Positions available
A number of positions in the Aleph Product Working Group become available in 2008, please see the Call for candidates. Current coordinators for ILL and Web OPAC are not standing again. Candidates for these roles are especially needed, as well as for Course Reading for which we haven’t had a module coordinator up to now. Some members of the current working body have indicated their intention to stand again.
Candidates
We will update this list as new candidates come forward up to the time of the conference.
Executive Committee
- Coordinator: Gerard Bennett, University of Westminster (UK) [current]
- I have been Coordinator of the Aleph Product Working Group for the last two years, since its setting up within the newly established IGeLU user group. My background is as a systems librarian at the University of Westminster in London where I have worked with various Ex Libris products over the last 10 years: Aleph, MetaLib, SFX and most recently Verde. I try to bring this breath of experience to the work of the product group. — Working for the group in last two years in the group has been exciting, establishing the new group on a sound footing, working on the enhancement process, on the collaborative testing arrangements for Aleph v19, on developing collaborative working practices with colleagues on the ELUNA Aleph product group, but most of all representing the interests of the users to Ex Libris. I would like to continue in this role for the next two years which will clearly be a time of further change and challenge.
- Deputy Coordinator: Marcus Zerbst, Zentralbibliothek Zürich (Switzerland) [current]
- I wish to continue my work as Aleph PWG deputy coordinator. As a systems librarian in a 2-ADM-environment I am responsible for acquisition&serials incl EDI, ILL, bib data import/export, statistics (SQL, ARC), electronic ressources management incl ADAM. From 1999 to 2004 I worked for Ex Libris Germany both in implementation and support teams. — Since my election at the 1st IGeLU conference in 2006 I worked on building and maintaining the IGeLU website, where I am in charge of the Aleph pages. I helped preparing and carrying out the IGeLU conferences in Brno and Madrid. I’m involved in all kind of tasks around the enhancement request procedure and I will be moderator for the Aleph area in the EL Commons wiki.
Module coordinator
- Acquisitions/Serials: Andrea Kroneisl, OBVSG (Austria) [current]
- I am systems librarian at the Austrian Library Network Center. I support many small libraries with the main task of cataloging, acq and serials. I work with the tables and also teach the librarians how to use the system (nearly 10 years by now) I am also nearly as long a module coordinator. — I am standing again because I always learn a lot myself, when I am testing the new versions. With the requests from other libraries I also find new ideas how to work with the system.
- Cataloguing: Janet Wharton, University of Nottingham (UK) [current]
- I have been the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at the University of Nottingham since 1995. We implemented Aleph in 2000, and from the outset, I have been involved in configuring the cataloguing module and the tables relating to the indexing and display of bibliographic information. Having responsibility for the work of the cataloguing team, I am concerned to make our workflows as efficient as possible – and to use the system to facilitate this and reduce errors wherever possible. I also work with our systems administrator on bulk loads and amendments of large sets of records – and other large-scale amendments to the catalogue. — I find that the two aspects of my work – practical cataloguing and responsibility for the cataloguing module – feed into each other very positively. In both areas there are generally always improvements which can be made. I have valued the opportunity to work as a module co-ordinator because of the greater familiarity it helps me develop with the system – and I hope that my experience in Nottingham also enables me to make a useful contribution to the work of the APWG working body.
- Circulation: Matthew Phillips, University of Dundee (UK) [current]
- I am Systems Librarian at the University of Dundee, Scotland. We use Aleph, MetaLib and SFX, and have been with Aleph since 2004. I manage a small team which looks after the installation, upgrading and configuration of the software, along with other library-related systems and general IT in the Library. I have a lot of experience of the Circulation system because our Library has seven sites and heavy use of inter-site hold requests. I have also used my programming skills to develop some interesting additions to the OPAC. — I am willing to stand again, as I think that my Aleph knowledge is particularly useful in the assessment and evaluation of enhancement specifications.
- ILL: Annelie Edelmann, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany)
- Since 2006 I am working as systems librarian at the Freie Universität Berlin. Before that I worked for many years in the Aleph project group of ExLibris, Germany, with special emphasis on the modules circulation, acquisitions and ILL. Our library has been working with the ILL module since 2003, and my colleagues have been involved in the Aleph ILL Focus Group. Like most German libraries we are conducting ILL via SLNP. This year (2008) we served as early adopter for the introduction of ILL2.
- ILL: Elizabeth (Becky) Ringwelski, University of Minnesota (US)
- I am employed as an Associate Director for MINITEX, a resource sharing network located at the University of Minnesota. I have worked in resource sharing for over twenty-five years. In 2006 I was a member of the Aleph ILL Focus Group for version 18 of the interlibrary loan software. I am responsible for the MINITEX interlibrary loan services as well as lending from the University of Minnesota humanities, social and educational sciences, general sciences, math, journalism and engineering collections. Last year MINITEX processed 78,000 requests on the Aleph ILL system.
- Systems Administration: Christian Zeising, National Library of Sweden [current]
- I’ve been working as a Systems Administrator at Kungl.biblioteket – National Library of Sweden with our Aleph system since 1997 (when we started with Aleph 500 version 9). One of my main responsibilities is to plan for and to develop ways to ease interoperability between different systems. — I was part of the organisation committee for the IGeLU conference in Stockholm 2006 and I am also a member of the steering committee in the Swedish national Aleph user group, Alephswe. 1998-2006 I acted as ICAU module coordinator for circulation and since the first IGeLU conference 2006 I’ve been systems module coordinator. I’ve enjoyed very much to be a module coordinator as it has been both educating and fun. Therefore I am willing to continue in this role for another term and hopefully make a useful contribution to IGeLU and to the Aleph society.
- Systems Administration: Martin Vojnar, Research Library Olomouc (Czech Republic) [current]
- I have been a system modul coordinator since the beginning of the group. During years, I have learned a lot and hopefully giving this back to user community through enhancement requests procedure and other means. I work as a systems administrator in Research Library in Olomouc and would like to continue serving IGeLU in my current position.
- Web OPAC: Janet Lefkovitz, Hebrew University (Jerusalem, Israel)
- I have worked with the Web OPAC since its inception, and know the functionality of the screens. As head of various committees in Israel I have often written up and/or edited enhancement requests from our national group members for Ex Libris. I have been in touch on numerous occasions with Ex Libris about enhancement requests, and know how to field their questions and comments.
- Web OPAC: Daniel Forsman, Jonkoping University (Sweden)
- My work is focused on the development of electronic services for our library. I have been working at Jonkoping University since 2006 previous to that I spent five years at Orebro University Library (Voyager) as a systems librarian, focusing on OPAC development. My focus on the Aleph OPAC has been focused on customization and integration of external webservices. Some of the work was described by me in the 2007 ACRL book “Library 2.0 initiatives in academic libraries” and at the IGeLU conference in Brno. I am presenting again this year on our work integrating and disintegrating services from MetaLib, SFX, the Aleph OPAC (I manage all three products at our library) and webservices.
