ELUNA 2009 has almost come and gone – the meeting always seems to go so quickly, probably because I keep so busy over the three days with interesting conversations about what’s happening at Ex Libris and in libraries that use our solutions.

This conference was no exception, especially since we’ve been sharing lots more about our URM plans to very positive response. We kicked the URM “thread” of the conference off with Oren Beit-Arie’s keynote address, which situated the changing world of libraries in the larger context of academic trends. Oren addressed the needs for collaboration within and outside of the library environment, focusing on the opportunities to improve traditional activities, explore “transitional” functionality, and ultimately, to provide transformational services. Tying these to “real-life” examples of URM features, Oren provided a great context for URM discussions throughout the meeting. (For some additional perspective by a conference-goer, check out Simon Bendall’s blog post on the keynote.)

My colleagues, Nettie Lagace and Susan Stearns, and I also had the opportunity to host “subject matter” review sessions throughout the conference. We were pleased to show more details about our URM plans (and even prototypes) in a number of areas – monographic acquisitions, metadata management, electronic resource management services, fulfillment services, and more. We were gratified by the level of interest in these sessions – they were all filled to capacity – and happy to get very thoughtful feedback on our work to date. If you weren’t able to attend ELUNA or one of these sessions, never fear – we’ll be offering lots of opportunities to check out our plans and offer your thoughts as our efforts continue. You’ll also see some follow-up to some of the discussions that were initiated in these sessions in the coming weeks here on the blog.

We’re just about to head off for home – only a few more sessions to go, and ELUNA will wrap up for another year. In addition to my suitcase, I’ll be taking home lots of great ideas to incorporate into our thinking, amazing energy from the positive responses to our URM plans, and reinforcement that our vision for next-generation library services will support libraries in both the traditional and transformative ways necessary for future success.

Until next time,

Kathryn