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Softlink IC: Your 2025 Wrapped

This year wasn’t just about software updates or company events; it was about our customers navigating digital change with our products. Across the sectors, we noticed the main benefits our systems provided were – time-saved, manual work reduction, and improvement in both resource discoverability and reporting strength. These helped deliver clearer outcomes to our customers’ organizations for 2025.

Highlights from Our 2025 User Group Meetings in Brisbane, Melbourne & Wellington

Each year, we bring our community together through our User Group Meetings (UGMs) – one of our favourite ways to connect with customers, share updates, and celebrate the innovation happening in libraries. In October 2025, the Softlink IC team hosted UGMs across Brisbane, Melbourne, and Wellington, bringing together professionals from every sector to learn, collaborate, and discuss what’s next for Liberty Digital and illumin.

How to Make Research Faster with Filters, Search, and Pinned Views In illumin

A Knowledge and Research Management System helps research teams organize their workflows efficiently, reducing time spent searching for information and increasing productivity. Softlink IC’s illumin, provides features such as filters, advanced search, and pinning views so teams can streamline their research workflows, track requests, and surface the insights that matter. Here’s a closer look at how these features help research teams work smarter.

AALL 2025: Great Conversations, Connections, and Knowledge in Portland

A huge thank you to the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) for organizing yet another outstanding Annual Meeting & Conference. Portland was the perfect backdrop for reconnecting with customers, meeting new faces, and diving into the latest in legal knowledge management.

Top Research Team Tools: How illumin and Onelog Save Time and Boost Efficiency

Research professionals face constant pressure to deliver accurate, timely insights under tight deadlines. From managing requests to juggling tools and tracking outputs, the real challenge isn’t just doing the work, it’s doing it efficiently. Success now depends on doing more with less and streamlining tasks to drive results.

Why Traditional Ticketing Solutions Fail Research Teams

In our fast-paced digital world, the roles of researchers and research librarians are evolving more rapidly than ever. The important task of tracking and managing research requests can’t be left to traditional ticketing software. While a staple in query management and user assistance, traditional ticketing software often falls short in meeting the specialized demands of research centers.

Meet Us in London: Softlink IC at the CILIP Supplier Showcase, May 1st 2024

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Softlink Information Centers (Softlink IC) is delighted to share that we will be at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Supplier Showcase. Scheduled for 1 May 2024, this one-day event will take place at 113 Chancery Lane, London. On the day, attendees can meet with leading suppliers of library management solutions in a non-sales environment. They will have the opportunity to experience product demonstrations, discuss their specific needs, and build connections with suppliers.

Meet Softlink IC at RLUK24: Empowering Research Libraries with illumin

Softlink Information Centers (Softlink IC) is thrilled to be part of the RLUK24 Conference, happening virtually between March 20-22, 2024. This aims to dive deep into the evolving role of research libraries amid the rapid pace of technological advancements, with a special emphasis on Artificial Intelligence (AI) – their conference theme is “New Frontiers: The expanding scope of the modern research library.”

Navigating the Evolving Library Landscape with Alex the Alpaca

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In today’s digital age, libraries are evolving to meet the changing needs of their users. With the integration of digital and physical collections, libraries can unlock new opportunities to enhance user experiences and increase the usage of their collections. So, what should you be doing to stay current with the evolving library landscape?

A Rap Recap of a Memorable Year

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As the year draws to a close, prepare to embark on a tour through some of our highlights for 2023 curated exclusively for you on our blog. We’re putting a unique spin on year-end reflections with a lyrical finale – so settle in for a special ‘rap-up’ to the year you never saw coming!

What a Week in Wellington! Our User Group Meeting and NZLLA Conference!

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Members of the Softlink IC team travelled to Wellington, New Zealand to conduct an in-person User Group Meeting (UGM) for our clients based in New Zealand. Additionally, we had the opportunity to participate in the New Zealand Law Librarians Association (NZLLA) conference. What a week in Wellington!

Unlock Exceptional Customer Service for Your Research Team

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Are you looking for ways to improve the customer service provided by your research team? Request and research management tools can help improve the services you provide and ensure you offer the best service possible. In this blog, let’s explore how Illumin, our request management tool, can help you understand and deliver a superior service to your customers!

