From its inception, the Innovative Users Group (IUG) has been an independent organization dedicated to serve as a forum for involvement with the development of Innovative’s products and services. The IUG’s leadership reports the IUG 2009 Conference, held last week in Anaheim (CA), was a big success. Over 1,000 attendees from fourteen nations attended the conference and in all 195 programs were scheduled. Attendees gave presentations on best practices for using Innovative products, discussed creative and unique implementations of technology, and reported on partnerships with the company’s product-development team.
At the Opening Session, IUG Chair John Culshaw (who in his spare time is Associate Professor and Associate Director for Administrative Services at the University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries) highlighted the new “green” elements of the Conference: the conference program was smaller, conference “swag” was minimized, and registrants received stainless-steel bottles that could be refilled at special water stations. Once the conference got going the attendees were “Twittering” quite a bit—a great tool for up-to-the moment updates on what to see and do.
Culshaw’s presentation was preceded by the address of Jerry Kline, Chairman and CEO of Innovative Interfaces, who also presented the first-ever Crystal Awards, recognizing 30-plus library professionals who have attended at least fifteen Annual Conferences. The group includes honorees that have been to all seventeen events (pictured), which date back to the first Annual Meeting in 1993.
The Crystal Award Honorees that have attended all seventeen IUG Conferences (l to r): Theodora Toy, UC Riverside; Karen Perone, Rodman Public Library; Anne Myers, Yale Law Library; Barbara Kriigel, University of Michigan at Dearborn; David Badertscher, Washington and Lee University; Karen Johnson, University of San Francisco; Joyce Bogin, Middle Country Public Library; and Janet Baylis, Patchogue-Medford Library. With Jerry Kline, Chairman and CEO, Innovative Interfaces (5th from right) and Senior Vice President of Library Service Sandy Westall (4th from right). The 15th- and 16th- year honorees are pictured on Innovative’s Flickr stream.
The keynote speaker of the conference was Dr. Michael B. Johnson, who leads the Moving Pictures Group at Pixar Animation Studios. Johnson has been at Pixar since 1993 and has written applications for all of Pixar’s feature films (and many of their short films), for storyboarding, “pre-viz,” layout, animation, modeling, lighting, rendering, and editing.
In a post-Conference email, Culshaw (pictured below, standing, at left) said: “The IUG conference is a leading professional development opportunity for libraries of all types around the world. In these difficult economic times, we are gratified that our attendance remains strong. My colleagues and I think that this has been one of the best conferences to date with its combination of presentations, forums, and other events.”
IUG Steering Committee (l to r): Jeff Campbell; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Joe Reimers, Notre Dame Kresge Law Library; Molly Beisler, University of Nevada, Reno; Kathy O’Gorman, Financial Consultant; John Culshaw, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries (standing); Carol Gyger, Poudre River Public Library District; Pat Crawford, Bryant University Library (standing); Christopher Brown, University of Denver; Aimee Fifarek, Scottsdale Public Library System; and Janet Crum, Oregon Health & Science University.
In addition to the presentation of the Crystal Awards by Jerry Kline, Innovative’s presence included almost 50 staff members from Library Service, Product Development, Product Management, Customer Sales, and the senior management team. As always, Innovative salutes the energies of the IUG and all the attendees, as well as their commitment to the importance of library technology.
Innovative staff presentations will be posted to CSDirect in the coming days (password required). For more on the Innovative Users Group see their website.
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