Published: Sept. 24, 2021

A project to employ an open source Libraries Services Platform (LSP) to manage materials and resources at the University Libraries and the William A. Wise Law Library reached a significant milestone in August when preparation for transferring data between the old system and the new began.

A LSP is the most essential of all technologies in a library. It enables libraries to check out books, place holds on items, manage electronic resources and populate a library catalog. In academic libraries, these systems are large, complex and customized for each institution — and also costly because there are very few commercial providers globally. 

Index Data, a software and services company specializing in creating and providing services for  innovative products and tools for the library ecosystem, is managing this transfer of data from the legacy system to the FOLIO LSP.  

“Moving to FOLIO is financially and technologically strategic, but it is also a declaration of our university’s values,” said Assistant Dean for Research and Innovation Strategies Jamie Wittenberg. “Our libraries care deeply about supporting community-driven open source initiatives. This move is an opportunity to develop shared services across our campus libraries and participate in a global movement towards open, transparent, and sustainable infrastructure.”

The FOLIO LSP is the realization of a collaboration between a growing number of libraries, vendors, developers and consortia to build an open source libraries services platform. CU Boulder has actively supported this effort since 2017 when it became a member of the Open Library Environment and committed to utilizing the FOLIO LSP in 2021. R1 Research University Libraries who are actively contributing resources to the development of the FOLIO LSP include: Michigan State University, Texas A&M University, Duke University, Cornell University, University of Chicago, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Auburn University and the University of Alabama. 

While library users should not notice any difference once adoption of the FOLIO LSP is complete, in 2022, it signifies a fulfillment of the libraries’ strategic plan to support technologies that are open, interoperable, universally designed and prioritize user privacy.

“Index Data is very proud to have been selected by CU Boulder to partner with them in their migration to FOLIO,” Mike Gorrell, Director for Index Data said. “Our experience both in developing FOLIO and in providing migration services to libraries of all types and sizes, positioned us to provide the precise help needed by the University Libraries.”

The University Libraries in partnership with the Law Library has attained Financial Futures funding from CU Boulder to support the transition to the FOLIO Library Services Platform (LSP) with a full implementation planned for University Libraries in summer 2022. The law library will migrate to the FOLIO LSP in 2023.