At the customer’s request, current version of Qulto Library is being replaced with an updated one. Besides, the specific configurations are also implemented, which are necessary both to ensure the smooth opreation of professional work while using the new version, and the availability of previously existing functions. As a final step, the system will also be moved to Qulto Cloud to guarantee secure storage of data and digital content.
‘Extracting relevant information about preferences of the customers from the transaction records of integrated library management systems’ by András Simon
Abstract: Thesis/Objective – The world outside the libraries is changing rapidly, and these changes are extremely speeded up by the effects of the restrictions ordered because of Covid 19. It is worth to give new aspects for creating and using library statistics, in the way extracting information from the transaction records of integrated library management systems, hence the analysis of these records seems one of the most appropriate way to follow the changes of the customer’s attitude. Method – The databases of the Integrated Library Management Systems contain these data units beside other records, like loan, bibliographic, item or authority records. The transaction records are created by the application, preserving the information, logged by the program. These records are preserved for long time in the database even if the logged transaction itself is terminated, or the original record is deleted. Analysing large number of loan records we can follow the changes and can ascertain trends for the past two years too. As the employee of Qulto Companies (Qulto Companies – https://qulto.eu), a firm developing integrated collection management systems for libraries and museums in East-Central Europe I have the permission, and the necessary knowledge to examine the catalogues of our customers. The MARC based data structure of these software is widely used by library and museum automatization systems in Europe, so the Middle-European experiences for data extraction could be seen, as generally valid in the future. Results – There is a significant decrease according to the count of active library users or to the number of loan transactions. There is some difference between the loan and user counts according to library type. In the high school libraries, the decrease doesn’t seem to have any connection with the Covid 19 restrictions, in the case of the other library types it can be the result of them. Hence there was no difference between the tendencies of the decrease according to geographical position or size of the library. Conclusion – The transaction records of Integrated Library Management Systems are very useful we can gain very important information about our libraries. so, we should take care for preserving them, or at least we have to get the most important units of information from them before they are erased.
The whole article in English is available here or can be accessed via this link.
“With new technologies and new content for the digital transformation of the future”
NETWORKSHOP, the most prestigious Hungarian conference on computer networking and IT applications for higher education, public education, research and public collections, was held for the 32nd time in Veszprém, Hungary, between 12-14 April 2023.
Our company, as one of the sponsors of Networkshop, was represneted by 11 participants. Our colleagues contributed to the programme with technical presentations, in addition to active participation in the lecture sessions. Gábor Deák, head of the development department and Melinda Mátyás, public collection expert, presented the development of our eCard application in the poster session. Besides the presentation of the poster, a lively discussion evolved among participants on topics such as library standardisation, the technologies used in eCard and the future possibilities of creating book recommendations.
András Simon, client manager, presented in session III.07 Born Digital content management in public collections “Where can I write the inventory number? Born digital documents in collection management practices”, in which he addressed timely issues of altering library and museum practices. Today, a significant proportion of library and museum documents are already digitally generated and other parts of the collection are being digitised at great pace in all heritage institutions. The storage, preservation and servicing of these objects raises a number of issues for which new preservation and servicing strategies need to be developed to replace or complement the tried and tested solutions that have been in use in the past three centuries.
With its latest development, the Méliusz Juhász Péter Library in Debrecen has introduced an innovation in document requests. The Library, in cooperation with our company and Líra Könyv Zrt., has set itself the goal of making books and other documents available for patrons to borrow as soon as possible after their publication.
For this, a demand-driven software has been developed to keep the library’s catalog in constant contact with the bookshop. This means that registered patrons can view and request documents in the catalog that are only available in bookshops. Once the request has been submitted, they can be obtained and borrowed within a short time. With the help of the software, newly published volumes can be made available for loan as quickly as patrons request them.
By searching for a document in the catalog, library patrons can visually distinguish between documents that are not available in the library but are in commercial circulation. Once logged in to the private interface, the “Submit Request” button becomes active, which can be pressed to start the acquisition process. The reader will receive an email with a confirmation of when he/she can borrow the document.
The aim of the project was to deliver and implement an integrated library system at the Széchenyi István University Library that is modern, future-proof, and that contributes to the library’s ability to meet the growing expectations, and effectively supports the work of librarians and helps serve the needs of students, teachers and researchers.
Development of a MARC-compliant Historical Institutional Photo Database for the Hungarian University of Fine Arts.
With this cultural tourism app, our aim is to provide our customers with a tool to easily and quickly design and publish thematic tours or virtual walks of local values and cultural treasures.
