Integrating the British library: implementation of Aleph 500

Alan Danskin

Data Quality & Authority Control Manager.

Sistema integrado de gestión bibliotecaria: motor de cambio 24th September 2008, Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid.

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The British Library - Locations

St Pancras, London Boston Spa, W. Yorks.

Colindale, LondonHumanities Reading Room

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British Library

British MuseumDept. of Printed Books

National Reference Library of Science and Invention

National Central Library

British National Bibliography

National Lending Library for Science and Technology

India Office Library and Records

British Institute of Recorded Sound

National NewspaperLibrary

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WLN ICARUSSPACE

BLC edit

LOCAS

BLAISE

Catalogue Bridge

SPIS

BLPC

StP. OPAC

Legacy systems (simplified)

FINANCE

PALAS

AcquisitionsSystems

ABRS

DSCSystems

SPHOA

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Legacy architecture

Complex architecture

Complex dependencies

Bureau Service

High support costs

Obsolete hardware/software

High risk

No UNICODE support

Poor user experience

Lack of agility

Constraint on collaboration

Low web profile

Redundancy and duplication of data in silos

Catalogue maintenance expensive and difficult

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‘Vision’ for Integrated Library System

Simplifies BL technical architecture

Interfaces between different parts of BL

Uses international standards

Open to external user systems

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Guiding principles for ILS

‘Off the peg’, unmodified package

BL will modify business processes around the package

‘Satellite’ systems only when impossible for ILS to provide business need

Priority to acquisitions, cataloguing and OPAC (but take account of document supply)

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ILS Programme

Procure and implement package

Migrate data from legacy systems

Develop interfaces ‘Satellite’ systems (if any) External systems

Modify business processes

Wind-down legacy systems

Future developments

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ILS Project Timeline

23 April 2002 Advert placed in OJEC (Official Journal of the European Community) 14 May 2002 DCMS accepted ILS Business Case 20 Dec 2002 Contract signed with Ex Libris

22 March 2004 First new record added to ILS

1 June 2004 Internal processing starts on ILS

29 June 2004 Reading rooms live using ILS OPAC

7 September 2004 Web OPAC live using ILS

July 2006 Aleph Version 17 Upgrade

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Some implementation statistics

16 Legacy systems replaced

1000+ staff trained

75.3 million records migrated

12 million UKMARC records converted to MARC 21

5 character sets replaced by UNICODE

£1,000,000 p.a. saved on external systems costs

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Transformative experience

Profound change to public view of collections

Re-engineering of collection processing Previously by function Now separate workflows for monographs & serials Re-use of data

Investment in catalogue maintenance and data enhancement LC/NACO name authority alignment Deduplication Retrospective conversion

Integration of digital collections

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Derived cataloguing strategy

Items Fast Tracked / Auto Upgraded (at Finishing)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Jun-

06

Aug

-06

Oct

-06

Dec

-06

Feb

-07

Apr

-07

Jun-

07

Aug

-07

Oct

-07

Dec

-07

Feb

-08

Apr

-08

Jun-

08

Aug

-08

% ProfessionallyCatalogued

% Auto Upgraded /Fast Tracked

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14

15

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Access to full text digitised resources

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Access to full text of electronic resources

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Quality assurance

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Retrospective catalogue conversion

Retrospective Conversion Data. Load v Delivery.

0

100000

200000

300000

400000

500000

600000

700000

800000

900000

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

Re

co

rds

Delivered

Loaded

Aleph implementation

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Out of scope

Circulation module not implemented

Import/Export Satellite systems

Archives and manuscripts

Shelfmarking

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What’s next

Integrated search interface ILS Archives and Manuscript Sound recordings

Aleph Version Upgrade Decision pending on implementation in late 2009

ILS Contract Expires in 2012

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Conclusion

Motor for change

Huge volume of work

Substantial financial savings

Ongoing costs

Created new opportunities