I recently attended the 2010 ILLiad International Conference in Virginia Beach. There were ILL people a-plenty, and it felt good to talk about ILL-specific things with a crowd who could relate. Kind of made me feel like I'm not alone in my struggles to always improve our ILL functionality and services.
The conference was hosted by Atlas Systems, the company that makes our ILL software, ILLiad, in partnership with OCLC, the library cooperative that provides WorldCat (the largest online library catlog). At the conference, there were a host of sessions to attend. I attended several session on ILLiad version 8, the next update of our software. We are planning an upgrade in the summer and I wanted to be as prepared as possible.
Of course there was a bit of mingling, networking, and socializing too. This is where most of the communication happens, where the exchange of ideas can resonate down a big hotel corridor or around a lunch table and where people's passion and commitment to their work really shine. At this year's conference, the buzz was particularly acute due to one thing: ILLiad 8.
During the last day of the conference, we all gathered in a large room to hear an update from Atlas Systems. This is where they share their latest attempts to assuage our complaints about ILLiad functionality. This year, though, they took it to the next level: not only did they listen and fix things, but they actually made a whole new ILLiad that surpassed every ILL librarian's wildest dreams.
The progress and innovation that Atlas has demonstrated in creating a functional piece of library software gives me hope for the future as librarians and software developers continue to collaborate on creating and changing systems to meet our needs.
It was also encouraging to see a number of systems administrators, library web developers, and other Systems/Client Services-type people from other libraries at the ILLiad Conference. They have a different level of engagement with ILLiad, but it is nonetheless valuable (and necessary). Their involvement with the conference (leading sessions, talking with librarians) will aid collaboration within libraries themselves.
In all, it was a breath of fresh air to attend the conference and bring the good news back to Bobst Library, especially after The Great Aleph Crisis of 2009.
The Interlibrary Loan Department will be upgrading to ILLiad Version 8 this summer. Once we're up and running, we will be glad to share with everyone the power and potential it has for helping Access Services as a whole achieve its service goals.
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