National Library of Israel Goes Live with Ex Libris Alma Platform to Power the Library’s Far-Reaching Initiatives Today and into the Future
JERUSALEM, ISRAEL, February 26, 2020 – Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that the National Library of Israel has gone live with the Ex Libris Alma® library services platform, which will now be handling the management of the library’s sizeable, and growing, collections; promoting collaboration with local and international institutions; and supporting the library’s move to its remarkable new home.
The National Library of Israel holds the largest collection of knowledge and unique materials focused on Jewish civilization and the history and culture of Israel, in addition to vast collections on Islam and the Middle East. Perhaps more than any other institution in the Jewish world, the library encompasses a wealth of research on the Jewish experience over the last three millennia. Expanding the library’s collaboration with local and international libraries and heritage institutions and exposing its collections to new audiences around the globe are key elements of the library’s mission.
In the past few years, the National Library of Israel has carried out various digitization projects and has gradually exposed its rare collections, including manuscripts, maps, and music, to researchers and the general public. To facilitate these efforts and accommodate the worldwide shift from print to digital materials, the library had to rethink its infrastructure and services and develop a plan of renewal. A major component of this plan is the upcoming move to a new building that was designed from the outset to support the National Library’s mission to “collect, preserve, cultivate, and endow the treasures of knowledge, heritage, and culture in general, with an emphasis on the Land of Israel, the State of Israel, and the Jewish people in particular."
National Library of Israel Director General Oren Weinberg explained, “The National Library of Israel is going through a period of renewal and innovation. Advanced, up-to-date technologies and systems like Alma are the backbone of our expansion and will play a crucial role in enabling us to collaborate with other institutions, both in Israel and abroad. Our new building will include a robotic warehouse management system that will be fully integrated with Alma services. The Alma platform will improve workflow management, provide actionable analytics that can reduce bottlenecks, and help us lower our expenses through greater automation and cloud support. Best of all, Alma can accomplish all these goals while enhancing the user experience for researchers and the general public all over the world.”
Bar Veinstein, Ex Libris president, commented, “We are honored that the National Library of Israel, the leader among Israeli libraries and cultural institutions and, for many years already, an invaluable partner of Ex Libris, has adopted the Alma platform. The National Library aspires to stand at the forefront of innovation and provide easy access to the intellectual heritage of Israel and to scholarship throughout the world. We welcome the National Library to the Alma community and invite the library to continue contributing to, and collaborating with, other leading libraries around the world.”
About the National Library of Israel
Founded in Jerusalem in 1892, the National Library of Israel (NLI) serves as the dynamic collective memory of the Jewish people worldwide and Israelis of all backgrounds and faiths. While continuing to serve as Israel's preeminent research library, the NLI has recently embarked on an ambitious journey of renewal to encourage diverse audiences in Israel and around the globe to engage with the library’s treasures in new and meaningful ways. This endeavor is taking place through a range of innovative educational, cultural, and digital initiatives, as well as through a landmark new campus designed by the firm Herzog & de Meuron, with Mann-Shinar serving as the executive architect. The new National Library of Israel is currently under construction adjacent to the Knesset and is proceeding on schedule, to be completed in 2021.
About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions that enable institutions and their individual users to create, manage, and share knowledge. In close collaboration with its customers and the broader community, Ex Libris develops creative solutions that increase library productivity, maximize the impact of research activities, enhance teaching and learning, and drive student mobile engagement. Ex Libris serves over 7,500 customers in 90 countries. For more information about Ex Libris, see our website, and join us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
About ProQuest (https://www.proquest.com)
ProQuest is committed to supporting the important work happening in the world’s research and learning communities. The company curates content that matters to the advancement of knowledge, assembling an archive of billions of vetted, indexed documents. It simplifies workflows so that people and institutions use time effectively. And because ProQuest connects information communities, complex networks of systems and processes work together efficiently. With ProQuest, finding answers and deriving insights is straightforward and leads to extraordinary outcomes.
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