Libraries may work in very different environments, but many of the challenges they are trying to solve are surprisingly familiar. How do you make collections easier to discover? How do you reduce the amount of work tied to one specialist? Where can automation take some of the pressure out of routine processes?
At IGeLU 2025 in Siena, we spoke with three institutions approaching those kinds of challenges in very different ways. The University of Vienna, the University of Sydney and KU Leuven each started from a local problem, but their experiences offer ideas that other libraries can examine against their own needs.
Peer exchange becomes useful when it shows the thinking behind a local solution: what an institution tried, why it chose that approach and what another library might adapt.
Making special collections easier to discover
The University of Vienna Library is home to a wide range of special collections, from old and rare books to a large repository of digital objects and materials connected with notable scientists from the university.
With a collection this large, keeping metadata consistent isn’t always easy. Almost 10,000 university employees can upload materials, which means the level of detail can vary considerably. That’s one of the reasons the library joined the Alma Specto Development Partnership Program: to explore how artificial intelligence could help enrich that metadata and make more of these materials easier to discover.
But better metadata is only part of the story. Even when a collection has been carefully preserved and cataloged, it can still be difficult for people to find it, understand its significance or see how it connects to a broader collection.
For Christian Authried, Team Library Systems at the University of Vienna, that’s where the way collections are presented becomes especially important. Digital storage, AI-supported enrichment and the user experience all need to work together. For the university, gallery and exhibition views could add context that standalone catalog record cannot provide.
“The presentation layer is something which is very important for such collections, to make it visible to the public, not only as a record in a catalog, but also as a special exhibition or gallery view.”
Richer metadata helps patrons understand what an object is, while thoughtful presentation helps them understand why it matters.
Other libraries could start by looking at collections that are available but still hard to discover, then ask whether the issue is the metadata, how the collection is presented or both.
Turning local workflows into shared knowledge
At the University of Sydney Library, Jim Nicholls, Senior Digital Service Specialist, described a challenge with locally developed solutions. He could build what the library needed, but colleagues might struggle to diagnose or support that work when he was unavailable.
Library Open Workflows gives the university a way to make workflow logic visible to colleagues who do not work directly with code. Team members can inspect a workflow, identify where an error occurred and investigate it without logging into servers or interpreting the underlying code. Support can become less dependent on the original developer.
The library can also consider smaller changes without automatically entering a longer process involving central IT. Technical judgment, governance and testing still apply, but staff have another route for developing and evaluating an idea.
Workflows may also be shared as templates. Another institution can adapt a template to its own requirements and contribute the revised version for others to use.
“It lets people who have great ideas who aren’t coders realise their ideas.”
Reuse also depends on whether another institution can understand and adapt the workflow. Workflows developed in different languages or with different setup requirements can be difficult to adopt. A common structure makes the logic easier to inspect, adapt and support.
A useful internal review would identify workflows that work well today but are difficult for others to maintain, then consider who understands them and what happens when that person is unavailable.
Using automation and integrations across the KU Leuven network
KU Leuven works within a network of 26 institutions that make effortto keep Alma workflows and configuration as consistent as possible. A central team supports the network and runs training, so shared processes and reusable technical work are particularly useful across the group.
Since going live with Alma in 2014, the network has gradually expanded how it uses integrations. Standard integrations were followed by more APIs and scheduled jobs, allowing staff to automate steps such as exporting data, normalizing it and bringing it back into Alma.
Library Open Workflows is the next area the team is exploring. One planned use case focuses on older materials and journal articles that have not yet been cataloged. The idea is to pass PDFs through a workflow, use AI-supported steps to extract metadata and create records, then return those records to Alma through APIs. The team is still assessing what will be possible, but the aim is to handle more of that retrospective metadata work in one integrated flow.
Another institution could start by identifying repetitive workflows with clear inputs and repeatable steps, then consider where an existing integration could take over part of the work.
What other libraries can take from these examples
The three examples start from different operational problems. Vienna is looking at how metadata and presentation can improve discovery of digital and special collections. Sydney is making local workflows easier to support beyond a small group of specialists. KU Leuven is exploring whether automation and integrations could help with retrospective metadata work across its network.
For another library, the value is in understanding why each institution chose its approach and what shaped the decision. That makes it easier to judge what might transfer to a different local setting.
That context is what makes peer exchange useful. It helps another institution assess what may be adaptable and what depends on local conditions.
Keep the conversation going at IGeLU 2026
If these examples raised questions for your own library, IGeLU 2026 is a chance to continue the conversation with peers working through similar challenges. You can hear how other institutions are approaching them, exchange ideas and consider what might apply in your own setting.
IGeLU 2026 takes place in Taipei, Taiwan, from October 19–22.
If you can’t attend in person, virtual attendance is also available, so you can still follow the conference and hear from the IGeLU community remotely.
Review the program at https://mtgsked.com/p/1907/c and register at https://igelu.org/event/igelu-2026-conference-and-developers-day-taipei/.
