Professional Development

Before you get any ideas about attending a conference held at Virginia Beach, VA let me just tell you that it’s 57 degrees, overcast, and completely indoors (and supposed to rain on Friday).  Now, onto the highlights of Pre-Conference events.  This year’s OCLC International ILLiad Conference is being held at the Oceanfront Hilton Hotel, sponsored by Atlas Systems.  In addition to some very nice registration goodies and trolley service up and down the Boardwalk area, Atlas Systems and The Copyright Compliance Center have sponsored a pre-conference social in one of the hotel ballrooms.  This provided a relaxed setting to meet-and-greet as well as run into some old ILL buddies.  In addition to serving local foods and beverages, the CCC sponsored a photo booth and four Wii game stations.  What a great way to meet new people and break the ILL ice than to rip a few cords on the Guitar Hero or play a few frames on Wii Bowling?   Tomorrow promises a full day of education, discussion, and previewing of new products and features for ILL users and software programs.  In addition to previewing the upgrade features of ILLiad 7.3 and a Round Table discussion on Copyright Compliance and ILL, I am most excited to preview two new products available from Atlas Systems…Ares 2.4 (an automated system for e-Reserves) and Aeon (a special collections circulation and workflow automation software).  Although these two programs do not specifically address Interlibrary Loan, it looks like a neat demonstration to end the day on.

More tomorrow!

Heather