April 21, 2016
The Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg’s Library and Information System (BIS Oldenburg) and the Oldenburg Regional Library will become the first two members of the German Common Library Network (GBV) to move to Alma
Hamburg, Germany—April 21, 2016. Ex Libris®, a ProQuest® company, is pleased to announce that following an EU-wide tender, the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg’s Library and Information System (BIS) and the Oldenburg Regional Library (Landesbibliothek Oldenburg) have signed agreements to license the Ex Libris Alma® resource management service. This service will replace the libraries’ URICA integrated library system (ILS).
The decision was announced during the 6th Library Congress 2016 in Leipzig. Hans-Joachim Wätjen, director of BIS Oldenburg, explained: ”The enormous increase in digital resources alongside our already extensive print collection demands a system that manages electronic resources as easily as it manages print resources.”
In particular, the growing demand for electronic and digital resources created a need to develop new workflows, and the two libraries recognized that adding Alma to their Ex Libris Primo® discovery solution would give them a modern architecture, flexible workflows, and APIs for connecting other systems.
“We are pleased that we in Oldenburg will be the first two libraries in the GBV [Common Library Network] to use the cloud-based Alma solution. It will replace URICA, which, when we installed it in 1985, was one of the first integrated library systems in a German university library. With Alma for the business procedures and Primo as both the discovery solution and the OPAC replacement, we are well positioned for the future,” said Mr. Wätjen.
The two institutions will also benefit from enhanced sharing capabilities and connection to the bibliographic data in the emerging German Common Bibliographic Data Zone. Corinna Roeder, director of the Oldenburg Regional Library, explained that “the Oldenburg Library Network, of which we and the university are members, provides an important local resource not only for scientists and students but for the whole region. We are pleased to join the university library in the new library system. Alma is an important step that will take us into the future.”
”I am delighted to welcome both BIS and Landesbibliothek Oldenburg to the growing community of German Alma users,” remarked Ofer Mosseri, corporate vice president and general manager of Ex Libris EMEA. ”The Alma-based Common Bibliographic Data Zone is fast becoming a powerful resource for libraries across Germany, and I look forward to seeing its user base increasing.”
About the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg’s Library and Information System (BIS)
The BIS offers a broad spectrum of academic information and services to students and faculty as well as to the general public at the two campuses of the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. The university library provides a collection of around 1.4 million books in its open-stack shelves, plus a huge collection of non-book material and a growing selection of electronic resources such as e-books, academic databases, and approximately 25,000 e-journals. The BIS is also responsible for all media services, the university press and printing operations, and the university archive. For more information, see https://www.bis.uni-oldenburg.de/en/bishome/.
About the Oldenburg Regional Library
The Landesbibliothek Oldenburg is one of three regional statelibraries in Lower Saxony. Established in 1792, it serves as a Universal Academic Library and as archive library for the entire region. It also provides academic literature for the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg. The library collection includes around 900,000 items. For more information, see www.lb-oldenburg.de/.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for higher education. Offering SaaS solutions for the management and discovery of the full spectrum of library and scholarly materials, as well as mobile campus solutions driving student engagement and success, Ex Libris serves thousands of customers in 90 countries. For more information about Ex Libris, see our website, and join us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
