NEWS

Wageningen University and Research Center and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Select Primo and Primo Central Index

Rich functionality and seamless access to scholarly electronic content
make Primo the natural choice for Dutch academic libraries

Ex Libris® Group, a world leader in the provision of library automation solutions, is pleased to announce that Wageningen University and Research Center (Wageningen UR) and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) have selected the Primo® discovery and delivery solution, together with the Primo Central Index of scholarly e-content. Both institutions opted for the Primo Direct deployment package.  

The Primo platform offers users a complete discovery experience by providing access to all the library’s information resources and meeting users’ every research need. As a cloud-based solution, Primo Direct spares libraries the tasks of implementation and ongoing maintenance while enabling staff to further configure and customize the system through the Primo administrative interface.  

At VU Amsterdam, Primo will provide a single interface to the library’s Vubis Smart library system along with the library’s wealth of electronic resources. “We are looking forward to making Primo available to our users as a seamless interface to all our collections,” commented Mrs. José Frijns, library director at the University Library of VU Amsterdam. “Following a thorough evaluation of discovery systems, we found that Primo offers the maximum flexibility and capabilities for customized usage. Having used the SFX® OpenURL link resolver and the MetaLib® metasearch system for several years, we have found Ex Libris to be consistently responsive and attentive to our requirements, and we look forward to receiving the same standard of care with our Primo implementation.”  

Mr. Ger Spikman, library director at Wageningen UR, explained that the availability of the Primo Central Index was a major factor in the university’s decision. “Although our team is technically very competent, having developed a homegrown integrated library system and digital repository, we needed a comprehensive, external index of electronic content to enable our users to access our subscription-based resources. In addition, Primo integrates seamlessly with our SFX and MetaLib systems, and recommendations from the bX article recommender service are displayed along with the Primo search results.”  

“Primo’s openness and flexibility allow us to customize many aspects of the system, such as the user interface and the degree of visibility of our local collection when it is searched alongside the global content covered by Primo Central,” added Mr. Spikman. “Together these capabilities enable us to fine-tune the solution to meet our users’ unique needs.”  

“I am delighted to welcome VU Amsterdam and Wageningen UR—major Dutch educational institutions—to the expanding European Primo community,” noted Ullrich Jüngling, vice president of sales for Central and East Europe. “Primo’s ability to integrate with Ex Libris and third-party library systems, such as Vubis at VU Amsterdam and LBS at the University of Twente, was central to these institutions’ decision to adopt the Primo solution.”  

About Wageningen UR
A staff of 6,500 and 10,000 students from over 100 countries are gathered at Wageningen UR to study and research healthy food and living environments for governments and the business community at large. The strength of Wageningen UR lies in its ability to bring together the forces of two specialized research institutes—Wageningen University and Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences. It also lies in the combined efforts of scholars in the various fields of natural and social sciences. This union of expertise leads to scientific breakthroughs that can quickly be put into practice and incorporated into education.  

About VU Amsterdam
Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, has been a renowned cultural, scientific, and commercial center for many centuries. It was here, in 1880, that VU University Amsterdam was established by orthodox Protestants. VU stands for Vrije Universiteit, which means Free University, referring to freedom from state and church interference. Nowadays VU Amsterdam aims to be inspiring, innovative, and involved. Throughout the past century, the university has continued to expand. It now comprises twelve faculties and has teaching facilities for 26,000 students.  

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