UKJ NLS - Towards a New Library System

The National Library of Finland is also a service centre for the Finnish Library Network. We are building next generation consortium services for libraries.

There are currently three main projects

• National Digital Library (NDL) Public interface, Finna 2008-
  Libraries, archives, museums
  
  • In production 2012, new organisations will join
• National Metadata Repository, Melinda 2008-
  
  • University and polytechnic libraries, public libraries, some special libraries
  • In production 2008, new organisations will join
• New Library System, UKJ NLS 2013-
  
  • University and polytechnic libraries, public libraries, some special libraries
  • Planning phase 2013
  • Implementation phase will start 2014 depending on funding

The National Digital Library Public interface Finna is based on VuFind OSS library resource portal. In the future it will be also the public interface for the New Library System we are planning this year.

At present the Metadata Repository uses the library system  Aleph  (by ExLibris) and the participating libraries’ local databases are using Voyager (also by ExLibris). Records are catalogued in the repository and then replicated to local databases according to specific filtering rules. The expansion to cover all library sectors will bring more library systems into the structure. As a centralised data pool The Metadata Repository will be the core of the New Library System.

Libraries in Finland and their systems NOW

• appr. 40 higher education libraries, 300 public libraries and 70 special libraries
• 2 consortia (Linnea2 for mainly university libraries and AMKIT for libraries of the Universities of Applied Sciences), appr. 50 public library co-operational networks, councils for the different library sectors (university libraries, special libraries and public libraries)
• appr. 10 different integrated library systems

Towards a New Library System

The aim of the process is to assess the feasibility of a library system entirety for all types of libraries in Finland. In the libraries in different library sectors in the daily routines, there are different traditions, domains of expertise, and social language. This will be the first case in Finland when representatives from different library sectors together formulate the hard core aims of the library system.

Guidelines steering the development are:

• Open Source
• Possibility to integrate the NLS to other national systems (eg. Finna)
• Use of existing knowledge
• Modular structure
• Cooperation with libraries

In 2013 we are on planning phase, covering requirement specification and project plan. Implementation phase will start in 2014 if funding is granted. We will also look at other OSS projects, such as Kuali OLE.

The main modules of NLS will be

Core modules

• Circulation
  
  • Lending and returning materials, renewals, reservations, notifications etc.
• Cataloguing and collection management
  
  • Bibliographic, holdings, item and authority records; collection management
• Acquisitions
  
  • Printed/electronic monographs/serials, budgets, funds etc.
• Interfaces to external systems
  
  • Ontologies and vocabularies, accounting systems, supplier and vendor systems etc.

Joint databases

• Bibliographic, collections, and patron databases and the like