Unlocking 4.5 Million Titles Through Patron-First Transformation

For more than 170 years, the State Library Victoria (SLV) has safeguarded the documentary heritage of the state. With over 4.5 million physical titles, 8 kilometres of manuscripts, rare books, archival materials, and digital collections, SLV is not just a library — it is one of the world’s most visited public knowledge institutions.

But with history comes complexity. By 2025, Roxanne Missingham, Director of Collections, and her team were asking a bold question:

How do you transform a deeply historic, highly complex research library into a seamless, patron-first access experience?

Removing Barriers Built Over Generations

Fresh thinking and external reviews gave SLV the opportunity to completely rethink workflows, systems, and service design — placing patrons at the centre.

“Our guiding principle is to put access to the collection in the hands of our patrons.”
— Roxanne Missingham

Key challenges included:

• Records created over many decades with variation in standards and approaches
• More than 200 collection codes with complex rules
• Approximately 180k archival descriptions maintained outside the core catalogue
• Manual, some automated and phone-based requesting processes
• A patchwork of access systems shaped by historical service approaches
• Alma expertise concentrated in a single staff member

Although Alma and Primo VE were implemented in 2022, the rollout followed a minimum viable product approach. Core service models were not reimagined at that time, and patron self-requesting remained limited.

A True Partnership

SLV partnered closely with the Ex Libris, from Clarivate team to conduct a deep system review and align the platform with the library’s strategic objectives.

What stood out most was the collaboration.

“The extraordinarily high knowledge of Clarivate staff and willingness to look at options and provide advice was invaluable.”
— Roxanne Missingham

Together, the teams:

• Conducted a full system and workflow review
• Developed a clear action plan aligned to SLV’s strategic vision
• Delivered best-practice guidance and targeted education
• Upskilled staff to reduce single points of expertise
• Rebuilt workflows to enable true end-to-end patron service

Professional Services played a key role in strengthening foundational Alma knowledge, building internal confidence, and designing a scalable solution capable of handling SLV’s extraordinary complexity.

Reimagining Access at Scale

The transformation was ambitious and included the following:

In Phase 1 (December 2025) and Phase 2A (February 2026 pilot for special collections), SLV achieved:

✔ Improved metadata quality for almost 700,000 bibliographic records

✔ Enhanced metadata for approximately 35,000 special collection records

✔ Enabled patron self-requesting for more than 2 million printed items

✔ Opened self requesting for a significant set of manuscript and rare book collections

✔ Integrated systems including RefTracker, LibCal, and internal tools

✔ Engaged and upskilled more than 60 staff members

✔ Developed new, scalable workflows for complex collection management.

This was not just optimisation — it was structural transformation.

“This project created a new solution which could not have been achieved with previous software — and, in my opinion, any other software on the market.”

— Roxanne Missingham

Invisible Success

“Perhaps our most important indicator of success is that patrons are just using the service with no complaint, fanfare or training — it is intuitive and simply meets their needs.”

— Roxanne Missingham

A service that once required mediation and manual intervention now empowers users directly, the power shifted from gatekeeping to enablement.

Building Operational Resilience

Beyond patron experience, the transformation strengthened internal capability:

• Reduced reliance on individual system experts
• Increased cross-team knowledge of Alma
• Built sustainable workflows for future special collections
• Created a model relevant to other large, complex research libraries.

Few institutions can say they have improved nearly a million records while redesigning end-to-end client service, SLV can.

“How often can you say that almost a million records have been improved and end-to-end client service delivered? This was a once-in-a-lifetime outcome.”