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Queen’s University Belfast New Library System 2023

After an extensive period of researching potential systems, Queen’s University Library is excited to announce that we will be implementing a new library management system and discovery platform in 2023.

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We will be migrating to the Ex Libris Alma® library services platform, and Primo® discovery solution. This will be one of the most significant changes we have made to our library management system in around 10 years.

Queen’s University Library has extensive collections on three sites; the McClay Library is situated at the heart of the University’s main campus and covers the arts, humanities, social sciences, and science and engineering. It also houses the Special Collections of rare and manuscript materials, the University Archives, and the Northern Ireland Official Publications Archive. The Medical Library is situated within the main teaching hospital and provides library services for medicine and associated disciplines. The Biomedical Library offers library support at the Queen’s University Medical Biology Centre for the biomedical and biological sciences. Queen’s also holds two contracts to manage the provision of library services to the HSC (Health & Social Care in Northern Ireland) and AFBI (Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute).

Our new library system will improve the user experience by providing a more effective single-access point of contact for users to search across millions of the library’s electronic, digital, and print resources – including our special collections, archives, and research and information systems.

Users will benefit from real-time record updates, a single user account and a modern, responsive interface. Staff will benefit from the integrated, streamlined workflows. The detailed analytical and reporting functionality of Alma will enable us to plan for and meet the needs of teaching and research. Resources will be centralised, easing the management and administration of records.

The cloud-based infrastructure will lower maintenance and administration requirements for support staff, allowing them to focus on other areas of development and innovation.

With the implementation of this new system, we are further enhancing our digital infrastructure and creating a more unified library experience for all our users.

Some benefits of the new system:

  • Centralised resources
  • Improved search and filtering functionality
  • Combined print, electronic and digital results from multiple sources
  • Increased visibility of resources
  • Mobile ready
  • Improved reporting and analytics
  • Enhanced integration with existing student and research information systems
  • Cloud-based infrastructure

Jane O'Neill, University Librarian and Assistant Director, Information Services said “I am delighted that we are implementing a new library management system and resource discovery platform in 2023. This will further enhance the student experience of library services, providing a streamlined, easy to use interface to millions of the library’s electronic, digital, and print resources.”

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