December 2023

Looking back at 2023...

Illume has much to celebrate this year as the service continues to grow, introduce new enhancements, and strive for continual improvements to the system. Let's take a look at the highlights.

Illume in 2023:

Filled over 80,000 interlibrary loan requests: 103 participating public and post-secondary libraries collaborated via the Illume service to deliver books, articles, and other materials into the hands of BC and Yukon patrons.

Updated 5-year SHAREit License: BC ELN negotiated a new 5-year Auto-Graphics SHAREit license and hosting support agreement starting April 2023. This 5-year contract brings both continuity and savings to the Illume system with low annual increases of 2%. The new agreement also includes features, like SIP2/NCIP and LDAP/SSO, at no cost set-up and low annual vendor support fees per activated library/system.

Welcomed one new member: Alexander College joined Illume, expanding the collections available to all Illume members.

Advocated for Enhancements: The Illume Support Centre plays an important advocacy role within the network -- gathering software enhancement suggestions from libraries and sharing these, along with broader system feedback, with the SHAREit software vendor Auto-Graphics. In recent years, over 15 of our feature recommendations have been approved with several of our suggestions voted the top enhancements or improvements desired by all SHAREit customers. Keep reading to learn more about upcoming enhancements!

On the horizon in 2024...

A Focus on Improvements, Enhancements and Optimizations

The Illume Support Centre continues to advocate on behalf of Illume members for SHAREit software improvements and new features desired by Public and Post-secondary libraries!

Voted #1 by SHAREit customers:

In 2023, your feature suggestion for an Invoice Sent and Paid status workflow was the top voted new feature by all SHAREit customers. Due to some technical complexities, this enhancement is still in progress and will be available as soon as possible.

In 2024, your improvement suggestion for the Lending Policy to have both Loan and Copy request type options for each Format was again the top voted improvement by all SHAREit customers. Lender libraries will once again be able to deflect Loan requests for formats such as eBooks while still accepting Copy requests for eBook Chapters.

Available in 2024:

The new highly requested OpenILL Requesting feature will be available in the new year! Libraries will have the option of activating patron-initiated requesting directly from resources such as EBSCO databases and EDS to Illume (SHAREit).

Auto-Graphics has also been working on an upgrade to support ISO 18626. ISO-target libraries, such as Relais sites, should keep an eye out for announcements of this updated version of the SHAREit software to be available next year. Please contact us if you have any questions.

The Illume Support Centre has also started projects to implement optimizations such as SIP2/NCIP. Is your library also interested in implementing patron authentication or improved workflow via SSO, LDAP, SIP2, or NCIP? Please contact us for more information.

Beyond next year:

Beyond next year, the vendor Auto-Graphics is also exploring Statistics module enhancements (eg. Renewal and Format counts) and Request Manager improvements including those to help with Multi-Copy (eg. Book Club) requests.

Do you have another SHAREit feature enhancement or improvement suggestion? Please contact us so we can submit it to the vendor for consideration!

Wishing you a happy holiday season!

The Illume Administrative Support Centre is closed for the holidays starting December 15th, 2023 and returning January 3rd, 2024. Please continue to email any issues during this time and we will respond in the new year!

The BC Electronic Library Network (BC ELN) hosts and staffs the Illume Administrative Centre.

Questions? Contact the Illume Administrative Centre.

Visit the Illume Website