Axiell Group awarded prestigious assignment for the National Library of Israel

Axiell Group has been awarded a prestigious contract by the National Library of Israel. Adlib Information Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Axiell, will supply a cloud-based Archive Management System for Israel’s many and diverse cultural treasures which are, at present, at risk of being lost. Now they will be archived for the future in a common IT system, where researchers, students and the general public can access them using Axiell’s system.

“We have been awarded one of the most prestigious archiving system assignments in the world. The fact that the project will also help to preserve important cultural treasures and that our service will make them accessible to all is simply fantastic. I am very proud that Axiell has won this assignment against fierce international competition”, says Joel Sommerfeldt, CEO of Axiell Group. “Axiell achieved the highest score of all the organisations which submitted tenders.”

At present, many of Israel’s cultural treasures have been forgotten or are being destroyed by the passage of time. The aim of the Israel Archive Network Project is to collect them all in a national network of Israeli heritage institutes. Chezkie Kasnett, the Digital Projects Manager for the National Library of Israel, NLI, has a great deal of confidence in the solution supplied by Adlib Information Systems, a member of the Axiell Group:

“We are convinced that Adlib Information Systems will provide a reliable, userfriendly, intuitive and compreensive archive system for the various institutes taking part in the project. Once we have collected and archived information about these forgotten treasures, they will become accessible to the rest of the world via an Internet portal.”

The project is run from the highest national level, in collaboration with the Prime Minister’s Office in Israel. The Project is part of the LANDMARKS Cultural Heritage Program of the Prime Minister's Office. The NLI has been tasked with managing and implementing the project. The Prime Minister’s Office will exercise overall control of the project, while the Israel State Archives and the Israel Archives and Information Association are important consulting partners.

“The project involves collecting a large amount of data in various formats, structures and standards. These will be archived and structured in such a way that they are easily accessible to end-users. It is essential that the project also uses an LTDP (long-term digital preservation system), where everything can be collected and accessed”, says Chezkie Kasnett.

Adlib Information Systems, a member of the Axiell Group, is supplying the data management system in four separate stages, including installing the hardware and software, adding all the different local archives to the system over a four year period, and the subsequent service and maintenance. Local support and maintenance will be provided on Adlib Information Systems’ behalf by a local partner, IFN Solutions, a member of the Yael Group, that will also be involved in the implementation of the Adlib Archive system.

”Adlib Information Systems has been developing digital archive systems for archives, museums and libraries for 25 years, and we have considerable experience of similar projects. We are supplying NLI with a highly versatile, standardised application, which is user-friendly and easily accommodates different interfaces and data in multiple languages”, says Bert Degenhart Drenth, Director at Adlib Information Systems.

Adlib Information Systems currently provides services for many world-class clients, including National Museum of Scotland, the van Gogh Museum and the British Film Institute.