Chicago, Illinois — November 24, 2020
By moving to Rapido and streamlining their resource sharing process, UNC Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library aims to take the patron experience to the next level
Chicago, Illinois—November 24, 2020. Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) has joined the early adopter program of the Ex Libris Rapido™ resource sharing solution.
As a founding member of the Rapido early adopter program, UNC Charlotte’s J. Murrey Atkins Library will help shape the way in which the Rapido solution evolves and interoperates with the library ecosystem. Through its participation in the program, the university will gain an even greater understanding of how to maximize its investments in those systems.
A top priority for Atkins Library is to make the discovery and attainment of resources easier and more transparent for students, staff, and faculty. The modern, cloud-based Rapido solution will achieve this goal by delivering a patron-focused experience, empowering patrons to choose where they will order the resources from—according to availability and delivery time—and to track the requested resources’ delivery. Regardless of whether a patron is requesting an article, the electronic version of a book chapter, or the loan of a physical item, the terms of use and availability will be clear. Knowing the options means that users will make more informed decisions when they request items.
We are excited to contribute to the development of a completely self-service research experience for our population of students and scholars.
Atkins Library is already keenly focused on customer service; the Interlibrary Loan unit has a reputation on campus for providing fast, efficient delivery of interlibrary loan materials. Along with the introduction of the Rapido system, the library is moving many of its monographs and journals to an offsite storage facility. Aware that it may need to shift back and forth between totally online and hybrid services because of the COVID 19 pandemic, the library will rely on Rapido to make the adjustment easier on patrons.
The first release of the Rapido resource sharing solution will be available to early adopters in early 2021.
“We are excited to contribute to the development of a completely self-service research experience for our population of students and scholars,” said Dean Anne Cooper Moore of J. Murrey Atkins Library. “We look forward to sharing UNC Charlotte’s interlibrary loan expertise with Ex Libris to positively influence the development of Rapido and the future of resource sharing.”
“It gives us great pleasure to welcome UNC Charlotte to the Rapido early adopter program, and we are grateful for Atkins Library’s valuable input at this formative stage,” commented Eric Hines, president of Ex Libris North America. “Integrated with the Ex Libris library services platform, the Rapido system will streamline and transform the research process for all library users.”
About J. Murrey Atkins Library
As the intellectual heart of the University of North Carolina (UNC) Charlotte and the greater Charlotte community, J. Murrey Atkins Library advances teaching, learning, research, innovation, academic success, and collaboration for UNC Charlotte and the greater Charlotte community by connecting people with expertise, information, services, technologies, spaces, and experiences. The library offers over 3.8 million volumes, including 1.2 million e-books, over 650 databases, and approximately 222,000 journals, the vast majority of which are available electronically. Atkins Library is the largest academic library in the southern Piedmont and is a member of the Association of Southeastern Research Libraries. For more information about J. Murrey Atkins Library, visit https://library.uncc.edu.
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 creative 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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