A good conference
For the past few days, I’ve been at the Innovative Users Group annual meeting. At the IUG meeting, roughly 1600 dweebs from around the world discuss library systems, particularly those produced by Innovative Interfaces Inc (III).
I’ve been a fixture at these meetings for a number of years, but many people acted surprised to see me at this one. I’m coordinating the migration of a resource sharing system used by 35 academic libraries in Oregon and Washington away from a III product to something else. They assumed my work would put me in an awkward position.
My project is not helping relations with the company. However, the situation was largely unavoidable. We have had a long and productive association with III, but their needs have evolved with time as have ours. After intense negotiations failed to result in a mutually acceptable contract, our board of directors unanimously decided that the strategic direction we were headed required a resource sharing system based on new architecture.
Right now, the library world is in a period of total upheaval. Just a few years ago, the whole idea of a library was to provide a controlled, centralized environment to centrally acquire, process, and preserve materials that people needed. More and more, the most important function libraries perform is helping people find and get electronic and physical materials that are owned and maintained by others. While libraries will continue to buy books and journals, these materials will play a shrinking role over time.
The reason we’re changing our resource sharing system right now is because of differences in opinion as to what library services will look like in view of a the new way people want to use libraries and information. No one knows what will work best in the end, so a little disagreement is healthy.
Our relationship with III is entering a new phase, but we continue to have many common interests. The member libraries in our consortium rely on III products for mission critical tasks. Even if we were unable to reach an agreement for a new contract, we are still interested in solving the same problems and can learn from each other.
Just as I still regard workmates from former workplaces as colleagues, I think the same about the many III staff I’ve worked with over the years. That is why I was glad I was able to attend the meeting and share ideas with others as I always have.