360 Services: Unicode FAQ

Are our products Unicode compliant?

Ex Libris provides Unicode-compliant services and data in nearly all of our products. We have put together the following FAQ to answer many of the questions you may have about using Unicode.

1. What is Unicode?

   Unicode is an encoding standard designed to allow computers to identify characters from all writing systems of the world. Unicode support at Ex Libris means that all data journal titles, library holdings information, search queries, and so forth can be processed in any left-to-right-reading language.

2. Can my library upload data in non-English languages?

   Yes. We can accept journal titles and library holdings data in any left-to-right-reading language.

3. Can our users search in non-English languages?

   Yes. Users can search 360 Link, E-Journal Portal, and 360 Search in non-English languages. The text will be matched in any left-to-right-reading database that supports Unicode.

4. Will Ex Libris provide search results in non-English languages?

   Yes as long as the database provider supports Unicode. Ex Libris does not have control over the format of data supplied by the content provider and publishers, so the format of results depends on how they deliver the content. Also, we have new options for sorting/alphabetizing databases in the E-Journal Portal in languages that don't have Latin characters -- see Changes to E-Journal Portal Sorting.

5. Are patron (user) interface (UI) translations available? Can my library customize our own user-interface translation?

   Visit Interface Translations for details on UI translations.

6. Can our patrons choose their own individual language interfaces?

   Yes, most Ex Libris discovery services can be configured to allow your patrons to choose from several languages. Check out the Administration Console for the service you wish to configure.

7. Does the Unicode compliance include all Ex Libris products?

   All Ex Libris data is in Unicode. This includes the Client Center, but extended functions of 360 Resource Manager such as License Manager and Menu Manager are not entirely Unicode compliant, yet.

8. Libraries that use our Data on Demand tool have the option of generating reports in Unicode or Latin-1. Libraries that receive HTML or PDF reports will receive these in Unicode.

9. How can my library take advantage of Ex Libris Unicode compliance?

   Unicode compliance is available to your library now. No activation or library installation is necessary. To utilize the benefits of Unicode, the only requirement is that your patrons' computers and internet browsers have the appropriate language pack installed. As long as the language pack is installed on the computer, your library s patrons can start taking advantage of Unicode support now.