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Find out how Random House Group UK worked with Soutron to build BARD, a custom bibliographic archive and library system capable of searching nearly 350,000 records in under one second, consolidating two separate legacy systems into one fast, web-accessible platform.
With over 100 publishing companies, 8,000 new publications a year, and archives spanning 13 countries, Random House needed more than an off-the-shelf library system. Soutron built BARD from the ground up, combining database and text retrieval technology to give the team fast, flexible search and retrieval access from anywhere in the world via browser, intranet, or extranet.
The Random House Group, UK Archives & Library Division worked in close partnership with Soutron to deliver an ultra-fast and highly flexible Library Archive System, capable of handling almost 350,000 records in less than 1 second. At the core of the Library that could be deployed via a web browser, allowing access over the internet, intranet or an extranet. Archive System (christened BARD, Bibliographic Archive Random House Database) is a special combination of database and text retrieval software.
Random House’s UK Archive and Library division is based at their offices in Rushden, Northamptonshire and handles all the UK based archives for Random House and Transworld.
“Soutron delivered an extremely efficient solution.”
Jean Rose
Library Manager
Their original library system was based on two systems, residing on different servers and running on different operating systems.
The first of these was a solution containing 102,000 records of items in the library, together with an estimated 144,000 copy records and associated loans information. The second was a system containing approximately 68,000 records of Random House publications downloaded from their internal distribution system.
These systems weren’t linked in any way.
Delivering results for a corporate / publisher archive and library organizations like The Random House Group. Talk to our team
An information-rich organization, Random House required a global solution that offered fast and accurate search and retrieval options while allowing maximum user access irrespective of geographical location. Following a consultation, evaluation and analysis period, Random House opted for a solution that could be deployed via a web browser, allowing access over the internet, intranet or an extranet.
Soutron was chosen to create a fast and powerful search and retrieval system with a very specific search front end.
Jean Rose, Random House Library Manager at the time explains “Soutron delivered an extremely efficient solution which incorporates all the information held on the two separate systems and allows us to add approximately three thousand new records a month, yet still be easy to search with a fast response time”.
Graham Beastall (Former Managing Director) at Soutron commented “This has been a very exciting development for us both as the Library Archive System truly demonstrates the capability of Soutron to build and deliver scalable solutions for archives.
It offers integrated library system functionality such as automatic cross-referencing and the automated background modification of records. Items can be loaned, renewed, reserved and returned quite simply with searching facilities available over the Internet, intranet or an extranet”.
To learn more about Random House UK (now named Penguin Random House) and its services and solutions, visit their website at:
www.penguinrandomhouse.com
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The first step is to learn more. Here's how we can answer your questions:
Yes. Soutron designs and builds custom archive and library systems tailored to specific organizational needs. For Random House Group UK, Soutron consolidated two separate legacy systems on different servers into a single platform called BARD, handling nearly 350,000 records with fast search and retrieval built specifically for a publisher's workflow.
Yes. Soutron's archive platform is built to scale. BARD for Random House Group UK handles nearly 350,000 records, returns search results in under one second, and supports the addition of approximately 3,000 new records each month without any impact on system performance.
Yes. Soutron's archive systems are accessible via web browser over the internet, intranet, or extranet, providing access regardless of geographical location. Random House Group operates across 13 countries and required a solution that gave all users access to the full archive from any location.
Yes. Soutron's archive systems include automatic cross-referencing and automated background modification of records. Items can be loaned, renewed, reserved, and returned, with full searching available across internet, intranet and extranet environments.
