Installations- VPL Upgrades to Horizon Sunrise

The Vancouver Public Library (VPL), the second largest public library in Canada, is opting to continue its long relationship with epixtech by contracting for the installation of the vendor's Horizon Sunrise. VPL has been a customer for a dozen years, coming aboard in 1990 with a Dynix system, which Horizon Sunrise replaces. The contract also calls for the installation of iPAC web-based information retrieval software. VPL additionally has formed a "development partnership" with epixtech "to expand the capabilities of Horizon Sunrise even further to meet the needs of large, sophisticated public libraries," the vendor said. The 21-branch VPL serves a culturally diverse population of 400,000 patrons, who generate annual circulation figures of roughly eight million and use 1100 PCs including 170 public access Internet workstations.

Along with VPL, Horizon Sunrise is also the system of choice for El Paso Public Library, TX, and Upper Hudson Library, NY. According to epixtech, El Paso will use the system to offer residents remote access to the main library and nine branches, which serve more than three million citizens throughout El Paso county and nearby border towns, many of whom are non-English-speaking. Headquartered in Albany, the Upper Hudson operation is a consortium of 29 member libraries and six branches that has a combined collection of 1.2 million items and circulation of 3.1 million materials annually.