Importance of Interoperability: Letter to EBSCO and Ex Libris

On March 24, CARLI communicated with Tim Collins, Founder/CEO of EBSCO Information Services, and Bar Veinstein, President of Ex Libris Group to express our concern over the lack of seamless data sharing between CARLI’s two largest supported services, Ex Libris Alma/Primo VE and EBSCO Academic Search Complete. Many of you have been in touch with me about the importance of this issue, and the exclusively online instruction environment that we suddenly find ourselves working in today only reinforces the need to achieve true integration for discovery systems and strengthens our determination to pursue it.

The letter was drafted by an ad hoc task force assembled for the purpose, and endorsed by the CARLI Board of Directors at their March meeting. Library directors are encouraged to add their name/institution as a signatory by emailing the message, “Please add my name and institution to the EBSCO Ex Libris Letter,” to support@carli.illinois.edu. We will continue to update the online version as names/institutions are received. The more Governing Member Directors who sign on, the greater the impact.

Please send an email to support@carli.illinois.edu if you have any questions.