Spreading local and cultural knowledge in an engaging way
Game modes
Administration interface
With the app, you can create any number of thematic walks without any restrictions: city walks, themed tours around a specific event or celebrity, a competition for students – unleash your creativity! During the walk, the presentation of spectacular places can be enriched with interesting content, we can engage the audience with quizzes and invite the whole family to play games. In addition to individual play mode, you can also compete, so a whole class or group can join in. Using the capabilities of the mobile device, the app sends information or guides the user to the next point in the game based on their physical location. On a desktop computer or in a web browser, it presents the points of interest in a virtual tour.
An administration interface is available for editing the walks after logging in. As the very first step, attractions have to be recorded together with their descriptions and associated media. These recorded items will serve as each ‘stop’ while creating guided tours and quiz-enriched playful walks. One stop can of course be used for several walks.
In addition to creating outdoor tours, the app is also suitable for creating an indoor media (or audio-only) tour guide service based on QR codes.
Qulto Attract components are offered as a cloud service, installed on the servers of Qulto. The service includes server hosting (monitoring, backup), hosting and software usage.
Applications are web-based, running in a standard browser, with responsive design. The administration interfaces is also accessible from the browser.
In case of termination of the contract, the content created by the customer will be made available in a viewable format, without any additional charge. This will not include interaction elements offered by the application and the possibility of navigating between the pages.
The applications are run as cloud services, and our company takes care of the storage and serving of data, and of the operation of server-side programs. To answer technical questions and troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise, our company operates a support service. The visitor interfaces are browser-based and, thus can be accessed from a variety of workstations and mobile devices. The use of CityConquest is independent of any collection management system used by the institution.
On-line consultation is included as part of the purchase for all applications. The administrator interfaces are simple, easy to use, and working with them does not require any preliminary training or IT skills other than the ones used for everyday work.
Qulto Repo is a publishing repository based on the open source DSpace 7 software, which has gained popularity in recent years, especially among public education and public collections institutions. Its popularity has been mainly due to its relative ease of use, customisability and operability.
Repository implementations aim at providing a repository for uploaded media (text documents, images, videos, audio files – mainly non-proprietary content). The service platform is usually the open access catalogue of the public collection (OPAC3). If required, some repositories can be used independently (e.g. DSpace, EPrints), as well. With this module, your institution can manage its digital content with ease. All content can be associated with standard descriptive elements that facilitate searchability and ensure interoperability between different systems. Our solution also supports full-text indexing and search to ensure maximum accessibility and searchability.
In addition to the basic DSpace digital object repository functionality, Qulto Repo has add-ons such as media playback implemented by Qulto developers, record cloning and movement between collections, and Qulto Annotate for group annotation and tagging of PDF documents.
Qulto Digitize is a mass digitisation framework that provides solution for public collections, the general public and individual users as well for collaborative processing, grouping and repository management of text and image content. The main advantage of the framework is that it eliminates the need for both the use of other software and applications, and the cumbersome movement of files to be processed. Besides, it enables multi-user workflows.
Our module allows you to create, register, manage and share digital assets and their associated metadata with broad range of audiences. Furthermore, it also provides secure storage of master files, creation of on-demand converted versions, optical character recognition (OCR), watermarking and digital rights management (DRM) of files.
We support the digitisation of books, journals and analogue copies with workflows that make the collaborative work of consortium members transparent. Our system also provides a tool to manage the division of labour and the sharing of income and costs. Digitize is able to export and import METS-compliant digital objects and their metadata; we support digitisation processes with character recognition software; and detailed digitisation allows users to create independent e-documents from pieces of complete works. We can also record legal information and provide digital protection (DRM) for the works. Our system includes native, master and original files, the latter being generated automatically.
Groups of people working with digital objects – let them be university work groups, teachers, e-learning professionals or researcher – need an online platform where they can work on packages of files together in a way that will require them to move those files as infrequently as possible.
For more details and registration visit here!
The Q360 application is a spherical panoramic virtual exhibition and walk through in a web environment with a responsive design. By creating 360 degree spherical panoramic virtual exhibitions and virtuals walks, you can digitally create or archive exhibition spaces. Using marker points placed on spherical panoramic images, you can place details from the real space in the virtual space and even complete it with additional, extra information. This way we can tell and show more about the objects than we could in a simple physical space.
Interfaces
In the administration interface of the application, it is possible to create virtual exhibitions and to define spherical panoramic images, so-called scenes, in these exhibitions without any additional help. Marker points placed on the scenes can be used both to transfer knowledge, information, and to navigate between scenes within the virtual exhibition.
