COBISS is an organisational model used to join libraries

Library

In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...

 in a uniform library information system with shared cataloguing. It has many functions of the so-called virtual library. It is currently in use in Slovenia

Slovenia

Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...

 (COBISS.SI), Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...

 (COBISS.BH), Republic of Macedonia

Republic of Macedonia

Macedonia , officially the Republic of Macedonia , is a country located in the central Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. It is one of the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, from which it declared independence in 1991...

 (COBISS.MK), Serbia

Serbia

Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

 (COBISS.SR) and Montenegro

Montenegro

Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...

 (COBISS.CG). These information systems are autonomous, but share the platform. Over 350 libraries use COBISS software for the automation of their operations. COBISS.Net is the name of the network connecting the COBISS co-operative bibliographic systems of different countries.

COBISS has been developed by the Institute of Information Science  from Maribor

Maribor

Maribor is the second largest city in Slovenia with 157,947 inhabitants . Maribor is also the largest and the capital city of Slovenian region Lower Styria and the seat of the Municipality of Maribor....

. In March 2011, all the management of IZUM decided to step down from their positions, the stated reason being the dismissive attitude of the Slovenian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (led by Gregor Golobič

Gregor Golobic

Gregor Golobič is a Slovenian politician. Since 2007, he has been serving as president of the left liberal party Zares. Between November 2008 and June 2011, he served as Minister for Science and Higher Education of Slovenia....

) towards IZUM.