As we begin the journey into 2020, here’s a look at the year that was with Softlink Information Centres 2019 year in review, and what a great year it was!

Liberty and illumin Update Releases

As always, our focus remained on continuing to deliver innovative features and valuable enhancements to our Liberty 5 and illumin users.

Softlink IC released several updates to our Liberty 5 library management and illumin research software in 2019.

Each update included fantastic new features and enhancements, all of which were well received. We can’t list them all but there were a few that were real favorites including:

• The new illumin dashboard.
• The Stocktake function in LibertyLink our mobile app.
• An option for library staff to personalize their logged in users’ homepages easily.
• Customizable search tabs in the library’s homepage.

We continued to keep abreast of knowledge industry news and predictions in 2019 and thank you for the information and suggestions you provided us with throughout last year.

We look forward to collaborating with you again in 2020 as we continue to evolve our cutting-edge software. Your suggestions are a valued contribution to our program of new releases. Watch out for further updates!

Liberty (and an illumin) Virtual User Group Meetings (VUGMs)

Softlink IC’s US-based Customer Community Manager Maida Rubin presented three Liberty 5 VUGM for our northern and southern hemisphere based customers.

Attendance numbers at our VUGMs continue to increase. We thank you all for your support and encouraging feedback. The 2019 series was off to an early start with the first for 2019 held on the 24th of January.

If you haven’t yet managed to attend a VUGM, why not make it a goal for 2020? We know you won’t regret it! Better still, use the opportunity to deliver a presentation. It could be on a feature in our products that you love, or share your exciting library program or redesign you are planning or have completed. Everyone loves a ‘show and tell’.

User Group Meetings

The free annual southern and northern hemisphere Liberty 5 User Group Conferences continued in 2019. They were, as always, an opportunity for everyone to catch up with each other, learn about upcoming features, and attend the masterclass.

The presentations on new features, upcoming features, breakouts and the Homepage Showdown were an added bonus! Click here and here to read about the New Zealand and Australia conferences respectively.

In London, Liberty 5 users joined Sarah and John for their user group meeting and training day. They were delighted to catch up with you all.

Softlink IC looks forward to meeting up with everyone at the 2020 round of conferences!

Customer Training

An even more comprehensive, free training schedule was delivered in 2019. There wasn’t a month where one or more training days were not held on-site, in our Brisbane offices, at customers’ offices, or via the web!

Many of our Liberty 5 users took the opportunity to attend the training sessions. This came as no surprise! Library staff always support and embrace training and learning opportunities.
On-site training around Australia and the Pacific region kept Sarah Thompson, our Technical Services Manager, and Alexander Spencer, our Technical Support Analyst busy.

Maida Rubin, our US-based Customer Service Manager, completed well attended, on-site training days in several cities including New York, Boston, and Chicago.

Boot Camps

The boot camp format of short, sharp bursts of training, was born in 2017. The free, one-hour sessions focus on a specific area or process in Liberty 5. The format has become so successful we delivered several of them in 2019.

Australia based Alexander Spencer presented the boot camps for the Southern Hemisphere Liberty 5 users. Our UK based representative, David McCandless, was our presenter for our Northern Hemisphere Liberty 5 users.

Topics included OPAC customizations, Managing your Digital collections, and Overdues. The schedule for 2020 is being planned as we speak, and we look forward to your topic suggestions.

Industry Conferences

Softlink IC’s Technical Services Manager, Sarah Thompson, attended several conferences in 2019 including NZLLA, ANTZLA, LIANZA, and IALL. They were an ideal opportunity for Sarah to learn about the exciting developments happening in the library industry. As usual, she was delighted to meet prospective users and catch with many of our Liberty 5 and illumin users.

Attending the IALL conference was particularly exciting. It had been 20 years since one was held in Australia and was too good an opportunity to miss. Read about Sarah’s experience at IALL here.

Customer Spotlights

We have posted our popular Softlink IC Employee spotlights for a couple of years now. Mid-way through 2019, we thought it would be fun to spotlight some of our Liberty 5 and illumin users.

We are thrilled that so far, despite significant workloads, one of our illumin users and one of our Liberty 5 users took the time to participate.

We thank Helen Gambley, Librarian at HopgoodGanim Lawyers and David Studham, Librarian at the Melbourne Cricket Club for agreeing to be “spotlit”. Both are posted on our Blog page. To go directly to Helen’s spotlight, click here. To go directly to David’s, click here.

We look forward to presenting several more user spotlights over the coming year. So, here’s to 2020. It promises to be an excellent year for everyone.