IUG 2026 Annual Conference

Lightning Rounds are short (approximately 10-minute) talks that briefly highlight a project or topic. This session includes (not necessarily in order): 

- Getting Involved with IUG (Jeff Campbell):
Learn more about how to get involved with IUG!

- From Door to Desktop - Identity Provider Integration in Action (Derek Brown)
Join us for a practical look at how Rochester Hills Public Library implemented identity provider integration across our library system following Clarivate's OAuth support announcement. This brief session demonstrates our real-world integration of Google Workspace authentication with Polaris LEAP, showcasing how staff seamlessly move from physical building access (using YubiKeys with OpenPath) to authenticated Polaris sessions (both on-site and remotely). Through sped-up demonstration footage and mobile device examples, we'll illustrate the tangible benefits of identity federation in a library environment. We'll also share insights from our journey toward passwordless authentication, YubiKey implementation, and experiments with Google Chrome OS Flex. This lightning round is ideal for libraries considering OAuth implementation or exploring how identity providers can unify security across digital and physical systems.

- Databrae - Inexpensive, direct, high speed item access without RFID (Daniel Messer)
One of the dreams of the Circulation Librarian is the ability to access and evaluate the items on the shelves without touching every single item. If you're running an inventory, or checking last circ dates for a weeding project, or checking for errant item statuses, the process is the same: Scan the item into your ILS and move on from there. RFID promised a solution for this, with handheld wands that are supposed to read the tags and you never have to touch the items. Except for two problems: One, everything about RFID is expensive and two, wands don't always work. Sooner or later, you'll run into an issue where you cannot scan an RFID tag and need to pull the item off the shelf. And for some libraries, the expensive nature of RFID, from the price of tags to the price of equipment, hampers their ability to improve their workflows and make their jobs easier. I have an idea. I admit, it's a crazy idea, but it's everything RFID isn't. It's inexpensive, the software is free and open source, your library won't need to buy a lot of special equipment, the price of conversion is pennies on the dollar compared to RFID, it doesn't matter what ILS you're running, and there's a good chance you already have everything you need. Let me tell you about Databrae.

- AI-Assisted Code: Automating Merge Record Cleanup as a Non-Programmer (Amanda Raver)
In this lightning talk, I will describe how I used AI tools to help me streamline a time-consuming process. Every week, Gleeson Library downloads weekly merged records from OCLC WorldShare Collection Manager. The merge files are created when two or more existing records are merged with a new OCLC control number. The problem is that when loading the merged records into Sierra, Sierra cannot match them to more than one existing record at a time. This left our catalog littered with old records that should have been overlaid by the merge records, but were not. These had to be tracked down individually and deleted. To solve the problem, I used Claude to help me write a Python script that would pull the merged OCLC control numbers from the merge file and plug them into a SQL query so that I could quickly pull all the old records to be deleted rather than searching for them one by one. The original task that took hours of staff time now only takes a few minutes to complete. This presentation will discuss my process for writing and testing the script as a Python beginner and share tips and tricks for using AI to assist in streamlining workflows.