The Austrian Library Network and its service center celebrate the migration of the network’s federated database to an Alma network zone, which connects all member libraries
Hamburg, Germany—June 20, 2018. Ex Libris®, a ProQuest® company, is pleased to announce that 13 members of the Österreichische Bibliothekenverbund (Austrian Library Network, or OBV) and the Österreichische Bibliothekenverbund und Service GmbH (Austrian Library Network and Service, or OBVSG), have successfully migrated their federated database to a network zone of the Ex Libris Alma® library services platform. This zone will serve as the cataloging system for all OBV members, including those running the Ex Libris Aleph® or Ex Libris Alephino® system, until the latter have migrated to the Alma platform. The migration is expected to be completed in 2021.
In early 2016, the OBV (under the management of the OBVSG) and Ex Libris began to migrate member libraries to the Alma platform. The first six institutions went live in August 2017 and werejoined by another seven institutions in January 2018. Most of the remaining 57 members of the OBV will migrate to the Alma platform over the next three years.
OBVSG Managing Director Wolfgang Hamedinger explained, „The cornerstone of our implementation of Alma consists of the conversion of the OBV database to an Alma network zone, the integration of the institutional zones of the libraries that are now on the Alma platform, and the functionality-retaining parallel operation of institutions that remain on Aleph. This is the first time that this has been done, and I think that all involved may be proud of what has been achieved as a result of their great effort.“
Ofer Mosseri, corporate vice president and general manager of Ex Libris EMEA, said, „We are delighted to celebrate this major milestone with OBV and OBVSG. The success of the project demonstrates how the Alma platform creates efficiencies, supports collaboration between libraries of all sizes and types, and facilitates integration.“