At this year’s Austrian Library Congress, Dipl.-Ing. Leonhard Zachl of TU Wien Bibliothek’s library IT was awarded the prestigious Bruno Bauer Memorial Prize for Innovation by the Association of Austrian Librarians (VÖB) for his outstanding work programming the Firefox extension „TUW lAma (let Alma be more adroit)“, which considerably improves the efficiency of the Alma library system software.

The browser extension programmed by Zachl makes everyday tasks easier and faster for librarians with a variety of innovative functionalities. These include a functionality to change multiple records using macros, a diff-viewer visualizing changes in metadata record versions, and automated functionalities for filling fields and GND autocomplete for theses. In addition, the extension includes a number of warning functions visually highlighting duplicates, missing fields, or inappropriate cataloguing levels. 

Especially noteworthy is Zachl’s user-centred approach. Each function resulted from direct communication with Alma users, making the solutions highly relevant to daily work and requirements. This is reflected in a growing user base of more than 200 librarians and an excellent 4.8 star rating in the Firefox add-on store. 

By publishing the extension as open source, Zachl not only enables widespread use, but also promotes the collaborative further development of library tools. His innovation impressively demonstrates how technical developments can sustainably improve and facilitate library work.

TU Wien Bibliothek congratulates Dipl.-Ing. Leonhard Zachl on this well-earned award and is proud to support our staff in creating these noteworthy innovations.