Media Releases

MEDIA RELEASE - Monday, 12 August 2002

TeraText Database System

The National Library of Australia today announced its selection of a new software platform to support delivery of metadata-based resource discovery services. These include collaborative services such as PictureAustralia, MusicAustralia, and the Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts (RAAM), as well as services like the Pictures Catalogue.

The software chosen by the Library is the TeraText™ Database System (DBS), developed by InQuirion Pty Ltd, a company spun off from RMIT University.

The new software will provide a high degree of scalability and performance. This has become a critical issue as the number of records held in the Library's resource discovery services increases. Initial services to be migrated to the new software platform will be PictureAustralia and the Pictures Catalogue.

PictureAustralia is a database providing a single access point to over 600,000 images from eighteen Australian cultural institutions, including libraries, museums, archives and galleries. The images relate to Australia's cultural heritage - particularly people, places and events from the late eighteenth century through to the present day.

The Pictures Catalogue contains descriptions of paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and three-dimensional objects held in the Pictorial Collection of the National Library. The Pictorial Collection contains approximately 45,000 paintings and 550,000 photographs; most of this material has been catalogued with individual descriptions or collection summaries. All these descriptions and summaries can be searched on this database and over 47,000 images are available online.

According to the Assistant Director General, Information Technology, Dr Warwick Cathro, the Library has chosen the TeraText™ Database System - previously known as SIM (Structured Information Manager) - for its scalability, performance and robustness as well as its standards support. "TeraText will provide a high performance and scalable platform for the Library as services like PictureAustralia grow. Its support for open standards such as Z39.50 and XML positions it well to interoperate with other software that the Library is using".

"The TeraText™ product line is currently used by a range of large enterprises for their content management, both internally and for public access. We are excited about TeraText DBS being employed in a leading Australian cultural institution such as the National Library," said Dr Ron Sacks-Davis, CEO of InQuirion.

About the National Library of Australia (http://www.nla.gov.au)
The National Library of Australia aims to be the world's leading documentary resource for learning about and understanding Australia and Australians, through development and maintenance of a national collection of material in its many forms. The Library aims to provide users with fast and convenient access to library collections and services, through collaboration with libraries and other cultural institutions, and increasingly using digital technologies and the Internet.

About InQuirion Pty Ltd (http://www.inquirion.com)
InQuirion Pty Ltd is focused on delivering best of breed information management products for customers with complex problems in this domain. It is responsible for the development and maintenance of the TeraText™ product suite and is the owner of the TeraText intellectual property. InQuirion develops systems for document and content management on a large scale. Other users of TeraText DBS include Macquarie Online, Australian Taxation Office, Standards Australia, Victorian Department of Education and Training, and RMIT Publishing.

For more information, contact:

Tony Boston
National Library of Australia
612 6262 1518
tboston@nla.gov.au

John Cook
RMIT University
Building 91, Level 3, 110 Victoria St
CARLTON VIC 3053

613 9925 4113
jlc@mds.rmit.edu.au

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