Carnegie Mellon University Becomes 1,000th Institution to Select Ex Libris Alma Library Services Platform

JERUSALEM, Sept. 12, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ex Libris^®, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that the Ex Libris Alma^® cloud-based library services platform is now the system of choice for one thousand customers. The thousandth institution to select Alma is Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), which, like the 999 other Alma institutions, will benefit from the streamlined workflows of a unified SaaS resource management solution. Alma will be replacing the SirsiDynix Symphony^® integrated library system.

Seeking a solution that is a fundamentally new platform rather than an update of an old product, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries selected Alma primarily for its ease of use, its compatibility with other systems, and the flexibility of its analytics and reporting options. Through its user-friendly interface and integration with the university's financial systems, Alma will greatly improve workflow efficiencies in account creation, billing, and other areas.

Alma continues to be the library platform of choice for academic, state, and national libraries and consortia. The robust, scalable Alma infrastructure is currently live at 750 institutions and in use by over 28,000 library staff members daily in 33 countries around the world, managing over 690 million bibliographic records. Since the beginning of 2017, Alma has carried out over 22 million loan transactions.

Alma is the only truly unified resource management platform available today, handling digital, electronic, and physical resources in a single, streamlined system. The open, cloud-based Alma architecture lowers maintenance and operational costs, while Alma analytics provides libraries with industry benchmarks and a deep understanding of their collections' usage and the possibilities for optimization.

The collaboration of Ex Libris development teams with Alma customers is key to Alma's success and is evident in the strong user involvement in numerous working groups. Over 900 ideas from Alma users have been posted to the Alma Idea Exchange since its inception in September 2015, with many already implemented or added to the Alma roadmap.

Betsy Friesen, director of data management and access for the University of Minnesota Libraries and the coordinator of the Alma Product Working Group, noted, "It has been exciting to collaborate with Ex Libris and contribute to Alma's growth and success. We use Alma to do our jobs every day, so we are pleased to see how much our opinions matter in Alma development."

CMU looks forward to benefiting from the openness of the Alma platform. More than 140 Alma APIs are available through the Ex Libris Developer Network and are used by the active Alma developer community to create additional services and automated workflows. In 2017 alone, Alma has handled more than 500 million API transactions for the hundreds of institutions that use it daily. 

"We are honored to be the thousandth customer of the Alma library services platform," commented Keith Webster, dean of Carnegie Mellon University Libraries. "After a meticulous review of library systems, we identified Alma as the platform that most closely aligns with our vision of the library of the future. We are excited to partner with Ex Libris to implement systems that will meet the needs of our students and faculty for years to come."

Ex Libris Vice President of Resource Management Solutions Dvir Hoffman said, "We are delighted to welcome Carnegie Melon to the Alma community and are elated by Alma's unprecedented adoption by libraries worldwide. Ex Libris continues to concentrate on collaborating with our users to successfully address the broad range of current library needs while paying close attention to the future of libraries and their place in the academic ecosystem." 

About Carnegie Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university that was founded as a technical institute in 1900. In 1967, the Carnegie Institute of Technology and Mellon Institute of Industrial Research merged to form today's Carnegie Mellon University. CMU is known for its world-class, interdisciplinary programs in the arts, business, computer science, engineering, the humanities, public policy, and sciences. Ranked by Times Higher Education (2016-2017) as the twenty-third top university in the world, CMU counts 13,650 students from 114 countries, over 100,000 living alumni, and over 5,000 faculty and staff members.

For more information, visit the Carnegie Mellon University Libraries website at http://www.library.cmu.edu/.

About Ex Libris
Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based solutions for higher education. Offering SaaS solutions for the management and discovery of the full spectrum of library and scholarly materials, as well as mobile campus solutions driving student engagement and success, Ex Libris serves thousands of customers in 90 countries. For more information about Ex Libris, see our website, and join us on Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter.

SOURCE Ex Libris