[IUG] 2008 Conference and Innovative Workshops

[Nancy Fleck <fleckn at mail dot lib dot msu dot edu>]

Happy Friday afternoon, Everyone!

I am pleased to announce the titles and summary of the workshops to be
offered by Innovative for the 2008 Conference. Every year Innovative offers
two workshops, one for the morning, and one in the afternoon. These
workshops will be held on Sunday, April 27, 2008 on the same day as the IUG
pre-conference. These will have a cost attached, but that hasn't been
decided just yet. John Culshaw has just sent out the information in another
email about the first survey which provides the titles of the sessions. You
can now begin to get a picture of what the program is shaping up to include.
Registration will open shortly after ALA in mid-January.

We hope you agree that there will be a lot of wonderful sessions to entice
you to attend this conference. We truly hope to see you in Washington in
April! Have a great weekend!

Nancy

Morning Program:

Library Staff Transitions: Managing Your Library's Innovative System through
Staff Changes 

Every library needs to plan for the inevitable changes in personnel that
happen in any organization. Key staff people will retire or quit, and new
staff will be hired and need to be trained. Staff may also take on different
roles within the organization, requiring that they come up to speed on a new
set of tasks and responsibilities. How can you minimize the impact on your
library's daily operations and assure that the really important information
is being passed on to the new decision makers?

This workshop will focus on methods for creating a smooth transition period
during staff turnover, maintaining an accessible "history" of decisions made
and the reasons for them, and minimizing problems for Innovative system
support. In addition to looking at staff transitions, we will also look at
the role of the Innovative Coordinator and available support for a newly
designated coordinator.

Co-presented by Judith Clark and an Innovative trainer TBA

Afternoon Program:

WebPAC Design and Best Practices

How to make the most of your WebPAC using a combination of Innovative's
tools and standard web practices. This workshop will talk about the way to
approach your design or redesign project. We will begin with an overview of
the way that the WebPAC is constructed, including the role of example sets,
tokens, Web Options and customizable forms. We will then go on to more
advanced topics such as Javascripts, style sheets and images. We will work
with you toward a goal of creating a WebPAC that reflects the individual
identity of the library and organization, that optimizes the display and use
of the library's resources, and that helps to create a good user experience
for your patrons.

The workshop will show of examples of different WebPAC's that accomplish
these goals in unique or particularly beautiful ways.

Co-presented by Charles Mihm and an Innovative Trainer TBA