IntraLibrary Connect | 04/09/2007

Intrallect is pleased to announce the launch of intraLibrary Connect - a web services suite that allows digital resources stored in intraLibrary to be more easily discovered and used in a wide range of e-learning tools including Learning Management Systems (VLE/LMS), newsreaders, content authoring tools, blogs, forums, portals and even simple web browsers.

The move marks the company’s most recent demonstration of its independent approach to developing intraLibrary in such a way that allows customers to maximize the investment they have already made in other e-learning technologies.

Charles Duncan, CEO of Intrallect explains, “Providing integration and interoperability between intraLibrary and other key e-learning tools is a key part of our strategy. IntraLibrary Connect is borne out of a recognition that our customers will always have their own preferences for how they discover and share digital learning resources, selecting the tools that most closely meet their individual needs. For us the challenge is to make the process of integrating intraLibrary with these tools as simple as possible”.

The recent explosion in the creation and use of digital resources has been accompanied by an equally dramatic rise in the technologies now available to manage and use them. Whilst intraLibrary solves the problem of where to store the resources, intraLibrary Connect makes it possible to access them in a wide range of user environments.

Using innovative implementations of standards-based interfaces including SRU/SRW, OAI-PMH, RSS and the ATOM publishing protocol, intraLibrary Connect helps customers:

• inform – stay informed as intraLibrary feeds personalised resource searches or domain interests to their web browsers or news readers, with the added ability to use tools like Yahoo pipes to combine and filter information and present it in new ways, such as in iTunes

• discover - use search portals to include intraLibrary resources in searches or just to add search capability onto their own web pages or browser

• gather - through bulk harvesting of resource metadata from intraLibrary into library catalogues, information aggregators and web-based catalogues

• store - publish resources directly to intraLibrary from a range of digital creation tools

Intrallect is committed to developing intraLibrary Connect in conjunction with its customers. Charles Duncan adds “the real benefit of intraLibrary Connect is the power it places in the hands of our customers to implement intraLibrary in a way that suits them and their institutional infrastructure. Typically we find that they are just as enthusiastic and active as we are in terms of finding new and innovative ways to maximize the significant investment they make in their digital resource portfolios”.

Intrallect is showcasing intraLibrary Connect at the ALT-C exhibition in Nottingham between the 4th and 6th of September.

Note –The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) is the leading UK body bringing together practitioners, researchers, and policy makers in learning technology. Learning technologists are people who are actively involved in managing, researching, supporting or enabling learning with the use of learning technology. ALT is a Registered Charity in the UK, number: 1063519. For further information about ALT, see: www.alt.ac.uk/