As part of the GO:AL (“Go to Alma”) project, all university libraries in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and some in Rhineland-Palatinate will be switching to the new Alma library management system by the end of 2023.
The new system will bring the threads of many of our services together: ordering new items, cataloging the publications held by all the University of Bonn’s libraries and providing data and features for borrowing.
Our bonnus search portal will also be supplied with data from the library management system.
The switch will mean major changes to how we work:
- The new Alma system will replace several work tools used to date, including, in particular, the SISIS library management system and our link resolver. At the same time, the union catalog for NRW is also being switched over.
- All tasks that Alma supports are being redesigned in the course of the project, while procedures are being made workflow-based and thus more transparent.
- Alma will also manage campus-wide licenses for electronic periodicals, databases and e-books. Available online publications should become much easier to reference.
- Alma is to be accessed on a “software as a service” (SaaS) basis, with the provider supplying the IT infrastructure in the cloud. Memory and software will no longer need to be kept available and be run locally, enabling the University to benefit immediately from all system upgrades.
Many of the preparations for the switch have already begun in the background and will be stepped up further over the coming months.
There will also be changes for you as a user, which we will tell you more about as the project progresses. Any restrictions to user services necessitated by the changeover between the systems will be announced in good time.
Please do not hesitate to email alma@uni-bonn.de or contact Annette Specht if you have any questions.