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I know what you are thinking, ‘what do gambling chips have to do with interlibrary loan software?’ Short answer: nothing. Long answer: everything.

I’ll let Tara explain.*

My first experience at an ILLiad conference was excellent. Tuesday, Atlas Systems hosted a Social –Casino Night that gave me the opportunity to meet and socialize with over 300 participants there to attend the conference. We played all types of Casino games. For being one of the highest scorers that night I won One year Access Services Concierge Membership (value: $4,999)* for the library.

As I look back on the sessions what really stood out to me was “Is Your Library Visible” presented by Eric Miller, Zepheira. He was addressing the web visibility of the Library. That content was very important to the aspect of Interlibrary Loan. I’m glad had the opportunity to attend this year’s conference.

*I feel it is important to note that Tara sent me her write up 3 days after the conference. It has taken me a month to post it. Yes, I am ashamed.

Tara certainly did jump right in to the conference flow. I missed Casino night, but I heard lots of reports of Tara smokin’ the Roulette wheel. I’m in negotiations with Atlas to leverage or prize to help all libraries in N.C. They seem open to the concept so stay tuned….

I attended several useful sessions. One on getting our requesting web pages mobile ready, and another on setting up auto hotkeys in ILLiad.

The most impressive was a presentation by Dr. Nobuhiko Kikuchi who is the head of resource sharing at the National Diet Library of Japan. In this case diet does not mean food and drink but congress. The NDL is the equivalent to the Library of Congress here in the U.S. This was Dr. Kikuchi’s first time in America, and the first time he has ever presented in English. Talk about nervous. He did wonderfully even using humor. The first time he told a joke and we laughed he said “thank you” and seemed to relax a little. I have looked to this library many times in my tenure as an interlibrary loan librarian. They are rolling out some new services and it was good to learn about them. It was also nice to meet the man responsible.