2022 Year in Review

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What a year 2022 was for Softlink IC! In this year in review, we want to take a moment to reflect on the successes and highlights from the past year!

Power Up illumin With Power BI

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Your knowledge and request management needs are as unique as your organization, the good news for you is that Softlink IC’s solutions are developed and supported by teams of experienced information and resource managers and expert knowledge management development professionals.

How to Bring a Customer Focus to Your Research Team

At its core, customer service is about building relationships. It’s about understanding what your customer or users’ needs are and then going above and beyond to meet those needs. The same philosophy can and should be applied to the research process. It’s a risk that some research teams get bogged down in the details and lose sight of the bigger picture: their customers or users.

Worth the Wait – London User Group Meeting for Liberty & illumin

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London, England was the setting for our latest in-person User Group Meeting (UGM), and we were all really looking forward to it. Our UGMs are a great opportunity for us all to catch up. UGMs provide a forum for those attending to meet other Liberty and illumin users and Softlink IC staff.

Alex’s Adventures at the 2022 AALL Conference

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Softlink Information Centers (Softlink IC) was at the 2022 American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) conference from 16 – 19 July. The conference was a great opportunity to show off our integrated library management system (ILMS) Liberty and our research management product, illumin.

Emails vs a Research Management System? There’s No Contest!

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As libraries turn to a more digital presence, libraries and knowledge centers are receiving more email requests for their research services. Are you and your research staff still managing and tracking your research load via emails, and maybe a spreadsheet? Does it make managing your increasing research load even more inefficient now? There’s got to be a better way!

5 New Features Covered in our Latest illumin Recording

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Security awareness, and practices to protect our customers’ library and the organization’s data they manage, is something Softlink IC takes very seriously. In November 2020, we posted a blog discussing the security sins our Liberty integrated library management system (ILMS) customers should be aware of, as they continue to ensure their data is safe.

Alex the Alpaca Has His Own Instagram Account

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We all know the feeling. That temptation to give in to a child who keeps bugging you about getting something they want. Whether it’s sweets, a new bicycle, or a mobile phone with all the bells and whistles, the nagging won’t stop before they get it, or you are fit to be tied. For the sake of peace, you give in, and so it has come to pass for our illumin representative, Alex the Alpaca. Yep, we at Softlink IC gave in.

What’s New in our Research Management System, illumin?

Like libraries, illumin, Softlink IC’s integrated research management system (RMS) doesn’t rest on its laurels. There’s always new features and enhancements to be added to stay ahead of the game. If it’s been a while since you looked at illumin, here’s a sneak peek at what’s new!

4 Reasons Why Dashboards are Critical to Business

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Dashboards are an increasingly essential data visualization management tool. They can be customized to visually display data applicable to different departments and segments of a business. Dashboards are an objective way to measure business requirements from tracking of key performance indicators (KPIs) to the status of current tasks to ensure required outcomes are achieved.

Softlink IC is Giving Alex the Alpaca a Moment in the Spotlight

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Alex the Alpaca is one of Softlink IC’s representatives. Being our representative is not just his job, it is his passion. Like all of us here at Softlink IC, libraries and knowledge centers are his thing. Spreading the word on illumin, our research management system was his initial mission.

5 Features Your Research Management System Has, Not Your Helpdesk

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Knowledge center staff know research questions are not just another form of helpdesk, technical, or customer service request. Despite this, many are expected to manage reference tasks with such a system. Softlink Information Centres knows you need the right tool for the right job, which is why we developed the illumin knowledge and reference management system.

A Fistful of Features!

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Has COVID-19 increased your request workload? Are your users discovering how great it is to have access to your knowledge center research services? Is managing your increased research load using spreadsheet or email even more inefficient now? Do you want to encourage your users to take advantage of your research skills?

Does Your Law Firm Have the Competitive Research Edge?

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Information is power. It can be the difference between winning and losing. That’s why your law firm needs access to the right information and FAST! Leveraging the information sourced by your knowledge researchers, using the most up-to-date library management tools, will give your firm the competitive research edge.

