September 16, 2014
These principles and policies for the Alma community’s shared catalog will enable increased openness and collaboration
Jerusalem, Israel—September 16, 2014. Ex Libris® Group, a world leader in the provision of library automation solutions, announced that the international group of renowned library experts who advise Ex Libris on the Alma Community Zone has completed the guidelines and policies underlying the Alma Community Catalog. The advisory group analyzed the needs and objectives of Alma users, best practices in metadata, and ways to facilitate collaboration, so as to develop the most appropriate policies for the open and shared Alma community catalog.
Governed by the Alma community, the Community Catalog comprises metadata records that are open for use and enrichment by libraries that are using the Alma library management service. The purpose of the Community Catalog is to streamline resource-management processes, including acquisitions, cataloging, and fulfillment. The group, which began advising Ex Libris in 2012, includes experienced librarians and metadata experts from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, representing a variety of institutions from individual research libraries to large consortia.
Sharona Sagi, director of URM strategy, commented: ”The Alma Community Catalog is guided by the principles of openness and sharing. Our goal is to make the Catalog a reliable source of content and to maximize the contributions of Alma institutions. Together with the Advisory Group, we formed these guidelines for Alma cataloguers as a way to foster the most creative and collaborative environment possible for the use and reuse of metadata from the Community Catalog.”
”This is a major step forward for the Ex Libris vision for openness, which is central to our strategy for Alma,” remarked Bar Veinstein, corporate vice president for resource management solutions at Ex Libris. ”It has been a privilege to work closely with each member of the Advisory Group, who have together developed a concise and clear mandate for the Community Catalog to be a model of sharing and collaboration.”
The Alma Community Catalog: Cataloging Standards, Policies, Rights, and Responsibilities document can be found on the Ex Libris website here.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris is a leading provider of automation solutions for academic, national, and research libraries. Offering the only comprehensive product suite for electronic, digital, and print materials, Ex Libris provides efficient, user-friendly products that serve the needs of libraries today and will facilitate their transition into the future. Ex Libris maintains an impressive customer base consisting of thousands of sites in more than 90 countries on six continents.
Dedicated to developing creative solutions in close collaboration with customers, Ex Libris enables libraries to maximize productivity and efficiency and, at the same time, greatly enhance the user experience. By empowering users to discover and obtain the information they need, libraries ensure their position as the bridge to knowledge.
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