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Symphony: SirsiDynix's flagship integrated library system: a horizon user's perspective.

Article Excerpt
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

At the end of 2007, SirsiDynix introduced the first version of Symphony, its new flagship ILS. This article will begin with a look at the evolution of Symphony, user reactions to Symphony, and Symphony's design and functionality.

In addition, the authors, along with a team of librarians from various functional areas, have recently completed testing of four Symphony 3.2.1 core modules and iBistro, the online catalog, at the King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) Library in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, where author Khurshid serves as senior manager for the cataloging operations department and acting senior manager for the systems department, and where author Al-Baridi serves as director-general of libraries. The results and observations from this testing will provide an overview of Symphony's strengths as well as its complexities and constraints. Please note that the views expressed are our own and do not necessarily reflect those of our institution.

Symphony's Evolution

The internet and web technology have had a huge impact in shaping library systems. Fascinated by the new technology, users began to demand from the vendors innovative interfaces and tools for managing electronic content and creating digital library collections. As the next-generation systems evolved, libraries with legacy systems started to migrate to the new systems. Competition for ILS sales became fierce. Those companies that could not stand the competition started merging with other companies or formed new alliances. For example, Aleph Yissum Ltd. and Ex Libris Ltd. merged to become Ex Libris in 1995; in 2000, Elsevier purchased Endeavor and The Library Corp. acquired CARL Corp.

In June 2005, the consolidation of Sirsi Corp. and Dynix created SirsiDynix, which emerged as the largest company in the library automation marketplace (the Library Journal "Automation Marketplace 2009" report shows that SirsiDynix has a customer base of 3,488 libraries). Prior to the merger, both companies had developed and marketed multiple legacy systems, such as Dynix Classic by Dynix and DRA Classic, MultiLIS, and INLEX by Sirsi, in addition to their flagship systems--Unicorn (Sirsi) and Horizon (Dynix). Between Horizon and Unicorn there was tough competition, but Horizon outsold Unicorn between 2004 and 2007.

SirsiDynix Chooses Unicorn: Following the merger, SirsiDynix did not find it feasible to continue to develop and maintain two large systems. Therefore, the company decided that it would consolidate development efforts into a single ILS platform based on Unicorn. The choice of Unicorn over Horizon surprised many. The new system was initially given the code name Rome and targeted for release in 4Q 2007. Rome was based on...