German

IZUM

Presernova 17
SI-2000 Maribor
Slovenia

Tel. + 386 62 220 401
Fax + 386 62 224 334

E-mail

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The Institute of Information Science (IZUM) in Maribor is a research and development and infrastructural organization. It was established by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia as a bibliographic utility responsible for the development of a common basis for the computer-supported library information system in Slovenia, as an information service for Slovenia’s research sector, and as a center for the development and technical services of the computer infrastructure for research, educational, and cultural activities in Slovenia. Currently employing some seventy people, the Institute has been expanding its activities into other countries and, in accordance with the global nature of information technology, has joined the relevant international organizations and projects.

COBISS

COBISS-the Cooperative Online Bibliographic System and Services-represents an ingenious solution developed over ten years ago by the IZUM team when the Institute began to organize the computer exchange of bibliographic information. Today, COBISS is used by more than two hundred of the largest libraries in Slovenia, and the number of users in other countries is rapidly increasing (including libraries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Yugoslavia as well as the two Slovene libraries in Austria and Italy). The system is based on shared online cataloguing; the result is the COBIB union catalogue. Participants in the system also have access to the local databases of individual libraries, which means that the whole system functions as a Slovenia-wide virtual library.

The COBISS system also provides users from Slovenia with access to foreign databases for which special agreements have been signed: ISSN, OCLC-First Search, SwetScan, etc. COBISS/OPAC provides online access via three types of interfaces: text, windows, and www. COBISS provides libraries with services for the automation of cataloguing, loans, reports, and surveys; it trains users; and it provides on-going technical support and assistance.