Evergreen ILS

Open Source Library Software

Andrea Buntz Neiman

2021 Evergreen International Online Conference

We are just a couple weeks away from the 2021 Evergreen International Online Conference! The conference is taking place Tuesday, May 25th through Thursday, May 27th 2021. A separate preconference event will be held Monday, May 24th and a documentation and developer hackfest is planned for Friday, May 28th. We encourage you to use the conference hashtag #evgils21 in any social media posts.

Registration for preconference & main conference events will be open until Monday, May 17th. Registration for the hackfests, which are free, will remain open though the conference.

There’s a great lineup of sessions planned, so please see the full Conference Schedule and Program Descriptions pages. All preconference and regular conference sessions will be recorded and made available within a few weeks after the conference. Recordings will be posted on the community YouTube page. All sessions except interest groups & roundtables will also have live captioning available.

As a reminder to all attendees, this event is subject to the community Code of Conduct and Photography/Audio/Video Policy. There are designated Responders for this event as well as a form to report Code of Conduct violations.

Last but not least, a huge thanks to our Sponsors and Exhibitors for making this event possible! We are so grateful for your support of both the conference and the larger Evergreen community.

2021 Evergreen International Conference: Registrations & Call for Proposals Open

The 2021 Evergreen International Conference Committee is pleased to announce that registration and program submissions are OPEN!

We will be holding the conference online again this year on the platform Hopin, which is the same platform we used for the 2020 Hackaway. The conference this year will include a virtual exhibit hall, and like last year we are planning to have the majority of sessions live-captioned. We are also pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be Becky Yoose, library data privacy consultant and founder of LDH Consulting. Plans are being made for social events and a post-conference Hackfest, so stay tuned for more info!

The main conference events will take place Tuesday, May 25th through Thursday, May 27th from 11am-6pm ET (8am-3pm PT). A separate preconference event will take place on Monday, May 24th from 12pm-4:30pm ET (9am-1:30pm PT). A Hackfest will be held following the conference on Friday, May 28th.

You can register for the preconference, main conference, and hackfest here:

https://hopin.com/events/evergreen-international-pre-conference-2021

https://hopin.com/events/evergreen-international-conference-2021

https://hopin.com/events/evergreen-international-conference-hackfest-2021

Preconference price is $50 per attendee, and earlybird conference price is $55 per attendee (regular conference price $75 per attendee after March 17th). The Hackfest is free. Registration is open until May 17th for conference and preconference events, and Hackfest registration will stay open until the Hackfest starts. Due to the nature of Hopin, you will need to register separately for preconference, main conference, and Hackfest.

More information about registration and the Hopin platform is available on the conference webpage.

We are also now accepting conference proposals for preconferences and regular sessions. Preconferences are two-hour long sessions where more in-depth topics can be explored. Regular sessions are 50 minutes. Community interest groups that wish to meet during the conference should file a proposal for a session slot. Regular sessions will be grouped into two tracks.

Preconference proposals are due March 8th, and regular session proposals are due March 17th.

For more information about program submissions, please see the Call for Proposals page.

If you’re ready to go, you can submit your presentation proposal using this form.

If you work for an organization that’s interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at the conference, please email sponsors@evergreen-ils.org or see the Sponsors Page for more info:

Questions/comments/concerns? Contact the Conference Committee at evergreen-conference@list.evergreen-ils.org.

Evergreen Community Spotlight: Debbie Luchenbill

The Evergreen Outreach Committee is pleased to announce that December’s Community Spotlight is Debbie Luchenbill. Debbie is the Associate Director for Open Source Initiatives at MOBIUS and wears many hats in the Evergreen Community.

Debbie started her work at MOBIUS – and her Evergreen Community involvement – in 2012. At that time, her role at MOBIUS was Evergreen Coordinator, and she worked with MOBIUS’s Evergreen libraries providing training, fielding helpdesk tickets, and managing communications. 

Debbie cites the 2013 Conference as a turning point in her community involvement. “I met everyone, and contrary to what I’ve been told, they weren’t scary or judgy!” Debbie says. “I started thinking about how I could be more involved.” Since documentation was part of her job at the time, Debbie started working with the Documentation Interest Group (DIG). She became DIG facilitator in 2019.

“One of my big strengths is leadership, so taking on the DIG facilitation is good because I can bring that organization and regularity to DIG,” Debbie says. In 2020, she also brought those leadership skills to the Evergreen project as a whole and was elected a member of The Evergreen Project Board.

Debbie has also been involved with planning and executing the annual Evergreen International Conference, starting on the Site Selection Committee in 2016 and joining the Standing Conference Committee in 2018. She was also chair of the Local Committee that put on the 2018 Evergreen Conference in St. Charles. Debbie served as a Zoom host for the 2020 Online Conference, and is involved with the forthcoming 2021 Online Conference as well.

If you’ve had a video conference with Debbie, you may have noticed the Wall of Strong Women behind her, representing a portion of her Funko Pop collection. Her favorite is Princess Leia. “I’ve never not known Star Wars,” Debbie says. Her dad took her to see the first movie as a small child. “I’ve spent my entire life wanting to be Princess Leia, because she was a leader in the rebellion – fighting for people, for justice, and a cause she believed in.”

Debbie encourages new Evergreen Community members to get involved with one of the many interest groups and committees. “I think it’s a little easier now because there’s so many committees and interest groups meeting via video,” Debbie observes. “It’s easier when you can see people and know how they’re responding, as opposed to strictly [meeting] in IRC.”

And it is all about the people, Debbie says. “The people make the community!”

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Do you know someone in the community who deserves a bit of extra recognition? Please use this form to submit your nominations. We ask for your email in case we have any questions, but all nominations will be kept confidential.

Any questions can be directed to Andrea Buntz Neiman via abneiman@equinoxinitiative.org or abneiman in IRC.