The Institute of Information Sciences (IZUM) is a public, non-profit organisation. Although it was founded by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia, it is not part of the administration. Besides being defined as a public infrastructural institution, IZUM is also registered as a research organisation. IZUM operates in three organisational units – management, research and development of applications and services; computer engineering and services; and infrastructural R&D groups and services. IZUM is an information infrastructural service for Slovene science, culture and education which, along with other agents of information activities in the country, ensures Slovenia an entrance to the streams of the modern world's information society. This defines its mission; its functions are specified in the Foundation Act, passed by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. IZUM is an information service for research, education and culture and, in particular, a library information service in the national bibliographic system. At a scientific and professional level, IZUM co-operates with similar organisations worldwide, expanding its activities abroad in accordance with the guidelines of its founder. IZUM is engaged mainly in the development and operation of the COBISS - Slovene Virtual Library (co-operative online bibliographic system and services) system and services, which represent the root of the library information system in Slovenia. IZUM also develops the SICRIS (Slovene Current Research Information System) information system on research in Slovenia, which includes information about the identification and content of research projects, research institutions, teams and researchers. SICRIS is integrated into the information system of research projects in the European Union, named ERGO (European Research Gateways Online). IZUM also provides conditions for the development and operation of INFORS (INFOrmation Resources in Slovenia), which offers information on publicly accessible databases and information systems and their providers (local and foreign) in Slovenia. The INFORS system has been developed and maintained by Justinfo Ltd. On the basis of consortium agreements signed with foreign information services, IZUM provides users in Slovenia free access to some services and databases with full-text articles and summaries of disserations, eg Web of Science (citation indexes), OCLC FirstSearch - WorldCat (OCLC online world catalogue) and Electronic Collections Online (full-text articles), SwetScan (tables of contents of foreign scholarly journals), and Bell & Howell (UMI). Extensive educational activity and well-developed relations with the users of its products and services are a component of its understanding of the emergence of the information society, which is vital to the development of Slovenia.
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