Institute of Information Sciences (IZUM)
COBISS - Slovene Virtual Library and the COBISS.Net
IZUM is engaged primarily with the development, maintenance, and operation of the COBISS - Slovene Virtual Library system and services, which constitute the root of the library information system in Slovenia. COBISS was developed by the institute in 1991 and today provides access to data contributed by over 400 Slovenian libraries.
In 2003, an agreement was signed on the establishment of the COBISS.Net network and the free exchange of bibliographic records created within autonomous library information systems of several countries. To date, over 600 libraries from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia have become part of the network, while Bulgaria, Albania, and Kosovo are preparing for the implementation of the COBISS system.
SICRIS
IZUM and the Slovene Research Agency (ARRS) develop and maintain the SICRIS information system on research in Slovenia, which lists research projects currently underway, as well as research organisations, programmes, teams and individual researchers. SICRIS is integrated with the COBBIS system and its union bibliographic catalogue/database COBIB.SI, affording users access to the bibliographies of researchers. SICRIS is part of the ERGO (European Research Gateways Online) project, which provides information on R&D information in Europe. The institute also supports the development of similar information systems (E-CRIS) abroad.
Services and databases
On the basis of consortium agreements with foreign information services, IZUM provides its Slovene users free access to services and databases, such as Web of Science, ProQuest, and EIFL Direct – EBSCOhost. In collaboration with the University of Maribor, University of Nova Gorica, University of Primorska, Jožef Štefan Institute (IJS), University Medical Centre Maribor, and Educational Research Institute (ERI), IZUM develops and maintains a search platform which compiles the content of a number of online databases, enabling fast access to articles, library catalogues, electronic newspaper databases, electronic book services, etc.
See also
- Institute of Information Sciences (IZUM) Library
- COBISS - Slovene Virtual Library
- COLIB - Slovene libraries database