The visitor interface is the main element of the application, where visitors can view a virtual exhibition. Here, it is possible to navigate between the scenes (i.e. spherical panoramic images) of the virtual exhibition, and by clicking on marker points to view the textual and visual information assigned to the scenes. A spherical panoramic image of a scene can also be viewed using VR glasses (Oculus Rift). For instance, a museum with several rooms can be presented in such a way that each room is a separate scene, but for larger rooms, multiple scenes can be defined as well. The visual information displayed in the scenes is not bound to physical space.
Administration interface:
Visitor interface:
What to use it for?
Qulto Attract components are offered as a cloud service, installed on the servers of Qulto. The service includes server hosting (monitoring, backup), hosting and software usage.
Applications are web-based, running in a standard browser, with responsive design. The administration interfaces is also accessible from the browser.
In case of termination of the contract, the content created by the customer will be made available in a viewable format, without any additional charge. This will not include interaction elements offered by the application and the possibility of navigating between the pages.
The applications are run as cloud services, and our company takes care of the storage and serving of data, and of the operation of server-side programs. To answer technical questions and troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise, our company operates a support service. The visitor interfaces are browser-based and, thus can be accessed from a variety of workstations and mobile devices. The use of Q360 is independent of any collection management system used by the institution.
On-line consultation is included as part of the purchase for all applications. The administrator interfaces are simple, easy to use, and working with them does not require any preliminary training or IT skills other than the ones used for everyday work.
#learn differently #it is fun to learn #using public collections #digital museum pedagogy #interactive education #digital education packages
Education is a software component supporting the creation and use of interactive educational packages. This software primarily provides assistance to teachers and lecturers working in the public education sector and public collection institutions, though it is effectively applicable in other fields, as well. The module provides a playful learning experience in school, library and museum settings where public collections have the chance to reuse cultural assets and registered data. Consequently, lecturers can reach reach out to their school-age audiences both on new platforms and in novel ways, i.e. they can use the recently popular electronic devices preferred by their students to raise interest in a given subject through combining online and offline education materials.
Users can work with records from external and internal data sources, textual material and media content to create teaching materials for educational packages. The exercises – quizzes, timelines, word searches, puzzles – and information in the educational materials allow students to interactively explore a topic – let it be the history of a castle, a well-known poet’s ballads, or science questions.
In the editor interface, the teacher collects resources – even directly from public collection databases – for the presentation of the curriculum in an educational package, compiles tasks (e.g. word search, timeline, puzzle, quiz, and embedded content), and creates a series of tasks from the resources. The published exercises are enriched with subject headings and published online, thus becoming browseable and accessible to anyone. Each task encourages students to interact.
The Education platform is the perfect solution as a digital tool for library, archive and museum education programmes accompanying exhibitions. It makes it easy to create public exercises and teaching materials linked with subject headings that can be used in the classroom. These exercises can be used by participants on their own devices, and by being published via links they become accessible to remote users (schools), as well.
Qulto Attract components are offered as a cloud service, installed on the servers of Qulto. The service includes server hosting (monitoring, backup), hosting and software usage.
Applications are web-based, running in a standard browser, with responsive design. The administration interfaces is also accessible from the browser.
In case of termination of the contract, the content created by the customer will be made available in a viewable format, without any additional charge. This will not include interaction elements offered by the application and the possibility of navigating between the pages.
The applications are run as cloud services, and our company takes care of the storage and serving of data, and of the operation of server-side programs. To answer technical questions and troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise, our company operates a support service. The visitor interfaces are browser-based and, thus can be accessed from a variety of workstations and mobile devices. The use of Education is dependent on the introduction of the Qulto integrated collection management system (Qulto Library, Qulto Museum or Qulto Archive) by the institution.
On-line consultation is included as part of the purchase for all applications. The administrator interfaces are simple, easy to use, and working with them does not require any preliminary training or IT skills other than the ones used for everyday work.
With Storytelling, we aim to provide a modern digital tool for communicating cultural values and knowledge held in public collections.
Both editing and user reception of content are facilitated by an online application running in a traditional web browser. The digital story created on this platform is an exhibition material on a specific theme, compiled from the museums’ collection items and other content, presented in digital form on a web interface, where the museum curator can build up the exhibition material and edit its way of presentation to the public with the help of a dedicated administration interface.
The focus of Storytelling is on the visual representation of the topic to be presented, a knowledge map (topology) is created during editing. This visual representation of the story is available on the visitor interface, both helping to understand the concept/story as well as to navigate within the narrative.
It breaks with the tradition of linear storytelling, providing the possibility to implement other structures (parallel stories, concept of chamber exhibition, optional routes).
Qulto Attract components are offered as a cloud service, installed on the servers of Qulto. The service includes server hosting (monitoring, backup), hosting and software usage.
