European Innovative Users Group meeting March 1995

An inaugural meeting of the European Innovoative Users Group was held at Wembley on 8th March 1995. This is an unofficial record of the meeting.

1. Introduction

Users present introduced themselves and gave a brief account of the current status of their INNOPAC system. The sites represented were:

• European University Institute - System installed in 1993 replacing a Geac system.
• University of Wales Bangor - System installed in 1994 replacing a Geac system.
• North East Wales Institute - Shares the system with the University of Wales Bangor. Replaced Lending Library and an Oracle based system.
• University of Essex - System installed in 1994 replacing Teralib. Release 9 was installed 3 weeks ago to allow for the introduction of author/title searches in the OPAC.
• University of Glasgow - In the middle of profiling, with TESTPAC at the end of April and planning to go live by 1 August 1995.
• School of Advanced Study - Seven postgraduate institutes of the London University are currently sharing a Libertas system, to be replaced by INNOPAC by September 1995. Draft contract currently with lawyers.
• Although not represented at the meeting Fabrica in Treviso, Italy, will be installed shortly.

2. User discussion

Users then discussed areas of concern. Topics raised included:

• Support arrangements and hardware maintenance especially for software only sites.
• Versions of operating systems to be supported by Innovative.
• Participation in enhancement process as a group.

3. European Users Group and email discussion list

After discussion the following was agreed:

• The name of the group should be "European Innovative Users Group".
• An email discussion group should be set up using the Mailbase at Newcastle as a host. Sara Marsh would make necessary arrangements and circulate possible names for the list to other members.
• The regional email list should be used to discuss matters of local interest but European users should endeavour to make more use of the main INNOPAC discussion list, for instance by sending a reply to the list rather than to the originator of a question and asking others to do likewise.
• Sara Marsh was elected as Secretary and Mieko Yamaguchi as Chair for the coming year.
• The group should meet at least once a year possibly to coincide with a major conference or an exhibition. Further meetings might be held if there is sufficient interest.

4. Discussion with Bob Walton

Bob Walton joined the meeting at this point. He welcomed the opportunity to answer questions and make a presentation to the group. He told the meeting that he would be back every year if the users wanted his participation in the users group activities, and offered to provide advanced training and updating sessions for existing European users on a regular basis.

5. Presentation by Innovative Interfaces

The meeting was followed by a presentation by Bob Walton. On behalf of the users present Mieko Yamaguchi thanked Bob Walton for his attendance, especially in view of his recent injury, and Innovative for their generosity in providing the room and refreshments.

List of users present:

Gillian Anderson (University of Wales Bangor) iss080@bangor.ac.uk

Mark Denham (University of Glasgow) mark.denham@lib.gla.ac.uk

Gillian Hughes (University of Wales Bangor) iss062@bangor.ac.uk

Paul Jeorrett (North East Wales Institute of Higher Education) p.jeorrett@newi.ac.uk

Bill Longley (University of Essex) billl@essex.ac.uk

Sara Marsh (University of Essex) sara@essex.ac.uk

Donald Munro (Institute of Historical Research) ihrlib2@sas.ac.uk

Nigel Soane (University of Wales Bangor) nigel@bangor.ac.uk

Michiel Tegelaars (European University Institute) tegelaar@datacomm.iue.it

Steven Whittle (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) stevej-w@sas.ac.uk

Jules Winterton (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) julesw@sas.ac.uk

Mieko Yamaguchi (University of Wales Bangor) mieko@bangor.ac.uk

Marion Birch (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) m-birch@sas.ac.uk (sent apologies)

Document created by Mieko Yamaguchi, 18.5.96.