site leverages the advantages of SaaS and was quickly built in one month without requiring the purchase of servers and other new system equipment. In addition, by utilizing Fujitsu's Tatebayashi IDC Center, which offers robust security, students and faculty can access the website for educational and research purposes from their homes and other places, regardless of what time it is or where they are.
Teikyo University will continue to establish its university library as the core of its academic resources. By improving its services through the portal site and delivering the required information to students and faculty in a timely manner, Teikyo University will aim towards the creation of a next-generation library which helps build motivation for learning and research.
This is the first time that Fujitsu's Ufinity SaaS has been deployed by a university library. Fujitsu will continue to support the operations of Teikyo University's library by expanding the functionality of Ufinity to include services in high demand by university libraries, including library facility management features and a reference function to help search for resources in a Q&A format.