3 Tips to Simplify Knowledge Management

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Knowledge is a valuable and strategic asset of any enterprise. Salespeople need extensive product knowledge to sell their products. Support staff who know how to deal with the most challenging clients are able to provide positive support experiences to their clients and improve customer retention. Top management personnel make better business decisions when they know the status of their enterprise and how the competition is performing.

illumin – Research Management Software

illumin is the perfect tool for knowledge and research management as it collects, records, quantifies and précis’s queries and answers provided to staff and clients. The knowledge base becomes a comprehensive, audited database of relevant information that can be easily shared.

You’ll Love the New illumin Dashboard!

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Softlink IC is excited by the recent release of illumin, our brilliant knowledge, and research management system. One of the standout enhancements is the new look and feel of the illumin dashboard that displays when users log in. Most of us dream of a makeover to this magnitude!

The Rise of In-House Lawyers – They Need Knowledge Managers Too!

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The legal sector has been subject to significant disruption since the GFC. Law firms have found ways to cut operating budgets by outsourcing some paralegal and research services to service providers. More recently, there has been an increasing move by organizations to build their own team of in-house lawyers. Softlink IC is following the in-house legal trend. It has the potential to provide opportunities for library and knowledge centre researchers.

Librarian Spotlight – a Day in the Life of a Legal Librarian

In the first of our Librarian Spotlight series, Helen Gambley, Library Manager at HopgoodGanim Lawyers, gives us an insight into her working day and how illumin helps her to help the firm’s practitioners.

Softlink IC would like to thank Helen for taking the time to answer our spotlight questions. We are sure you will all enjoy reading them!

3 Emerging Trends for Medical Librarians

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Time and technological innovation wait for no one! For medical librarians, technological innovation is presenting them with exciting opportunities. Softlink Information Centres believe they should consider the following three emerging trends. The trends are an opportunity to expand their role.

Looking for a better way to manage your research requests? illumin can help

Softlink’s illumin is the perfect tool for knowledge and research management as it collects, records, quantifies and summarises queries and answers for staff and clients. The knowledge base becomes a comprehensive, audited database of relevant information that can be easily shared. Watch the video below for more insights into illumin.

Showcasing Liberty and illumin at ALIA’s 2019 Conference

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Softlink Information Centres was super excited about exhibiting at the ALIA 2019 Information Online conference in February. It was a welcome opportunity for us to showcase our Liberty Library Management and illumin Knowledge and Request Management systems.

Alex’s Top 5 Ways illumin Helps Research Centre Staff

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illumin, Softlink Information Centre’s Knowledge and Request Management System, has a new representative, Alex the Alpaca. Alex is a fan of illumin and quite good at explaining the value of illumin as the ultimate way to manage the complexity of tasks required of research centre staff.

Appraisal Institute Solves Business Challenges With Liberty and illumin

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The Appraisal Institute, based in Chicago, is a global association of professional real estate appraisers, with 19,000 members and 80 chapters worldwide. The Institute funds and operates the Y.T. and Louise Lee Lum Library, which provides members with reference services in all areas of real estate appraisal.

Implementation: Top tips from Softlink’s top specialists

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Softlink specialists have been transitioning libraries to new systems for years and have developed a reliable, step-by-step process that takes the stress out of new software implementations. The process ensures smooth transition of data, so libraries can have their new systems up and running fast and be reaping the benefits sooner. We spoke to two of Softlink’s top implementation specialists, Maida Rubin and Sarah Thompson, to find out more about what makes for a successful implementation.

6 Reasons Why Law Firms Need a Powerful Request Management Solution

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The amount of accurate information required by legal staff is phenomenal. How do legal staff communicate their needs to research center staff? How do research center staff efficiently manage the volume of daily requests for the research services they receive? How do they ensure requesters are updated promptly?

It’s a Wrap – Another Successful Liberty User Group Conference

Almost 50 librarians from education, legal, university colleges, industry and government libraries took part in our Melbourne National Liberty User Group Conference and Masterclass in late August with some taking the opportunity to visit the MCC library. They all had a great time and we would again like to thank David Studham and library staff.

illumin Highlights Video

Connect, streamline, and share with your research team with illumin research management system. Watch video below for highlights.

Do Innovative Libraries Need to be Radical for Success?

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Without delving into the challenges faced by 21st century libraries too much, I’m sure we can all pinpoint a time when we read something about innovative libraries and thought to ourselves, “Wow, how on earth did they manage to pull that together? I rarely get time to finish my coffee before it goes cold!”