NCSU Libraries to Help Develop Next Generation of Library Management Software

Media Contact:
dwhiscoe , NCSU Libraries, (919) 513-3425

The North Carolina State University Libraries announced today that it will join a partnership with Duke University Libraries and select research libraries from around the country to develop the next generation of software to manage the collections of tomorrow's academic libraries. The Kuali OLE partnership ”led by Indiana University and funded by a $2.38 million dollar grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ”will bring together a community of academic libraries that want to change the way that information is managed in an increasingly digital environment. The project will develop community source software that will meet the needs of the next-generation of researchers and will be made available to libraries worldwide.

Large academic research libraries manage and provide access to millions of items and use software to track many interrelated transactions, from ordering and paying for these items to loaning them to library patrons. The systems currently in use to catalog and track these transactions are largely based on the print collections of the past. But today's research library collections are rapidly evolving to include increasingly diverse digital materials ranging from leased electronic journals to digitized photograph collections. Tomorrow's management software must accommodate and leverage these fundamental changes.

Research libraries are in dire need of systems that can support the management of research collections for the next-generation scholar,  says Robert McDonald, executive director for the project and associate dean for library technologies at Indiana University. This approach demonstrates the best of open-source software development, community-directed partnership resource needs, and a market of commercial support providers to truly align with the needs of research libraries within the higher education environment. 

We are delighted to be a part of this great project,  announced Susan Nutter, vice provost and director of the NCSU Libraries. The NCSU Libraries has always been comfortable at the pioneering edge of the digital library, and we are most happy to lend our expertise in this next large step forward. 

More than 200 libraries, educational institutions, professional organizations, and businesses laid the groundwork for this initiative by participating in the Open Library Environment (OLE) (pronounced Oh-LAY) project, which was supported by an earlier planning grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Duke University. Based on the broad insight gained by OLE, work will now begin to create a next-generation library system that breaks away from print-based workflows and reflects the changing nature of library materials and new approaches to scholarly work.

In November the Kuali Foundation, a community of universities, colleges, businesses, and other organizations that have partnered to build and sustain community-source software for higher education, announced its partnership in the project. The initiative now funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is known as the Kuali OLE project.

The NCSU Libraries will join with Duke University to represent the Triangle Research Libraries Network (TRLN) in the partnership. Other Kuali OLE partners include Indiana University (lead); Florida Consortium (University of Florida representing Florida International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, Rollins College, University of Central Florida, University of Miami, University of South Florida, the Florida Center for Library Automation); Lehigh University; University of Chicago; University of Maryland; University of Michigan; and the University of Pennsylvania.