Axiell acquires Bibliotekenes IT-senter and becomes leading library vendor in Norway

The acquisition adds 2000 customers across the Nordics and will accelerate roll-out of the cloud-based Axiell Quria® Library Services Platform

January 28, 2019 – Axiell, the leading vendor globally to public libraries, museums and archives, today announces the acquisition of Bibliotekenes IT-senter (Bibits) in Norway. Through the acquisition, Axiell adds 300 municipalities in Norway, Sweden and Finland which use the ILS-solution MikroMarc for public libraries, and 100 number of customers using SAGA, an OPAC. As the largest partner for IT solutions and services to public libraries in the Nordics, Axiell now expands its operations and strengthens its position in Norway. Axiell makes this move to pave the way for Quria, Axiell’s cloud-based library services platform and WeLib, the digital school library, as well as integration of additional solutions across the cultural sector.

“The library market is consolidating globally and the consolidation is driven by the fact that few organisations can make the significant investments needed to serve this market in an innovative way. Through the acquisition, we continue on the path of rolling out Quria, the world’s foremost Library Services Platform. Quria suits all segments of the public library market: From smaller libraries, to consortia, to national library systems. We are glad to be joined by an experienced organisation and we look forward to having additional skills join Axiell,” says Joel Sommerfeldt, President & CEO of Axiell Group.

Axiell has expanded its operations continuously and this is the twentieth company which joins the Axiell Group family. The Group has customers in 55 countries and 8000 public libraries and school libraries trust a technology from Axiell to be able to serve their patrons and students. Axiell has invested heavily in modern cloud-based technology and this will be available to the new customers when suitable to them.

“Libraries and schools are vital components in a democratic and open society. However, their needs and demands are shifting to use cases that did not exist a few years ago, meaning technology shifts to modern solutions are needed. I am glad to be able to continue serving our customers as Axiell and ensuring that these institutions can meet new demands in society and that librarians can spend their time on value added work. The acquisition will provide the Bibits customers with modern solutions while maintaining the relationships, skills and presence of the Bibits organization.” says Kjetil Hillestad, CEO of Bibits.

Quria provides completely new opportunities for the management of both printed and digital resources in the collection, events and the entire communication process with patrons. Quria uses the RDA framework to describe media in the library and connect it in a whole new way. It also provides new ways of sharing online, and there is great potential for communicating catalogue data better and seeing relationships in the data, through linked data. This will enable improved support for libraries that want to share data and collaboration across the collection. Being cloud-based means Quria is accessible from anywhere, whether in the library or out in the community.

Additional details around the acquisition are not disclosed.

For more information:

Maria Wasing
CMO Axiell Group
Phone: +46 73 852 17 52
E.mail: maria.wasing@axiell.com

 

About Axiell

Axiell serves libraries, schools, archives, museums and authorities with technically advanced and innovative solutions developed in close cooperation with its customers in 55 countries. More than 3300 library organisations with thousands of branches use an Axiell library management system and Axiell Arena, a tool for the virtual library. The systems for archives, libraries and museums are used by over 3400 cultural institutions over the world. In addition, more than 4300 schools use an Axiell system. The Axiell Group, headquartered in Lund, has around 300 employees based out of 28 offices in Sweden, Australia, Abu Dhabi, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Norway, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the UK and the USA. Together, we form one of the world’s largest companies in these sectors. To find out more about us and our products, please visit https://www.axiell.com.

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