PHILADELPHIA The University of Pennsylvania Library and Northern Light Technology Inc. have created an information-rich portal for Penn 248,000 alumni. The Alumni & Friends Library portal is located at www.library.upenn.edu/portal.

"This new portal brings a wealth of useful information to our alumni and friends," said Penn President Judith Rodin in announcing the new service. "The Penn Library is internationally recognized for its digital library design, organization and content and was one of the first academic libraries to embrace the Web as the unifying entry for all of our electronic resources. Penn students and faculty can now access millions of pages of full-text information from anywhere in the world. With the Alumni & Friends Portal, we are bringing many of these resources to Penn alumni."

Penn Alumni & Friends Portal includes a link to content-rich Web sites, organized by subject, as well as to thousands of e-journals and e-newspapers.

"Penn librarians regularly review new Web sites and electronic journals with the same careful approach that they take to acquiring new books and printed journals," said Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Paul Mosher. "We are separating the wheat from the chaff. This feature alone makes the Portal uniquely valuable."

"A key element of the Alumni & Friends Portal is its link to millions of full-text articles," said Adam Corson-Finnerty, the Library external-affairs director. "That where our partnership with Northern Light Technology comes in. They have negotiated arrangements to supply full-text information online for more than 7,100 magazines, journals and newspapers exactly when you want it.

"The new Alumni & Friends Library Portal includes a customized and co-branded link to the powerful Northern Light search engine," Corson-Finnerty said. "The search results come back with the Penn look and feel. The amazing thing is that 80% of these results are entirely free. Northern Light searches the Web for research-quality information, as well as its own licensed Special Collection. If an alum wishes to purchase an article, the cost ranges from $3 to $5 with a money-back guarantee. If we had to acquire these same resources, and then sell them to alumni, it would have cost everyone a fortune."

"We are delighted to be associated with the University of Pennsylvania, a recognized leader in the electronic delivery of information," said David Seuss, CEO of Northern Light Technology, a leading provider of information-management solutions. "The contribution Northern Light makes in providing search and content for the Alumni & Friends Library Portal is one we hope to replicate throughout the academic community."

A test version of the Alumni and Friends Library Portal was mounted quietly in January of this year with a small group of Penn alumni asked to check it out.

"The response has been enthusiastic," said Library Director Paul Mosher. "Some people have made it their home page."