Our History

This year, LIBIS is celebrating its 50th anniversary.  The history of LIBIS began in 1973, when the service was founded as an initiative to make libraries and information resources at KU Leuven more accessible to students and researchers. Since then, LIBIS has grown enormously and developed into an internationally renowned player in the field of providing reliable, flexible and at the same time innovative information solutions for libraries, archives, educational, research, heritage and public institutions.

  • 1973 KU Leuven decides to build an online catalogue for all part libraries. Together with IBM and the Universität Dortmund, DOBIS/LIBIS is developed
  • 1977 The online catalogue goes live on November 17
  • 1978 KADOC becomes the first partner of LIBISnet. Many institutions will follow
  • 1983 The international DOBIS/LIBIS User Group is founded. The first meeting is held in Leuven
  • 1996 It is decided to replace DOBIS / LIBIS by Amicus. A few years later, in 2002, the project is stopped after the bankruptcy of the supplier
  • 1996 LIBIS starts a project to build a new library portal based on z39.50
  • 1999 LIBIS participates in a project on an integrated system for iconographic databases on immovable heritage in Flanders
  • 2000 LIBIS extends its services to public libraries. The public library of Leuven is the first user
  • 2003 After an extensive procedure, LIBIS decides to enter into a partnership with Ex Libris to further expand its services with Aleph500, SFX and Metalib. This will develop into a strategic partnership
  • 2005 On February 2, Aleph500 goes live
  • 2005 The Lias project starts with the intention of building an integrated system for managing archival collections with an e-depot
  • 2006 The Province of Flemish Brabant and LIBIS enter into a partnership for the development of a provincial library network for public libraries
  • 2006 The implementation of LibriLinks and LibriSourcePlus is an important step in the development of the electronic library
  • 2007 The Flemish Government (BibNet) and LIBIS collaborate on the development of OpenVLACC (Flemish Collective Catalogue)
  • 2007 Lirias, KU Leuven's institutional repository, contains metadata on all scholarly publications from KU Leuven
  • 2009 LIBIS joins the Ex Libris URM development partnership
  • 2010 Limo and Lias go live!
  • 2011 LIBIS goes for long-term preservation
  • 2011 New services for museum and heritage collections are launched as Heron (Heritage online)
  • 2013 The project for a Flemish e-book platform is launched
  • 2014 LIBISnet migrates to Alma
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