Wednesday, April 15

Final Sessions · Day 3

Full Schedule

9:00am — Executive Leadership Panel

Chicago Ballroom A · General Track

Sierra commitment, Vega unification, Alma Specto, mobile app strategy, public library headwinds, communication improvements. Full notes →

9:00am — Lightning Rounds

Derek Brown, Bob Gaydos, Wes Osborn, Mike Fields, Tyler Works · Chicago Ballroom G · General Track

9:00am — Navigating Location Code Updates in Sierra

Gale Forster, Tim Sills · McHenry Room · Sierra Track

10:30am — Acquisitions Forum

Jeremy Goldstein · Kane Room · General Track

10:30am — Cleaning Up Our Act Using Really, Really Simple Inventory

Ann Langlois · Houston Room · Sierra Track

10:30am — Vega WebBuilder — The Easy Way, the Advanced Way & the Takeaways

Bryan Yostos, Luke Wood · Chicago Ballroom G · Vega Track

10:30am — Patrons in Promote: Unlocking a New Level of Engagement

Taylor Fisher · Chicago Ballroom A · Vega Track

Related to the Vega Promote July launch announced in Monday's opening.

1:30pm — Getting Started with the Sierra RESTful APIs

Jason Boland (Clarivate) · Chicago Ballroom G · Sierra Track

Vendor-supported onboarding to Sierra APIs. Jason is a Senior Library Training Consultant covering Sierra, Polaris, and Vega.

1:30pm — Kicking the Elephant out of the Room: Cataloging without OCLC

Elaine Sloan, Boise Public Library · Houston Room · General Track

Notes available

1:30pm — Consortia Forum

Jason Bedsaul, Molly Lisowsky · McHenry Room · General Track

1:30pm — Support Update

Caitlin Spears · Chicago Ballroom A · General Track

3:00pm — Sierra Staff and Single Sign-On

Justin Newcomer (RIT) · Cook Room · Gatherings/Sierra Track

SAML SSO for Sierra staff auth, MFA practices, Keycloak unification plans, cyber insurance implications. Includes a technical implementation guide. Full notes →

Notes available

3:00pm — Tending to Your Collection

Lynn Gates · Kansas City Room · General Track

3:00pm — Vega Mobile Update

Ashley Barey · Chicago Ballroom G · Vega Track

3:00pm — Vega Rollups and Your Bibliographic Records

Elaine Sloan, C Mulder, Sarah Kasprzak · Kane Room · Vega Track

4:30pm — Sierra System Administration Forum

Jeff Campbell, Stephanie Brew · Chicago Ballroom A · Sierra Track

Migration debates (Sierra vs. Polaris/Koha), bot protection & Cloudflare, paging lists, SDA vs. Sierra Web, WCAG accessibility, circ active. Includes Cloudflare protection guide. Full notes →

Notes available

4:30pm — Polaris System Administration Forum

Daniel Messer, Wes Osborn · Chicago Ballroom G · Polaris Track

4:30pm — Public Services Forum

C Mulder, Allison Sartwell · Kane Room · General Track

Executive Leadership Panel

Full Session Notes

Sierra’s future (400+ customers, international sales), Vega platform unification strategy, Alma Specto (special collections DAM), mobile app strategy, 3–5 year vision, public library headwinds, communication improvements, and conference feedback.

Recap from IUG 2025

Last year’s panel featured Yariv Kursh (SVP, General Manager), