Maximize Your Content Impact with Ex Libris
Our vision is to provide the best content services to libraries, content providers and library patrons. Powering all Ex Libris products with high quality metadata encompassing global and local content, addressing diverse requirements and always remaining neutral to best represent the needs of our community.
We provide reliable, high-quality content complemented by cutting-edge innovation to optimize student success, research excellence and library impact.
Content
Managing Big Data at Highest Quality
Ex Libris manages centralized databases on behalf of our community members. The Alma Community Zone, SFX Knowledgebase and 360 Knowledgebase support our cataloging community with centrally maintained trusted, accurate and high quality metadata, supplied directly from content providers and updated daily.
The Central Discovery Index (CDI) powers all Ex Libris Discovery products with over 5.2 billion records generating reliable search results and easy access to full-text content from all providers.
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Representing Diversity; Remaining Content Neutral
The Ex Libris Knowledgebases and Central Discovery Index (CDI) contain metadata from content providers across the globe, representing both large-scale providers and aggregators, as well as smaller, local content providers whose content is relevant for specific communities. This broad reach ensures all our libraries and their users have access to relevant, useful and trusted content, regardless of their location, language or other unique considerations.
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Making Librarians’ Lives Easier
Let us do the heavy lifting and bring your users to the content they are looking for, by supplying shared metadata and convenient linking options.
At Ex Libris, we power our centralized knowledgebases and index to alleviate a load from librarians’ daily tasks, allowing them to concentrate on their areas of expertise and passions. Patrons benefit from convenient direct linking options to the full-text content, enjoying quick access and a positive experience.
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Working on Tomorrow’s Content Today
At Ex Libris we continue to put content at the center of our activities, with a multi-year, long-term focus on Content and ensuring the highest quality and service to our community. The current Data Excellence initiative focus is:
- Alma Community Zone metadata enrichment.
- Provider information flow to improve openness with content providers.
- Generating more CDI QuickLinks for quick and easy access to full-text content for end users.
- Quicker turnaround for creation of new collections in the knowledgebases.
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Strengthening Connections with Content Providers
Ex Libris’ relationship with Content Providers is critical to ensure that we create the best possible experience for our mutual customers and librarian community.
We are focused on deepening our collaborations with content providers worldwide, by increasing our transparency and openness with providers so that they have insight into our mutual customers’ experience.
Strengthening these relationships will improve the timeliness of ongoing content ingestion, as well as bigger-picture planning and cooperations.
Read Less
Content
Managing Big Data at Highest Quality
Ex Libris manages centralized databases on behalf of our community members. The Alma Community Zone, SFX Knowledgebase and 360 Knowledgebase support our cataloging community with centrally maintained trusted, accurate and high quality metadata, supplied directly from content providers and updated daily.
The Central Discovery Index (CDI) powers all Ex Libris Discovery products with over 5.2 billion records generating reliable search results and easy access to full-text content from all providers.
The Central Discovery Index (CDI) powers all Ex Libris Discovery products with over 5.2 billion records generating reliable search results and easy access to full-text content from all providers.
Representing Diversity; Remaining Content Neutral
The Ex Libris Knowledgebases and Central Discovery Index (CDI) contain metadata from content providers across the globe, representing both large-scale providers and aggregators, as well as smaller, local content providers whose content is relevant for specific communities. This broad reach ensures all our libraries and their users have access to relevant, useful and trusted content, regardless of their location, language or other unique considerations.
Making Librarians’ Lives Easier
Let us do the heavy lifting and bring your users to the content they are looking for, by supplying shared metadata and convenient linking options.
At Ex Libris, we power our centralized knowledgebases and index to alleviate a load from librarians’ daily tasks, allowing them to concentrate on their areas of expertise and passions. Patrons benefit from convenient direct linking options to the full-text content, enjoying quick access and a positive experience.
At Ex Libris, we power our centralized knowledgebases and index to alleviate a load from librarians’ daily tasks, allowing them to concentrate on their areas of expertise and passions. Patrons benefit from convenient direct linking options to the full-text content, enjoying quick access and a positive experience.
Working on Tomorrow’s Content Today
At Ex Libris we continue to put content at the center of our activities, with a multi-year, long-term focus on Content and ensuring the highest quality and service to our community. The current Data Excellence initiative focus is:
- Alma Community Zone metadata enrichment.
- Provider information flow to improve openness with content providers.
- Generating more CDI QuickLinks for quick and easy access to full-text content for end users.
- Quicker turnaround for creation of new collections in the knowledgebases.
- Alma Community Zone metadata enrichment.
- Provider information flow to improve openness with content providers.
- Generating more CDI QuickLinks for quick and easy access to full-text content for end users.
- Quicker turnaround for creation of new collections in the knowledgebases.
Strengthening Connections with Content Providers
Ex Libris’ relationship with Content Providers is critical to ensure that we create the best possible experience for our mutual customers and librarian community.
We are focused on deepening our collaborations with content providers worldwide, by increasing our transparency and openness with providers so that they have insight into our mutual customers’ experience.
Strengthening these relationships will improve the timeliness of ongoing content ingestion, as well as bigger-picture planning and cooperations.
We are focused on deepening our collaborations with content providers worldwide, by increasing our transparency and openness with providers so that they have insight into our mutual customers’ experience.
Strengthening these relationships will improve the timeliness of ongoing content ingestion, as well as bigger-picture planning and cooperations.
Our customer stories
"the implementation discussions with the Ex Libris team, we engaged in direct conversations about how to adapt existing tasks to the new system and streamline our workflows"
Library Staff National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism
"The number of registered users since the launch of Alma and Primo has increased by almost 20,000 - it's great!"
Jaroslav Sivák Charles University
“Sourcing and filling each request in Rapido takes few steps compared to the multiple steps involved with our old system”
Roshan Thapa Charles Sturt University
"Having an open solution is important because it allows us to connect all of our systems to other systems across campus."
Eduardo Prieto University of Miami
"The last Alma release is very exciting. It's a major milestone for Ex Libris in the Linked Data development."
Xiaoli Li University of California, Davis
"When we migrated to Alma in 2018, one of our goals was to have one system to manage everything."
Jamen McGranahan Vanderbilt University
“We wanted a system that could handle the complex nature of our consortia.”
Wendy Ellis Florida Virtual Campus Library Services
"Alma benefits me in all aspects of e-resource management."
Danielle Ostendorf Colorado School of Mines
“[Rapido] makes the process as seamless as accessing items in the library’s own collection.”
Jennifer Young East Tennessee State University
“Our vision is to enable patrons to navigate whatever resource they need on a single server.”
Elyssa Gould University of Tennessee, Knoxville
“We were looking for certain requirements and Alma met all those criteria.”
Van Duong Royal Melbourne Hospital
“It’s much easier to manage the content and troubleshoot errors, with everything in one system and CZ updates coming every week.”
Elizabeth York Rutgers University
"...I can't imagine life or work without Alma. Too many things have changed...When we wanted to trigger the shift from print to electronic and digital, we did that with Alma."
Gijs Noels LIBIS
“With all the change we have seen … you can’t wait too long to adapt. Every five years, at least, you have to put everything on the table and rethink, from scratch.”
François Renaville University of Liège
"The unique full integration with Alma allows people to serendipitously find our content while searching the catalogue."
Alison Harvey Cardiff University
“Primo was the one place where we could integrate all the different resources that we have and give differentiated access to the different user groups.”
Knut Bøckman Royal Danish Library
"I don't think we would have been able to do a lot of the things that we've done without that type of customization framework."
Allen Jones The New School Library and Archives
"Creating a seamless experience where we take analytics and the actions in Alma and turn them into one."
Raphael Gabbay Ex Libris, Part of Clarivate
"Alma lets us get materials out so much faster and so much easier"
Matthew Farthing Washtenaw Community College
“It has been a really big shift.. yet this was the smoothest implementation I’ve ever been through.”
Jane Davis Linda Hall Library
"Linked Data is a new technology and this is an important next step in the future of libraries."
Itai Veltzman Ex Libris, Part of Clarivate
“Alma and Primo have not only made our lives easier from the librarian back end, but the clients — our students — are also very happy.”
Mary Turnbull Cairnmillar Institute
"The features that excite me most about Alma are automated holdings, Alma Analytics, and the quarterly releases of new functionality."
Charlie Remy Dartmouth Library
"Our goal is to make the network open to any library using any integrated library system"
Katie Birch Ex Libris, part of Clarivate
“A small library can use Alma effectively and efficiently.”
Karen WaitE Spokane Community College
"My favorite thing in Alma is analytics, it's so powerful, it really helps me with assessment and figuring out how we want to change our services..."
Christina Hennessey California State University - Northridge
“Our continuously expanding knowledge of the new system allows us to improve our workflows, everyday IT skills, and user experience."
Sara Melchior, Art Library Manager documenta archiv
Explore how SBART improves user experience and increases visibility using Alma & Primo
SBART
"When you take a look at Alma and what Alma can do and how that can be restructured that can open your mind to new possibilities."
Julie Kane Washington & Lee University
"The University of Siena decided to go live with Alma, joining other universities in our region."
Guido Badalamenti The University of Siena
“Together with all of my colleagues in the network, and of course with the help of Ex Libris, we overcame all problems"
Wolfgang Hamedinger OBVSG
"We've been able to do a lot of streamlined workflows with the same amount of staff, and we really appreciated working with the tools."
Pascal Calarco University of Windsor
“We have the best possible relationship with Ex Libris, as we share exactly the same objective - creating valued services for our faculty.”
Ming-Jiu Hwang National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University
"Collaboration with Ex Libris has been a journey of true partnership, which we hope will continue into the future."
Thomas Marty The Swiss Library Service Platform
“This API is exactly what we were hoping for ever since we migrated to Alma.”
Brian Yost Hope College
"Alma Analytics help highlight the value of the library's collections."
Simon Huggard Swinburne University
“The list of things we like about Alma is quite long – and getting longer, as we still have more to discover."
Bas Vat Leiden University
"What I really enjoy is the worldwide community. It makes you aware that even as a small library you are not alone.“
Christian Kieslinger University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten
“We were given a very good hand from Ex Libris project management and then we managed the migration well.”
Falk Hartwig The Nuremberg University of Music
"Thanks to the Alma Community Zone, we could activate or deactivate sections of our ebook inventory at any time."
Bettina Kaldenberg Library of the University of Mannheim
“The ability to coherently manage these various constellations of licenses and patron types was one of the reasons we selected Alma."
Knut Bøckman The Royal Danish Library
"Thanks to the possibilities provided by APIs, Alma is well prepared for the future.”
Leon Krauthausen, System Librarian Freie Universität Berlin
“Ex Libris solutions helped us broaden the use of technology within the library and provide innovative learning experiences for our students.”
Dr. Brandon A. Owens Fisk University
"Ex Libris Alma checks off all the boxes to meet our needs and leaves us with a lot of room for growth in the future."
Judith Drescher Molloy College
"The Alma platform has proven to be an excellent library system, smoothly integrating with other university systems."
Dalia Mendelsson Hebrew University of Jerusalem
"Alma has provided a different vision of the future of health libraries, allowing us to explore services beyond what we’ve previously considered."
Chris Parker The Prince Charles Hospital Library
"The Alma-based workflow is quick and efficient, from licensing all the way to getting the right content into the hands of our students."
Sarah Falls University of North Carolina School of the Arts
“Alma has made it possible for us to adapt our services and workflows so that we can operate effectively in an online environment."
Jane Saunders University of Leeds
"When you take a look at what Alma can do, and how that can be restructured, that can open your mind for new possibilities for your entire work life."
Julie Kane Washington and Lee University
"The library with the largest collection in Australia needed to streamline integration for accurate archival management."
Lynne Billington State Library of New South Wales
“Find out why an academic library at a specialist college transformed its services and operations through Alma, Primo and Leganto."
Laura Pilsel Harper Adams University
Unifying systems and workflows with Alma at the Library of Ara Institute of Canterbury
Claire Brocklehurst Ara Institutue of Canterbury
Supporting the Imperial College Library Mission with Ex Libris Higher-Ed Cloud Solutions
Katherine Rose, Katharine Thompson, James Garry Imperial College, London
Alma for Digital Resources Provides Critical Digital-Based Access at the University of Liège
François Renaville, Paul Thirion, Fabienne Prosmans, Stéphanie Simon University of Liège
Alma as Part of a Strategy to Become an International-Level Institution
Celine Qiu Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech)
University of Mpumalanga Brings Together Two Academic Libraries with Alma
Zanele Mathe University of Mpumalanga
Alma & Summon at Johnson County Community College
Michael Frisbie Johnson County Community College
Demonstrating and Deepening the Library's Value with Ex Libris Higher-Ed Solutions
Helen Woolfries Kingston University London
Alma at California State University: A Consolidation of Efficiency and Savings
Jessica Hartwigsen California State University
A Fulfillment Round Table: Invisible Convenience
Brian Thompson & Todd Vandenbark University of Iowa & Wartburg College
A Resource Sharing Round Table: How Macquarie University is Streamlining Interlibrary Loan
Tony L.H. Wai
Annette Schryver
Jim Kelly
Matthew Pinson
Macquarie University
Streamlining Researcher Access to Funding
Ryan Champagne Director of Systemwide Digital Library Services, California State University
Alma at the University of Wisconsin: The New UX and Consortium Collaboration
Crystal Buss Head of Access Services, University of Wisconsin
Primo at KU Leuven: The New Primo UI and the Primo Community
Mehmet Celik Senior Business Consultant, KU Leuven
Primo at City University of New York: Higher Usage of Electronic Resources and Better Indexing
Allie Verbovetskaya Web and Mobile Systems Librarian, City University of New York
Our team of experts looks forward to hearing from you
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Records in the Central Discovery Index (CDI)
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Bibliographic Records in Alma Community Zone
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Content Providers Worldwide
Ex Libris Webinars
21 Jan 2025
Upcoming
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Open new doors to your digital collections with Specto
Meet Specto, the platform powered by Academic AI that integrates all stages of digital collection management - from cataloguing to discovery and preservation. This session will pro...
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2025 Primo Roadmap Highlights
Join us for an exclusive overview of the Primo roadmap for 2025. We’ll highlight key initiatives, introduce exciting new developments, and share how these plans will continue to en...
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Ex Libris Summon and 360 Services: Customer Updates
Join us for an exclusive overview of the Summon roadmap for 2025.
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Ex Libris Provider Relations 2025 Roadmap: Enhancing Content...
Learn about Ex Libris' Provider Relations key initiatives for enhancing collaboration with content providers in 2025.
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Basics of Summon and 360 Services – Introduction and E...
This session will review your discovery services, like Summon and 360 Link, explain how to access the Client Center and add accounts, increase your understanding of the 360 Knowled...
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30 Jan 2025
Upcoming
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Open new doors to your digital collections with Specto
Meet Specto, the platform powered by Academic AI that integrates all stages of digital collection management - from cataloging to discovery and preservation. This session provides ...
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04 Feb 2025
Upcoming
Please choose time
Open new doors to your digital collections with Specto
Meet Specto, the platform powered by Academic AI that integrates all stages of digital collection management - from cataloguing to discovery and preservation. This session will pro...
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Please choose time
Basics of Summon and 360 Services – Customize Discover...
This session will include demonstrations of how to customize your discovery services (Summon, 360 Link, and E-Journal Portal), how to use the business-intelligence tools (usage sta...
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Introduction to Resource Sharing: Resource Sharing Fundament...
This session will provide an overview of Resource Sharing in Alma, including an introduction to different methods of Resource Sharing. Basic configurations will also be introduced....
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Introduction to Resource Sharing: Peer-to-Peer Resource Shar...
This session will cover configurations related to peer-to-peer Resource Sharing in Alma. Both borrowing and lending workflows will be covered.
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Introduction to Resource Sharing: Automated Fulfillment Netw...
This session will cover configurations related to Automated Fulfillment Networks in Alma. Note that this session is most relevant to institutions that are part of a consortium.
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Introduction to Resource Sharing: Broker-based (NCIP) Resour...
This session will cover configurations and workflows related to NCIP broker-based (e.g., ILLiad) Resource Sharing.
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-101 Overview and Backgroun...
This session focuses on Alma's inventory model and terminology for e-resources, types of electronic portfolios, and user roles for managing e-resources
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-102 Order and Activate Col...
This session focuses on general ordering and activation workflow, order one-time collection from Community Zone, order subscription collection from Community Zone, activate collect...
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-103 Order and Activate Por...
This session focuses on review exercises, general ordering and activating workflow, order subscription portfolio from Community Zone, activate single portfolio, view activated reso...
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-201 Maintain E-Resources
This session focuses on review exercises, bulk changes to portfolios, portfolio editor, update selective packages, portfolio loader, import profile, and deactivate or delete resour...
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-202 Troubleshoot Discovery
This session will contain a step-by-step process to troubleshoot linking issues in your discovery service, to see how the following sources can cause broken links: inactive service...
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-203 Overlap Analysis
This session focuses on review exercises, purpose and use-cases, compare a CZ collection to all of IZ, compare an IZ collection to all of IZ, and compare a list of titles to all of...
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-301 Usage Statistics, COUN...
This session focuses on review exercises, background on usage statistics, upload COUNTER reports, and set up SUSHI harvesting
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM-302 Analytics of E-Resourc...
This session focuses on review exercises, using Alma analytics, default ERM reports and dashboards, creating new reports, and overlap of print vs. electronic resources.
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM Bonus 1 Contribute to the ...
This session focuses on review exercises, goals and responsibilities of contributing, edit CZ bib records, contribute local e-resource portfolios to the CZ, contribute local e-reso...
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Managing Electronic Resources ERM Bonus 2 Upload Electronic ...
This session focuses on overview and workflow, activate the Collection in CZ/IZ, create a ProQuest Ebook Central integration profile, define the purchase model, record a purchase o...
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Our Services
All the Ex Libris consultants, trainers and experienced developers partner with you to tailor your solutions.
Cloud
Services
Services
Our revolutionary cloud services deliver exceptional reliability and the highest levels of security and data privacy across all institutional data, systems and processes.
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Content
Services
Services
We continuously grow and innovate our content services to support discovery and provide easy access to relevant information, optimizing every aspect of the research and learning experience.
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Professional
Services
Services
Our best-in-class professional services provided by our global teams ensure on-time and on-budget project implementation and we are with you every step of the way with on-going advice, training, and support.
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Support
Services
Services
We are committed to ensuring a high level of satisfaction among our customers. Our dedicated support services team attends to your specific configurations and needs on time, every time.
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FAQ
Ex Libris maintains three Knowledgebases and one Central Discovery Index. These high quality metadata databases power all Ex Libris products, including Alma, Primo, Summon, SFX, 360 and more.
The Knowledgebases are maintained on the journal/book-level metadata. The Central Discovery Index (CDI) is maintained on the article/book-chapter metadata level. Ex Libris does not host full text content, while ensuring easy and intuitive access to the content on the relevant provider’s platform.
The metadata is supplied directly by Content Providers, otherwise Ex Libris searches for alternative methods to obtain or create the necessary metadata at high quality levels for the benefit of our institutions, libraries, catalogers, librarians and end-users.
The Ex Libris Content team manages the foundational metadata catalogs and databases that power all Ex Libris products. Ex Libris Content is essential for all librarian activities, from the Alma Community Zone (CZ) and the SFX and 360 Knowledgebases, to the massive Central Discovery Index (CDI). These Knowledgebases and Index are required for Alma and Primo/Summon to confirm availability of content, create links to it, and make it accessible to end users.
Ex Libris is highly transparent and open about our content coverage. All content managed and maintained by Ex Libris is cataloged and tracked in the Ex Libris Knowledge Center Content page. This includes the Alma Community Zone Collection List, as well as the Central Discovery Index (CDI) Collection List.
Yes, content neutrality is an important value for Ex Libris, ingrained into processed and workflows from start to finish.
Starting with community engagement and input on what metadata should be included in our databases, this ensures that the collection and content coverage is diverse and inclusive, spanning all languages, regional requirements and other local considerations.
Working closely with Content Providers across the globe, we are certain to have access to high quality metadata that covers all content types, formats, languages, and more.
Prioritization of content ingestion is based on community needs, requests and feedback, establishing a strong, customer-driven basis for relevant collection management.
Yes, Ex Libris follows content standards such as NISO guidelines, Library of Congress standards and MARC cataloging guidelines.
The Ex Libris Content team’s goal is to provide the best content services to libraries, content providers and library patrons. We do this by following our mission to provide content quality at scale, maintain neutrality and diversity, and support ease of connectivity for librarians.
