We are excited at the chance to see many of you at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago.
We would also like to congratulate Megan Ozeran, the winner of the 2017 LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award, and Robert Bremer, the recipient of the 2017 ALCTS Ulrich’s Serials Librarianship Award!
What will you learn from Ex Libris at ALA? This year you can expect discussions on openness, unified resource management, and library data and analytics. You can see the full description of all the sessions and download calendar invites here.
Friday, June 23
Enriching Summon and Primo: Metadata, Big Data and Product Integrations
3:00 – 4:00 PM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room W184d
Discovery is at the heart of the library, and core service for patrons. Advancing discovery through new services, greater support for researchers and students, and enhanced user experience can provide libraries an opportunity to strengthen their impact. With these objectives in mind, Ex Libris continues to enrich Summon and Primo by integrating rich metadata services, leveraging big data repositories, expanding serendipitous discovery, and connecting with relevant academic services. Attend this session to learn about the new, unique enhancements and integrations across both Summon and Primo, see examples from live implementations, and peek into some of the innovations that are on the horizon.
Saturday, June 24th
What Your Library Data ISN’T Telling You: New Features in Library Services Platform Analytics
10:30 – 11:30 AM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room S101
Library analytics should enable libraries to create, customize, visualize, and even share reports with other peer institutions. This has become a reality with the introduction of library service platforms, such as Ex Libris Alma. In this session, we will review real reports with data generated from Texas Woman’s University and highlight benchmark analytics—reports that allow staff to anonymously compare their library’s performance to peer institutions—all in a single, unified resource management tool. We will walk through creating customized reports, see trends in your physical and electronic spending, compare your library to similar institutions, and explore how to manage COUNTER reports all from one place.
1:00 – 2:30 PM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room W196b
Openness can mean different things to different libraries. When working with open systems, we ask questions like: which technologies and standards are being used, what types of projects are supported, and do I have to build whole this thing myself? At Ex Libris, we develop open systems such as Alma, Primo, and Summon that support open standards and REST APIs in addition to out-of-the-box, best practice workflows and integrations. In this session, we will see how the University of Wisconsin at Madison built their own catalog interface entirely from the Alma-to-Primo published data and the Alma APIs, allowing them to experiment with extensions to the catalog based on the Alma Linked Data integrations.
Unified Digital Asset Management
3:00 – 4:00 PM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room S106a
The range of digital asset management systems you can use is considerable, but their integration with your ILS, LSP or discovery system—not so much. Libraries using Ex Libris Alma are now able to combine print, electronic, and digital holdings in a single next generation library solution to enable consolidation of library data, plus local cataloging, reporting, open standards, and more with no loss of digital asset management functionality. Whether your digital files are stored natively in the cloud or locally in an institutional system, the built-in integrated digital functionality supports your innovative digital practices with the support and development of the leading library system. Come and learn more about what Alma Digital customers are doing today.
Sunday, June 25th
Cross-Training with Now-Gen Systems
10:30 – 11:30 AM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room W196b
For any library undergoing or considering transformation, the idea of legacy tasks and workflows shifting from one department or staff member to the next has the potential to influence incredible change. Now imagine executing these tasks while shifting to a new library service platform! This session will detail the before and after Roberts Wesleyan’s decision to cross-train and enhance their workflows as they moved to Ex Libris Alma. We will assess what worked, what didn’t, and where we can find improvements.
Integrating Summon with Alma: A Case Study
1:00 – 2:30 PM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room W196a
When it comes to integrating with your library service platform, libraries need to have a choice in discovery systems. We’re happy to announce an exciting ProQuest and Ex Libris product development: our first live Alma and Summon customer! Summon, a favorite in the world of discovery because of its focus on library-centered exploration, is our latest discovery system to be integrated directly with Alma. Patrons can leverage the existing interface plus My Account features, native requesting, fines and fees, course reserve searching, and more. Come and see our live look at the Alma-Summon integration and learn about our plans for future enhancements in the world of discovery.
From Patchwork to Process: Reading Lists, Simplified
3:00 – 4:00 PM | McCormick Place Convention Center | Room S104
Your students are navigating a patchwork of resources available from library, course management systems, and syllabi to gather course materials. Ex Libris Leganto provides a unified approach to reading list management. Lists can contain everything from peer-reviewed articles to video lectures, uploaded documents, and audio visual materials. Faculty have a seamless interface to create lists, while librarians can then manage the diverse fulfillment options. By providing a single workflow for selecting and fulfilling materials, significant money can be saved by identifying materials already available through library sources, choosing articles with lower licensing fees, track usage with analytics, and allowing students to choose when to purchase those items. Join our session to learn more about Leganto.
Visit us in booth #4011, and enter to win one of two Polar 3-D Printers. We look forward to seeing you at ALA!
