National Agricultural Library Purchases Document Delivery Software

The National Agricultural Library (NAL) has selected the Relais Enterprise document delivery system to further automate the library's document delivery services.

Enterprise is an integrated request and delivery management system produced by Relais International, Inc. Its use at NAL will streamline the processing of requests for publications, resulting in greater efficiencies and better service.

NAL annually receives--from customers in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other organizations and libraries around the world--about 120,000 document delivery requests for items from the NAL collections. These collections include more than 3.5 million items of information about food, agriculture and natural resources. With NAL's use of Relais Enterprise, customers will be able to both request and receive materials electronically, and to check on the status of their requests via the World Wide Web.

Relais International is working closely with NAL staff to integrate the Enterprise system with NAL's new Voyager library system produced by Endeavor Information Systems, Inc. The Voyager system will be available in late 2003, while the Enterprise system will become operational in mid-2004.

The National Agricultural Library, in Beltsville, Md., is known for its expert staff, extensive AGRICOLA bibliographic database of more than 4 million citations, leadership role in information services and technology applications, and collections. The NAL is one of four U.S. national libraries, and is part of the Agricultural Research Service, USDA's chief scientific research agency.

Relais International is based in Ottawa, Canada, and has been designing systems for libraries to support interlibrary loan and document delivery operations since 1996. NAL has had a relationship with Relais International since 2001, when it implemented Relais's Express document scanning and delivery system.