Syracuse University Press has over 1,700 titles in print and publishes more than 50 new and groundbreaking books each year in New York State history, Middle East Studies, Judaica, geography, Irish studies, Native American studies, religion, disability studies, television, popular culture, sports and entertainment, and other subjects.

Background

Syracuse University Press historically used a combination of Excel spreadsheets and Elan through Longleaf Services, Inc. to manage its publishing data.

As Alice Pfeiffer, Director of Syracuse University Press explains, "Our current systems are inefficient for the needs of a modern publisher. SU Press celebrates its 70th anniversary this year; in a rapidly changing publishing industry, we must make use of emerging technologies to keep pace and move into the future."

The main reasons Syracuse University Press looked to change their systems included:

1. Inefficiencies caused by multiple entries of metadata into various systems
2. Inconsistencies of data among various systems
3. Manual processes associated with distributing metadata to various partners, limiting the number of partners Syracuse can work with, which in turn limits sales
4. Inability to communicate changes in the metadata efficiently and consistently
5. Productivity drain on key resources that are bogged down in data entry
6. Time-consuming manual creation of Buy/TIP sheets
7. Manual addition/correction of data on the website

Alice explains, "After looking at the various publishing systems available, and the option to build our own system, BiblioLIVE provided the most sophisticated functionality at a very affordable price. We are a publisher with IT support limited to standard hardware and software, and the fact that Virtusales' BiblioLIVE system is hosted means we can concentrate on publishing rather than on software programs. BiblioLIVE is continually updated to the latest release free of charge ensuring we keep up with the changing requirements of the publishing industry".

The objectives of this project include:

• Enter data once and re-purpose for ONIX feeds, TIP sheets, catalogues, websites
• Automate the distribution of ONIX feeds to various partners
• Automate the updating of title data
• Free up resources
• Improve the quality of metadata
• Increase sales through improved metadata and the ability to send data to more vendors

Rodney Elder, VP of Operations at Virtusales, adds, "Virtusales develops software that allows publishers to focus on publishing. Last year, Virtusales completed over 30,000 hours of development which Syracuse will have access to. We are excited to bring Syracuse on as a customer and provide the system that will support them in producing the quality content they are renowned for."