National Library of Australia - Gateways>

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 50| April 2001


New Library System
ILMS Replacement Project

The National Library has started a project to replace its Integrated Library Management System (ILMS). The Library installed Dynix in 1991, and the time has come to upgrade to a more modern system. The ILMS underpins all the Library’s major services, including, acquisitions, cataloguing, reference & information services, preservation, publishing and exhibitions. Since most of the Library’s service areas are stakeholders in the choice of system, the Statement of Requirements is being developed as a Library-wide project.

The Library is committed to using its catalogue as a ‘one stop shop’ for access to its collections in all formats, including textual materials, pictures, manuscripts, music scores, maps, oral history and electronic resources. In particular the Library wishes to improve the reliability of access from the online catalogue to electronic resources, complementing the major digitisation initiatives that are already under way.

The new library system will deliver significant improvements to efficiency, with more support for the management of original materials, including critical data such as copyright contact information and access conditions. The Library will also require more support for recording preservation management information on the database, to support the preservation programs of the Library.

Since 1980 the Library has catalogued all its collections directly onto the National Bibliographic Database, and then downloaded cataloguing records to the Library’s local database. The new system will bring the option of cataloguing on the Library’s local database and uploading to the National Bibliographic Database. This will enable the Library to fully realise the efficiencies of integrated technical services. The Library will remain fully committed to prompt reporting to the National Bibliographic Database, in order to share its holdings and its cataloguing with other Australian libraries and library users.

The Library has appointed Julia Trainor to manage the ILMS replacement project. It is planned to select the new system this year, with implementation to be completed in 2002.
—Julia Trainor

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