Library automation services Ex Libris Group has announced that the Bibliotheksservice-Zentrum Baden-Württemberg (BSZ), the Verbundzentrale des Gemeinsamen Bibliotheksverbunds (VZG), and the Hochschulbibliothekszentrum des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen (hbz) consortia have selected the Alma® resource management service as the technology infrastructure for their new Common Bibliographic Data Zone, which will be based on the advanced Alma Network Zone capabilities.
As part of the collaborative project, the three consortia will form a joint consortium to define, create, and maintain the Common Bibliographic Data Zone. This umbrella consortium will be providing the necessary technical and organisational infrastructure and will have control over data in the Common Bibliographic Data Zone.
During the implementation process the databases of the three member consortia will continue to act as the primary cataloging databases and at the same time will be synchronized with the Common Bibliographic Data Zone database. Once the implementation phase has been concluded, libraries of other consortia will be invited to use this collaborative infrastructure. The project is also an important milestone in the reorganization of the national information infrastructure in Germany and is aligned with the recommendations of the German Council of Science and Humanities and the German Research Foundation (DFG).
