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A specialist research library at the heart of London’s print and publishing heritage now lets visitors worldwide search its collections online, explore images and plan their visits before they arrive.
St Bride Foundation needed a cost-effective library management system that could handle cataloging, image display and stock location tracking without requiring a large team to run it. Soutron delivered a cloud-based search portal that serves an international audience of researchers, designers and print history enthusiasts from a single, easy-to-manage platform.
St Bride Foundation was established in 1891 to provide a social, cultural and recreational center for London’s Fleet Street and its burgeoning print and publishing trade.
At the heart of the Foundation is an unparalleled library with extensive collections of printed material, archives and artifacts relating to printing, typography and graphic design. Visitors come from across the world to carry out research there.
“The catalogue and new Search Portal is simply brilliant!
The ability to add new items, expose previously-uncataloged collections and record stock movements is wonderful.”
Heather Jardine
Library Volunteer
A user friendly and easy to access Search Portal, to allow end users to carry out catalog searches and research online, was also an essential requirement.
Heather Jardine, Library Volunteer, says, “We selected Soutron for our new library management solution as you were able to provide us with a cost effective solution that suited our specific needs, especially as a smaller library.
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“Although we only use the basic functionality of the LMS at the moment, it has helped us enormously. The catalog and new Search Portal is simply brilliant! The ability to add new items, expose previously uncataloged collections and record stock movements is wonderful.” Many of the books are in the library because of the way they look, rather than their subject matter, the ability to include images in the new catalog was therefore vital.
Heather says, “To showcase our titles by including images, as we have recently done with our chapbook collection, is very important to us. These pictures really are worth a thousand words. We know that a large part of our audience is based overseas and with the cloud based search portal you have provided, visitors can start to explore our collections wherever they are.”
Soutron’s easy to use Search Portal provides the online catalog now expected of any major research library. Visitors can now carry out searches before going to the library and let the library team know in advance what material they would like to see, so that it can be ready for them on arrival.
As the library has limited staff and resources it has helped them save time and allowed them to handle enquiries a lot quicker than before the arrival of the Soutron LMS.
Looking forward to the future Heather adds, “I know there is so much more we can do with our Soutron LMS.
We are also going to attend the next regular Client User Group as it will provide us with an opportunity to meet other likeminded users of the software and learn what new features are in the pipeline.”
To learn more about St Bride Library and their extensive collections on print, media, communications and design visit their website at:
www.sbf.org.uk
To find out how you can migrate your own special library and collections to a fast, secure, cloud-based library management system, book a 20 minute discovery call with us today, see below.
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The first step is to learn more. Here's how we can answer your questions:
Yes. St Bride Foundation selected Soutron specifically because it offered a cost-effective solution suited to the needs of a smaller library.
The system helped the team add new items, expose previously uncataloged collections and record stock movements without requiring a large team to manage it. Library staff reported handling enquiries faster after implementing Soutron, despite only using the core cataloging functionality at the time.
Yes. St Bride Foundation holds many books because of how they look rather than their subject matter, making image display a core requirement. Soutron allows the library to attach images directly to catalog records, as the team demonstrated with their chapbook collection.
This gives researchers and international visitors a visual preview of holdings before deciding whether to visit or request materials.
St Bride Foundation attracts researchers from across the world who visit to study its collections on printing, typography and graphic design. With Soutron's cloud-based search portal in place, international visitors can search the catalog remotely, identify the materials they need and notify the library team in advance so items are ready on arrival.
This reduces pressure on staff and improves the experience for researchers traveling from overseas.
St Bride Foundation began using Soutron purely as a cataloging tool, without activating the circulation or acquisitions features. As the team's confidence grew, they identified plans to use saved searches to prepare select bibliographies for common enquiries and to explore Soutron's reporting functionality to better understand how researchers use the catalog.
Soutron's modular approach means libraries can start with what they need and expand at their own pace.
