Credo Reference, a company that believes the world would be a better place if more decisions and ideas were powered by knowledge, has announced that over 500 academic and public libraries around the globe have licensed its Literati solution. Literati helps end-users not only easily discover and use their library’s authoritative content, but also understand the value of the library’s resources over non-authoritative sources that are abundant on the open web. Literati is a library’s connection to effective research and digital and information literacy.
While Literati by Credo for academic libraries launched less than a year ago, and Literati Public has been available for less than a month, customers including Columbia University are already seeing value. In a recently published case study at Columbia University 87 percent of students said Literati improved the quality of their work. The case study is available by registering at http://tinyurl.com/columbialiterati.
“In an environment where information costs are skyrocketing and user need is shifting, libraries are required to break the chains of antiquated approaches to silos of resources, and Literati is the way,” said Mike Sweet, CEO of Credo Reference. “Far more than a search interface or e-book platform, Literati was built with continual input and support from libraries to help them achieve their strategic goals through our technology and customizable services.”
Literati delivers a unique blend of technology, content and services
The Literati solution includes embedded tools that guide the user; integration of the library’s existing resources and discovery services (extending their value); tools that measure what works and what doesn’t; and a growing collection of nearly 10,000 Topic Pages. Topic Pages alone are valued at over USD3.5 million. Additional technologies such as the Mind Map provide a powerful way to visualize and understand the research process.
“Literati is a great research starter,” said Kate Sawyer, Assistant Vice Chancellor at South University. “It is visually stimulating, connects general background information with our sources, and provides tutorials and videos which we would not have the staffing or budget to do.”
Literati can be packaged with a growing reference database of more than 3.6 million XML-enriched entries with over 500,000 images, videos and audio clips that enhance learning. “Literati is a unique resource,” said Diana Sasso, Director, Information Services Division at Gumberg Library, Duquesne University. “It blends authoritative full text content of its own with the functionality of a link resolver or federated search engine to pull together content from the library’s other full text resources and selected public domain sources.”
What makes Literati truly unique are the customized and complementary services provided by on-staff instructional librarians and educators. These services integrate faculty and student outreach, multimedia instruction and assessment tools. Instructional materials such as tutorials, modules and guides are developed based on the library’s strategic goals and are not limited to Credo products.
“Being able to have help creating videos, tutorials, quizzes, and games is what excited us most about Literati, said Sally Murray, Technical Services, Web and E-Resources Librarian at AUP. “The students like some short, easy to watch/do interactive things – we either don’t have the time or the expertise to do them. Often we have ideas we don’t know how to do or we don’t have the software.” Visit http://www.credoreference.com for more news.
(ACCESS 83, December 2012)
