BDS SPONSORS CONUL CONFERENCE

BDS was a Gold Sponsor of this year’s CONUL Conference. The event took place over the 24th and 25th May 2023 at Clayton Silver Springs in Cork, Ireland.

CONUL stands for the Consortium of National and University Libraries. It is the representative body of research libraries in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Heather Sherman, Director of Academic Library Operations at BDS, was at the Conference where BDS had a stand promoting the BDS Academic Library Licence (ALL).

The theme for this year was “Sense and Sustainability – Environmental, Economic and Social Sustainability in Libraries”. Keynote speakers Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, Executive Director, MidHudson Library System, and Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, PhD candidate at MIT, opened each of the two day’s programme of presentations and discussion around the conference themes.

Metadata and the Green Agenda

“The BDS Academic Library Licence fitted beautifully with this year’s conference theme,” says Heather Sherman. “The ALL makes sense, delivering single source records derived from bookin-hand publications, and sustainability is at the ALL’s heart, with its environmentally friendly record creation and removal of duplication of effort, carbon footprint and the systems needed to create them.”

BDS introduced the ALL at last year’s CONUL Conference. The innovative service delivers on industry body recommendations. The aim is to simplify, streamline, improve and reduce costs across the metadata supply chain to academic libraries. It has rapidly gained adopters across the UK and generated significant interest in Ireland.

CONUL, in consideration of the climate emergency facing the world, sought to minimise the environmental impact of this year’s conference. Sponsors were encouraged to “go green”, use public transport wherever possible, and to minimise the amount of printed material distributed to delegates. In the spirit of the conference, BDS published its support material for the conference and information about sustainability and record creation at BDS on its website. The material links via QR code. Capture the code or click on it for more information.

People who wish to learn more about the BDS ALL should contact Heather on heather. sherman@bdslive.com or 07711 378086.

Find out more about the BDS Academic Library Licence at https://www.bdslive.com/libraries/ academic-libraries/

Find out more about CONUL at https://conul.ie