24 libraries have now signed-up to Axiell Arena, Axiell’s new innovative web-based public interface. Libraries across Sweden, Denmark and Finland are now using Axiell Arena with UK customers hot on their heels. These libraries can offer their customers a new website where the traditional library catalogue is fully integrated into the library 2.0 concept, offering new forms of online interaction, through fostering and creating new citizen interfaces, discussion groups and online activities to complement face-to-face activity. Axiell (formerly DS) is the market leader in UK public libraries and archives and part of the Axiell Library Group AB.
With the Axiell Arena toolbox the libraries can define how their library portal will look and what functions will be available. The product is built on Open Source software, which offers libraries the flexibility to add new services and to integrate with other media.
At Denmark’s Vordingborg Library, Jettle Mehlsen says, “Axiell Arena is a whole new way of looking at the library. This new library portal gives the library staff a chance to get even closer to the end-users. The portal is a means for knowledge sharing and mutual inspiration for end-users as well as for the staff at the libraries, who can now monitor user comments and interests.”
Marie Stenäng, IT librarian and project leader at Sweden’s Lerum Library says, “This is library 2.0. Besides the smart, comprehensive interface, our borrowers are given completely new possibilities for guidance and inspiration from other users, for example for new reading experiences and useful knowledge. All the libraries that use Axiell Arena will be linked to the same database with reviews, search words and ratings. If for instance I am interested in a certain book or film, then I can get a quick review or tip on similar titles or films from other readers in Sweden.”
Axiell Arena has been developed to complement Axiell’s OpenGalaxy library management solution.