Applications are web-based, running in a standard browser, with responsive design. The administration interfaces is also accessible from the browser.
In case of termination of the contract, the content created by the customer will be made available in a viewable format, without any additional charge. This will not include interaction elements offered by the application and the possibility of navigating between the pages.
The applications are run as cloud services, and our company takes care of the storage and serving of data, and of the operation of server-side programs. To answer technical questions and troubleshoot any technical issues that may arise, our company operates a support service. The visitor interfaces are browser-based and, thus can be accessed from a variety of workstations and mobile devices. The use of Storytelling is independent of any collection management system used by the institution.
On-line consultation is included as part of the purchase for all applications. The administrator interfaces are simple, easy to use, and working with them does not require any preliminary training or IT skills other than the ones used for everyday work.
A product that supports the professional work of libraries and higher education institutions, and can be used to effectively support the search activities of readers, students, teachers and researchers.
Do you need a solution for searching a common index of multiple data sources (catalogs, repositories, online databases, etc.)? Discovery provides a common online interface to search library catalogs, full-text repository content, research data, online articles, e-publications and eLearning materials. The Discovery catalog can be customised in the same way as public collections’ own catalogs, i.e. results from multiple sources are organised into a common list of results based on common relevance, which can be sorted and filtered together.
The information search facilities are complemented by patron features (e.g. renewals, reservations, etc.) and a researcher dashboard (subject tracking, bibliographic lists, and so on).
ReCatalog performs semantic validation and processing of MARC records stored in library catalogs. During semantic processing, the most important entities (works, contributors, forms of expression, etc.) in the bibliographic description are identified, and the relationships between them are stored in triplets in a common central semantic grid, which can later become the basis for value-added services such as Discovery catalog or cultural touristic applications.
The Qulto Library system was developed jointly with MTA SZTAKI from 2002-2010, and from 2011 we became its exclusive developer and distributor. We continuously incorporate user feedback, ideas and needs into the latest versions of the software. As a significant professional recognition, Qulto Library was the only Hungarian library system to receive a product award two years in a row, in 2007 and 2008. Qulto Library is primarily designed to meet the complex needs of medium and large libraries, but is also suitable to serve smaller institutional or rural libraries.
With Qulto, public collections or even private collections can manage their printed and electronic collections in an integrated library system. The system allows for accurate tracking and management of due loans (patron loans) and includes a number of additional features.
Library management
Our integrated library system simplifies the management of library records and the construction of various catalogs, so with its help, the record databases and digital objects being the core of the services offered to library visitors become transparent and easy to manage.
Cataloging
Circulation
Acquisition
Periodicals
Media module
Images, audio and video files and text documents can be attached to bibliographic and authority records, too. They appear both on the administrator and OPAC interface.
Reports
With our statistical module, which works as an individual subsystem, information supporting management decisions and data about the utilization of inventory or the use of services are also available, besides the required statistical data. The scope of information queried in the report module can be freely extended with data stored in the database by configuration modifications.
Quality management reports
Drawing up a report of proper quality with appropriate content is not only a legal obligation, but also the basis of increasing efficiency. These reports are essential for fulfilling quality assurance tasks. The reports obtainable from the system provide up-to-date inventory. We prepare the reports with extensive consideration of the documentation and reporting obligations.
RFID
Qulto RFID module and Qulto Certified RFID tools are here to enhance the effectiveness of library workflows:
We are looking for suppliers who would like to ensure the compatibility of their hardware and software solutions and/or services with the Qulto Platform. Be our partner! Read more: Qulto Certified Technology Partner Program
Digital asset management
Our module developed for digital asset management allows the creation, ingestion, the comprehensive management and the share of digital objects and related metadata. Furthermore it ensures the safe storage of master files, the development of versions converted on-demand, optical character recognition (OCR), watermarking, digital rights management (DRM).
Interlibrary loans
Our integrated systems support interlibrary requests; they are prepared to upload data to the national document supply and interlibrary systems.
Besides we offer our interlibrary solution too, which can be used at a local, regional or national level also, and for which you can see an example among our references: the system used in a Hungarian-Slovakian library cooperation.
Qulto ePublisher is a central service where the subscribing rightsholders – institution, publisher, institutional publisher – can upload their regulated publications and notes for online use.
The centralised design allows for the introduction of electronic inter-library loans based on agreements between institutions and publishers, thus allowing for a more efficient use of digitised or born-digital e-publications produced by universities in Hungary.
The available e-publications can be searched and accessed through the university’s Discovery interface, and electronic textbook and note purchase can be introduced for students by adding webshop and online payment functions.