The University of Ottawa has announced that the University of Ottawa Library, North America's premier bilingual university, has selected the Endeca Information Access Platform (IAP) to serve as the foundation for a new resource-discovery system. The system will support an enhanced user experience across a broad range of information resources.
The Endeca Information Access Platform, built around a new class of access-optimised database, powers applications that combine the ease of searching and browsing with the analytical power of business intelligence. The University of Ottawa Library will be the first bilingual (French/English) Endeca powered library interface in North America. The new application will take advantage of a range of information access features, including search, Guided Navigation and Content Spotlighting capabilities and more, to facilitate the discovery of resources from the Library's 4,500,000 items in its holdings in Arts and Sciences, Law and Health Sciences, catalogue, website, Institutional Repository and various other collections and databases. As a result, it will draw together into a single framework a vast array of information that supports the research, teaching, and learning activities of the university.
The University of Ottawa Library consists of an Arts & Sciences Library, and two major libraries - Law and Health Sciences. Specialised collections and services exist for management, media, maps and archives. The collections include print, e-books, journal subscriptions, e-journals, databases, government publications, microforms, map materials, audiovisual items, slides, music items, manuscripts and archives. The project, slated to begin in September 2008, is claimed to be one of the most extensive Endeca projects of its kind in the library space to date.
