April 10, 2023
Bill Slauenwhite, Manager, Novanet – A Consortium of Libraries
In 2005, I attended my first ELUNA at the University of Maryland in College Park while serving as the Manager of the Novanet consortium. At that time, we were migrating from our legacy ILS to Aleph. Novanet was a small Canadian consortium consisting of eight members with around 15,000 FTEs, and we were one of only two Canadian customers of Aleph, along with McGill University. The central consortium office responsible for the migration and implementation included only myself and a library technician, and we were seriously overwhelmed. However, ELUNA was a godsend, and I haven’t missed one since.
That’s why I like ELUNA!
During that time, ELUNA was a much smaller affair, and there weren’t many consortia using Aleph. The University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI), which hosted that year, had a similar makeup to Novanet but was considerably larger and had not been using Aleph for very long. Staff at USMAI quickly learned about Novanet and inundated me with requests for drinks and offers of assistance. I remember a meeting with our Ex Libris implementation manager and some U of Maryland staff, where we worked out the complicated flow chart for consortial lending of material we needed in Aleph. We did this over drinks during a social event and even wrote it down on a napkin.
That’s why I like ELUNA!
At the core of any ELUNA conference are the sessions, which have grown in breadth and depth as ELUNA has grown over the years. These sessions are not just vendor or feature demos but rather Ex Libris product users tackling, solving, and sharing real-world solutions for real-world problems. The sharing of ideas and solutions is what makes ELUNA valuable, and I have always returned from the conference with several new ideas to implement that have already been stress-tested and refined at another Ex Libris site.
That’s why I like ELUNA!
The social aspects of ELUNA are also crucial, with many opportunities to connect with colleagues, have ad hoc discussions of workflows and issues, and make new connections. These connections are essential for getting advice and solutions to common problems, and I always look forward to catching up with people – to see what they are doing and planning for the future. The conference is also an excellent way to have informal chats with key Ex Libris staff and to meet and form a connection with the people who handle our support tickets.
That’s why I like ELUNA!
ELUNA is also the home of various user groups, and as a past chair and enhancement coordinator of the Aleph User Group, I know first-hand that we have an important role to play in improving the products we use. ELUNA conferences are our opportunity to meet in person with our fellow group members and the Ex Libris product managers.
That’s why I like ELUNA!
Finally, as I gear up to attend my last ELUNA, I have many great memories of visiting new cities across North America, such as experiencing an earthquake in LA, watching Randy M. ‘dance’ to YMCA in Long Beach, soundly thrashing the Ex Libris NA president at pool in Spearfish – twice, and seeing a certain Betsy on stage in Montreal dressed as a loon. These memories make me appreciate ELUNA even more.
And that’s why I like ELUNA!
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