Document Actions
MINITEX Interlibrary Loan Conference
May 07, 2008 11:04 AM | General, ILLMichael Scott, Assistant Director
The 17th Annual MINITEX Interlibrary Loan Conference was held on May 5, 2008 at the University of Minnesota Continuing Education and Conference Center in St. Paul. The conference consisted of two speaker presentations, a breakout session consisting of four session options, and a Minitex Update from Bill DeJohn. The morning keynote session was presented by Elizabeth Lane Lawley, the Director of the Lab for Social Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her presentation was entitled "Forecasting the Future of Social Computing." She discussed a timeline of various communication tools, starting with Gopher (!) and continuing on through today's social networking tools, like Twitter or Facebook. She also shared her thoughts on what's next in social computing which included a heavy focus on mobile phones as more than just making calls or sending a text message.
The breakout session's four options included a MnLINK Gateway information session, an Iliad Users discussion session, an information and update session for ExLibris Aleph interlibrary loan users, and a session entitled "Practical Uses of Web 2.0 Applications." I attended the MnLINK Gateway session to hear what is happening and will be happening with the gateway. The MnLINK gateway has seen a 10% increase in the number of requests made through the gateway from FY2007 to FY2008. Additionally, the software used as the search interface for MnLINK, ZPORTAL, will be replaced with a new product called "Worldcat Navigator." This new product with integrate with VDX (the ILL software). Future plans for the MnLINK gateway will include a "focus on staff efficiencies, workflow, and delivery to end users."
The afternoon speaker presentation was done by Julia Blixrud, the Assistant Director for Public Programs at the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC) and Assistant Executive Director for External Relations at the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). Her presentation was entitled "ILL and the Electronic Environment."
The focus of Blixrud's presentation was on the changing nature of where information resources are made available and how this will effect interlibrary loan. Though maybe not quite as significant (yet) in public libraries, the effect of mass digitization projects, e-journals, and licensing the electronic version vs. purchasing a print copy is having a profound effect on other types of libraries. She also outlined what she thought were the roles that libraries have in all of the changes happening to the information resources that are and will be available: Responsibility, Opportunity, Leadership, Education, and Satisfaction.
Finally, Bill DeJohn gave an update on MINITEX. All in all, a good conference!
