Midwinter Musings: Ingenta's take on a Texan ALA

Ingenta's ALA attendees this year included staff from all four of our offices – in Providence, RI; Cambridge, MA; Oxford and Bath, UK. None of these cities has a particularly clement climate in January, so our ALA experience could not help but start on a good note when we stepped off the 'plane into the hazy warmth of a San Antonio evening. Our first visit to the city's charming Riverwalk reinforced our fondness for ALA's 2006 Midwinter location, and we were sobered but impressed by our trip to the fascinating and well-preserved Alamo.

Thus it was that we were in good spirits when the show officially opened on Friday evening, January 20. We had a comprehensive suite of library services to offer – including the newly-launched IngentaConnect Complete and InTouch – and we were looking forward to showing off new features, and picking up some valuable face-to-face feedback. We were also keen to attend some of the myriad of briefings and discussions taking place around the site during the conference.

The sessions we went to revolved around two major themes – the role of the library in the digital age, and (providing one immediate answer to that implied question) the work libraries are doing to encourage greater standardisation and integration. There was good discussion about the different things libraries mean to different people (i.e., more than just a place to check out books) and the ways in which libraries can emphasise their value (e.g., engaging in marketing campaigns to patrons). The perennial issue of print versus electronic resources continued to occupy airtime, while Google's many and varied activities naturally caused much offline debate.

At the Ingenta booth, there was considerable discussion about the potential role of institutional repositories; the general consensus amongst our visitors seemed to be that, while limited support from researchers at this point of time will hamper short-term growth and impact, IRs are here to stay. (Unlike our IngentaConnect InTouch mechanical pencils, which were disappearing as fast as we could put them on display, and were voted "top show freebie" by several of you – UK librarians should be sure to come and grab one at UKSG in April!)

A visit to San Antonio wouldn't be complete without sampling the fabulous Tex Mex food on offer, and with that in mind the prize in our conference competition was a quesadilla maker with assorted spices and recipes. Our congratulations to Carrie Cooper of Eastern Kentucky University who clinched the prize.

Thank-you to all of you who took the time to drop by and visit us during the show. We look forward to seeing you all again in New Orleans this summer!

The IngentaConnect library team at ALA Midwinter: L-R Engineering Manager Leigh Dodds, Senior Product Manager Charlie Rapple, Customer Services Manager Paul Overend, Library & End User Services Manager Amel Abourachid, VP IngentaConnect Doug Wright, Library Sales Manager Rachel Peckover