The Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA) hold an annual meeting for the regional user group of Ex Libris in the United States and Canada. Steelsen Smith, Technical Lead for Client Services and IT Operations, attended the conference this past in May and has written about the sessions and news from the conference.
Continue Reading A Retrospective of the 2018 ELUNA Conference
The last six weeks have been a productive period for many staff members in Library IT — they have been traveling to various conferences to hone their craft and learn new skills.
This past September, Cindy Greenspun, Chairperson of the Voyager Product Working Group for Ex Libris Users of North America (ELUNA), presented at the International Group of Ex Libris Users (IGeLU) conference held in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The conference was hosted by the National Library of Russia. The IGeLU conference is a venue for users of Ex Libris products to come together collectively to learn from other institutions as well as advocate for changes. The IGeLU conference draws a wide representation from over 350 institutions worldwide, with user groups in over 40 countries participating.
ELUNA is the regional user group for Ex Libris in the United States and Canada. The ELUNA /IGeLU Voyager Product Working Group meets monthly to discuss product upgrades and enhancements. Ex-Libris works with the user groups to gather important input on their products. The Voyager Product Working Group leadership is comprised of both ELUNA and IGeLU members. Not all regional or national user groups sit together with their international counterparts in IGeLU on product working groups, but others are starting to follow this model for increased communication.
Cindy Greenspun, Business Systems Analyst in Library IT, gave two presentations; her first presentation was to discuss the ELUNA /IGeLU Voyager Product Working Group accomplishments for 2017 and the goals for the upcoming year — a requirement as Chairperson. The highlight of the presentation was moving the Voyager User Group to use the Ex Libris Development Network, a forum created by Ex Libris for users to communicate with one another and share ideas.
In Cindy’s second presentation, she partnered with Aleph Chairperson Allen Jones from The New School. Jones and Greenspun gave presentations on how each of their institutions made the transition from Oracle to Workday. Cindy’s focus was on the Workday and Voyager integration.
This was Cindy’s second attendance at a IGeLU Conference and she commented “It is beneficial
The 2018 ELUNA Conference will be held in Spokane, Washington, from May 1-5th. For more information on how to register see their site. Ex Libris announced it will be offering attendance grants for first-time attendees at ELUNA meetings, including the upcoming 2018 meeting in Spokane, Washington.
For more information about the Voyager Product Working Group, ELUNA and IGeLU, contact Cindy Greenspun at cindy.greenspun@yale.edu.