Jerusalem, Israel — May 3, 2021
The four institutions of higher education now benefit from fast, efficient fulfillment of article and book chapter scans as well as from participation in a large, global resource-sharing community
Jerusalem, Israel—May 03, 2021. Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that four prominent Italian universities—the Libera Università di Bolzano (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano), Università degli Studi di Bergamo (University of Bergamo), Università degli Studi di Genova (University of Genoa), and Università degli Studi dell’Insubria (University of Insubria)—recently adopted the Ex Libris RapidILL™ interlibrary loan system to provide users with fast document delivery services. The universities were able to benefit from the free initiative that Ex Libris offered the library community at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. With this acquisition, the universities have become members of the global RapidILL community.
Institutions using RapidILL services not only enjoy greater access to other collections but also increase the visibility of their own holdings. Improving the quality of interlibrary loan services supports the advancement of research and makes teaching more effective, both on campus and remotely.
Special funds granted by the Italian government to help institutions during the pandemic enabled the universities of Bergamo, Insubria, and Genoa to purchase RapidILL although it was not included in their budget.
Insubria’s Head of Library and Documentary Services Alessandra Bezzi commented, “RapidILL meets the ‘Do more with less’ imperative. To enable economies of scale, reduce management burdens, organize workflows more rationally—without duplication or fragmentation—and achieve greater efficiency in providing services to users, we felt it was essential to adopt RapidILL for integration with our library system. Innovation and integration of resources and processes are necessary to continue to ensure quality services.”
Head of Library Services Ennio Ferrante, at the University of Bergamo, explained, “Our commitment to the continuous enhancement of our services led us to choose RapidILL to improve response times, simplify the management of interlibrary transactions through full integration with the Ex Libris Alma® platform, and extend opportunities to find requested content.
“Interlibrary loan requests engage library staff, who often have to integrate the metadata provided by users, identify the library or service to which the request should be sent, and verify the outcome. Using non-integrated platforms and services generates duplication and parallel flows. RapidILL improves the efficiency of our service because it optimizes the choice of a partner, guarantees the fulfillment of requests in reduced time, and gives access to library collections of particular interest.”
Ofer Mosseri, ProQuest and Ex Libris corporate vice president, general manager at EMEA, said, “Ex Libris congratulates the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano and the universities of Bergamo, Genoa, and Insubria for being the first in Italy to acquire the RapidILL interlibrary loan and resource sharing system, which is designed to carry out quick, efficient loan transactions. Seamlessly integrated into existing library workflows, RapidILL services save staff time and increase the accessibility of resources, ultimately enhancing teaching and learning.”
About Università degli Studi di Bergamo
The Università degli Studi di Bergamo is a state university located in Lombardy, in northern Italy. Over 20,000 undergraduate and graduate students are enrolled, studying in seven departments and at a number of research centers.
The university’s library services support all teaching, learning, and research activities. The libraries contain about 300,000 books; subscribe to 1,000 journals; and subscribe to database, e-book, and electronic journal collections in law, mathematics and statistics, business and management, engineering and computer science, linguistics and literature, education, and psychology.
About Università degli Studi dell’Insubria
Università degli Studi dell’Insubria was founded on the 14th of July 1998. It is a public, modern and dynamic university located in Como, Varese and Busto Arsizio.
The university provides teaching and research in the Science, Technology, Medicine and Humanities and Social Science disciplines. It is a “student-centred” university with approximately 11.000 students. University staff includes about 400 faculty members and 320 technical and administrative staff.
The university’s four libraries contain about 125.000 items and subscribes to over 450 journals. Digital library provides access to over 38.000 e-journals, 23.000 e-books and about 100 databases. For more information, visit https://www.uninsubria.it/
About Libera Università di Bolzano
The Free University of Bozen-Bolzano is located in one of the most fascinating European regions, at the crossroads between the German-speaking and Italian economies and cultures. Its trilingualism in teaching and research, its high level of internationalization, and an ideal study environment guaranteed by its excellent facilities are some of the reasons why the university regularly reaches top positions in national and international rankings.
For more information, see our website.
About Università degli Studi di Genova
The University of Genoa (Università degli Studi di Genova, or UNIGE) is one of the oldest large European universities and one of the most renowned multidisciplinary public universities in Italy, with recognized excellence in several scientific and technological domains. More than 33,000 undergraduate and graduate students are taught by more than 1,200 faculty, members and supported by over 1,100 staff members in five schools—Natural Sciences, Medical Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences, and Humanities—at four educational centers (Genoa, Imperia, Savona, and La Spezia). The university’s five libraries deliver services in more than 25 locations and hold over 1,200,000 items, including nearly 400,000 electronic journals and ebooks.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based SaaS solutions that enable institutions and their individual users to create, manage, and share knowledge. In close collaboration with its customers and the broader community, Ex Libris develops innovative solutions that increase library productivity, maximize the impact of research activities, enhance teaching and learning, and drive student mobile engagement. Ex Libris serves over 7,500 customers in 90 countries. For more information, see our website and join us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.
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