After our recent Developers Day “retrospective,” many of you were wondering what we had to say about IGeLU itself.
So without further ado, here is a look back from Theo Engelman, the Chair of IGeLU. And don’t miss the many blogs from attendees listed in the sidebar!
A Look Back at IGeLU
Theo Engelman, Chair of IGeLU
The IGeLU conference, held in Trondheim on September 5-7, was a great success. More than 460 participants from 34 countries worldwide joined to experience the ever-friendly and professional atmosphere that is a part of all IGeLU conferences. They were offered an excellent program that covered 66 plenary and breakout sessions full of presentations from both colleagues and the Ex Libris team.
The conference was followed by the Developers Day on September 8, where 150 developers shared a full day of customer ideas and solutions built alongside or on top of Ex Libris products as well as some interesting company technology presentations. The Developers Day proves how closely the customer community is collaborating with Ex Libris to improve services for our patrons.
IGeLU Posts from Around the World
1) Don’t miss this very thoughtful blog from Masud Khokhar, Head of Digital Innovation at Lancaster University Library:
http://masudk.com/post/150169125150/igelu-2016-conference-initial-thoughts-and2) For some truly lovely photos of Trondheim, check out the blog set up by Vicky Price, Senior Librarian at the University of Nottingham: https://fjordiantrip.wordpress.com
3) For a nice summary (with pics), check out the post by Rindra Ramli, the Access and Digital Services Specialist at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia: https://rindraramli.me/2016/09/10/igelu-conference-2016-trondheim-norway
4) Al Cornish, Program Manager for the Orbis Cascade Alliance, has posted his impressions here: http://alncornish.info/thoughts-on-ex-libris-international-user-group-meeting-in-norway
5) Finally, for those of you who are looking for an overview in Norwegian, don’t miss the post by Anne-Åse Kallhovd and Henry Langseth for the Universitetsbiblioteket blog! http://bramseil.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/igelu-2016-i-trondheim.html
Although we did not have the opportunity to analyze the official feedback that participants were able to give using the campusM conference app, based on the oral response given by many participants we can surely state that the local organizers, together with the IGeLU conference committee, have done a wonderful job.
The choice of the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center rendered a perfect venue that not only offered spacious and flexible conference rooms, but also a nice central hall for coffee breaks and networking as well as meeting rooms for those who wanted to meet as a group.
Imagine 460 people by 12:30 PM, leaving the plenary hall eager to get their lunch and sit down to talk to colleagues. The conference venue staff assisted them into efficient queues that resulted in short waiting times for a rich and copious buffet — and nobody complained about those few IGeLU officers who queue-jumped to quickly fill their plates and take them to their inevitable lunch meetings.
No big conference is complete without a social event, and IGeLU conferences are renowned for them. This year we were invited by the city of Trondheim for a special, fantastic organ concert in the Nidarsdomen Cathedral, the northernmost medieval cathedral in the world. The concert was followed by a reception in the Archbishop’s Palace, dating from the 1160s, located just behind the Cathedral. Loyal and experienced IGeLU followers know these events are always full of nice, informal talks and meetings with colleagues and Ex Libris staff enriched with tasty finger food and drinks for all.
On top of that Lukas Koster and Mark Dehmlow performed their traditional gig based on famous pop songs but adapted with lyrics reflecting important librarianship issues that were composed by these two artists. The audience sang along, reading from the disseminated printout texts.
If you were not able to come to Trondheim you have missed so much. But we can make it up to you by giving you a glance at the most important part of the conference, the presentations. For all IGeLU and ELUNA members, the customer presentations of the Trondheim conference are available on our website: http://igelu.org/conferences/2016-trondheim/archive-of-presentations.
Ex Libris presentations are available for anyone who wishes to access them in the Ex Libris Knowledge Center: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Cross-Product/Conferences_and_Seminars/IGeLU/IGeLU_2016
All Developers Day presentations are available at: https://knowledge.exlibrisgroup.com/Cross-Product/Conferences_and_Seminars/Developers_Day/Developers_Day_IGeLU_2016
The program details can be found here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0By4pQ6cug3pwWDNzYUYxV2ZsV1U
I want to express my greatest thanks to the local organizing committee, the conference program planning committee, the Developers Day’s organizing team and our sponsors. Without all of them we would not have been able to enjoy and share those four days full of interesting presentations and productive and pleasant meetings.
Next year the conference and Developers Day will be in St. Petersburg, Russia. We hope to see as many or even more participants then.
Theo Engelman
IGeLU Chair
October 27, 2016
