Looking for the "EXIT" - helping libraries to implement change

Valentine Charles of Europeana looks forward to the 40th Conference of ELAG (The European Library Automation Group).


ELAG (The European Library Automation Group) will hold its 40th conference in Copenhagen  on 6–9 June 2016.

Every year, the ELAG conference gathers library professionals who are passionate about the technical challenges the library world faces.  Past ELAG conferences have explored new ways to represent, distribute and to consume library data and have discussed the various challenges of implementing changes within traditional library infrastructures.

This year, the conference is looking for the "EXIT". To be able to change, libraries have to make a real transition from their traditional infrastructure and services to new services, data models, applications and responsibilities. However libraries do not always know how to implement this transition. During the conference we will hear about the successes, the failures and new approaches applied within the library domain.

The conference will be based around bootcamps, presentations and workshops discussing the issues associated with transitions, lessons learned and case studies.

We will discuss the challenges brought by the migration to new applications and the difficult choices that have to be made when selecting new software and preparing for migration. We will hear about experiences using cloud-based systems and how these technologies can interact with local installations. We will also discuss how the adoption of new data models, for example, those using Linked Data, can help libraries make their transition and develop new services. Finally the conference will discuss the impact of transitions at the organisation level and the support required to help libraries to make their "EXIT".

But this is not an exhaustive list; ELAG is a great place for people to share ideas and bring new topics to the discussion!

For more information on the conference or to submit a bootcamp, presentation or workshop proposal, visit http://elag2016.org/