Message from OBS Chair Katrina Piechnik

Are you getting ready for AALL Conference in San Antonio if yes please read on

Here is the complete schedule of OBS activities for the 2014 AALL Annual Meeting, so please look for us at:

Saturday, July 12, 8:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m.
CONELL (Conference of Newer Law Librarians)- do not miss this great opportunity to send some of your young coworkers to this event.

Saturday, 1:45 PM
OBS/TS-SIS TSLL Executive Board Meeting HBGCC-Room 210A

Saturday, 3:00 PM
OBS-SIS Executive Board Meeting (outgoing and incoming) HBGCC-Room 210A

Saturday, 7:00 PM
Joint Reception of the TS/OBS/RIPS/CS SISs (sponsored by Innovative Interfaces) also known as Alphabet Soup Reception

Sunday, 11:45 AM
OBS-SIS Local Systems Roundtables Marriott Riverwalk's-Travis Room

Our VIP, for the 2014 Annual Meeting is Nicole Engard, who will speak on Sunday, 11:45 AM

OBS-SIS Local Systems Roundtables. This will not follow a roundtable format, but instead will be a program that will definitely be worth attending . This program will be held worth in Marriott Riverwalk's-Travis Room. Please note that because this program will happen during a roundtable, it will not be listed on the AALL program schedule


Nicole C. Engard is the Vice President of Education at ByWater Solutions. Her primary role at ByWater Solutions is to educate librarians about open source software with a focus on the Koha ILS. In addition to her daily responsibilities, Nicole keeps the library community up to date on web technologies via her website "What I Learned Today..." (www.web2learning.net) and volunteers as a community moderator on opensource.com. In 2007, Nicole was named one of Library Journal's Movers & Shakers and in 2009 she was the editor of "Library Mashups," a book published by Information Today, Inc. and in 2010 she authored "Practical Open Source Software for Libraries," a book published by Chandos Inc. and in 2012 the second edition of "The Accidental Systems Librarian" which she worked on with Rachel Singer Gordon was released.

Topic of Nicole's presentation is Open Source Software: a Community and a Philosophy of Freedom

Monday, 11:45 AM
OBS-SIS OCLC Users Group HBGCC-Room 007A

Monday, 5:30 PM
OBS-SIS Business Meeting Marriott Riverwalk-Bonham

Tuesday, 7:00 AM
OBS-SIS Education Committee

Tuesday, 10:15 AM
F1: Orbis Cascade Alliance Summit: A Library Management Service Model for the FutureHBGCC-Room 217A
This program is a continuation of the last year roundtable discussion. I definitely will be attending this program. Thank you, Chris Tarr, for coordinating and moderating this program.

With ILS costs skyrocketing and library budgets shrinking, libraries are increasingly turning to new models of affording the ILS they want. Open Source ILSs are one answer. Consortia are another. The Orbis Cascade Alliance is implementing a new library management service to be shared by all 37 members of the consortium. Soon all these libraries in the Pacific Northwest will be sharing not only a catalog, but also cooperative collection development, digital initiatives, and discovery services. Hopefully, this will result in better services for students, faculty, and staff. Is it worth giving up the autonomy of a separate institutional ILS? What are the costs, and what are the benefits?

Make sure to stop at the Exhibit Hall by our OBS-SIS Activities table where you could meet our Board and chat with them and ...



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Katrina Piechnik
OBS-SIS Chair
Library Systems Manager
Jenkins Law Library
833 Chestnut St., Suite 1220
Philadelphia PA 19107-4429