April 28, 2008 -- Emeryville, CA. Innovative Interfaces announced today the winners of the 2008 Be Innovative! Awards at the Innovative Users Group (IUG) Annual Conference in Washington, DC. The Awards program is held annually with the goal of recognizing the creative and outstanding uses of Innovative products. Winners this year were recognized in four categories: Most Innovative Implementation of eResource Discovery, Most Innovative Staff Program, Most Innovative WebPAC, and Most Innovative Patron Services.
A panel consisting of IUG Chair Nancy Fleck of Michigan State University, IUG Vice Chair/Chair Elect John Culshaw of University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, as well as Innovative staff Mary Chevreau, VP of North American Customer Sales; Betsy Graham, VP of Product Management; and Gene Shimshock, VP of Marketing, evaluated dozens of entries before naming the following honorees.
Most Innovative Implementation of eResource Discovery
Birmingham Public Library (AL) was recognized for using WebBridge LR (Link Resolver) to link to Amazon.com for e-resource discovery in WebPAC Pro, Innovative's web-based public catalog product.
Most Innovative Staff Program
Las Vegas-Clark County Library District (NV) won first-place honors for "Concierge Key with Self-Check." This innovation allows library staff to work more efficiently with third-party self-check workstations.
The second place award was presented to West Palm Beach Public Library (FL) for developing a training Wiki that includes technology competencies for various topics including Millennium.
Most Innovative WebPAC
Mid-Hudson Library System (NY) accepted first place honors for their New Kids Catalog, which takes advantage of features and customization opportunities in the new KidsOnline product.
The Watzek Library of Lewis and Clark College and eLGAR, Libraries for a Greater Auckland Region (New Zealand), tied for second place for Most Innovative WebPAC. The College was recognized for their "Easy Course Reserves Requesting," which enables instructors find an item in the catalog and automatically generate an email to the circulation department reserving the item and indicating course number and loan period. "Implementation of AirPAC" earned eLGAR second place in the Most Innovative WebPAC category. Library staff created a Flash-driven "web tour" to promote the launch of AirPAC, Innovative's wireless online catalog application for small-screen devices.
Most Innovative Patron Services
Ryerson University Library (Canada) won first-place honors for applications that enable users to access the library website, including the WebPAC, from their page on the Facebook social-networking website.
Recognized in second place, Hong Kong Baptist University Library staff used the Millennium Patron API to integrate user-specific notices from the library into iCalendar-compatible applications.
Public Recognition
Jerry Kline, Chairman and CEO, and Betsy Graham, VP of Product Management of Innovative Interfaces, publicly announced the winners at the Opening Reception of the Conference and presented each winning library with a "Starfire" crystal trophy. First- and second-place winners received monetary awards of $1,000 and $500 respectively and other prizes.
About the IUG
The Innovative Users Group (IUG) was formally organized in 1991 as an international organization of member libraries that use Innovative Interfaces' integrated library software products. It is an independent organization from Innovative Interfaces. The IUG is led by the Steering Committee whose members are elected by the general membership. It consists of a Chair, Vice Chair/Chair Elect, Past Chair, Secretary/Treasurer, and four Members at Large. All members of the Steering Committee volunteer their services to the organization. In addition to archiving all conference presentation materials, the IUG maintains a website (www.innovativeusers.org) that also includes an Online Clearinghouse of member-developed resources including tutorials, scripts, training documents, and promotional materials. These resources represent a level of customer involvement and support unmatched in the library technology arena.
About Innovative Interfaces
Innovative Interfaces dedicates its energies to meeting the needs of libraries and the challenges of library automation. The company has fulfilled this mission with first-rate services and products such as the Millennium integrated library platform, the INN-Reach direct consortia borrowing solution, Electronic Resource Management, and the Encore discovery services platform. Today, thousands of libraries of all types in over 40 countries rely on Innovative's products, services, and support. The company is located in Emeryville, California with offices around the world.
