SOFTLINK’S LIBERTY3 FOSTERS INTEREST AMONGST CHILDCARE AND CHARITIES

The British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) is the leading UK charity working for children separated from their birth families. Its role covers the development of standards to support improvements in practice, raising awareness of the issues affecting ‘looked after children’, advocacy to influence policy makers across the UK, and child placement services.

BAAF is becoming a popular source of information for researchers. In addition to a reference library at Head Office, it holds a large amount of material reflecting the development of modern (post WWII) policies and legislation on adoption, including minutes of committee meetings, correspondence and reports. It stocks over 2,000 books and reports, and around 30 journal titles, accessed by its staff, members and other child protection practitioners and students. Liberty3 will allow BAAF to make its library catalogue available on its intranet from July (2005) and access is likely to be offered over the internet during 2006.

Katrina Wilson, Information Officer at the British Association for Adoption & Fostering, explains, "As well as moving to Liberty3, BAAF will be expanding and improving the physical library environment over the coming year. Both developments will enable us to promote the Library and offer services to a wider range of professionals, researchers and students."
She continues, "Liberty 3 will allow us to move away from our current Access-based catalogue, and to allow all staff to use the library system via BAAF’s Intranet. Being able to incorporate electronic and web-based publications into our catalogue is also a major benefit for staff who do not have direct access to a library, and will ensure that non-print publications are not overlooked. An integrated system will also allow us to streamline various aspects of library management such as ordering, chasing late items, monitoring library usage and producing reports."

Katrina concludes, "We liked the fact that Liberty3 was totally web-based, not just the enquiry system but all the management functions too, and was offered as a complete package rather than in modules. Being able to link to web resources and electronic files was an important factor, as so much of the government and research information we need to access is now available online. We were also impressed by the flexibility of the system and the potential it offered for use outside the library and for future development."

For more information on Liberty3, visit www.softlink.co.uk or email mjh@softlink.co.uk
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NOTES TO EDITORS:

Softlink Europe
Library technology specialist Softlink invests in research and development to provide library technology for the 21st century and to offer a suite of products that offers unlimited possibilities for education, public, corporate and special libraries. The product range includes Alice and Oliver for school libraries, and Liberty3 for the corporate, special and higher education sectors. Limes Library Automation Software including Millenia and Evolution and pi Primer has now become the responsibility of Softlink Europe Ltd.

With 20 years of experience and over 10,000 installations of library management solutions worldwide in libraries in a variety of sectors, Softlink Europe is well placed to implement quickly and efficiently from its Oxford and North of England offices. The library automation specialist has a UK-based support and development team and is a firm believer in investment in research and development to provide library technology for the 21st century.
www.softlink.co.uk

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION OR PHOTOGRAPHS PLEASE CONTACT:
Catherine Dhanjal, TheAnswer Ltd, Tel: 0208 655 0953/0794 166 9925
Catherine.dhanjal@theansweruk.com

Date: 23 June 2005 Ref: TA-261