MOBIUS

MOBIUS (Missouri Bibliographic Information User System) is a consortium of academic libraries in the state of Missouri. Fifty-four colleges and universities are members.

It is implementing a Common Library Platform, for which funding was approved by the Missouri Legislature in FY99. The Common Library Platform will create a virtual collection of the approximately 14 million items. A single user interface, with the same vendor's product in all participating institutions, allows faculty and students to request library materials using any personal computer with access to the Internet.

Each of the colleges and universities was assigned to one of 11 clusters based on geographic location. Central is a member of the Central West cluster, which also includes Central Methodist College, Missouri Valley College, and State Fair Community College. The University of Missouri libraries and Washington University were the first two clusters implemented. According to the timetable of implementation, the Central West cluster will begin migration to the new system during summer 2001.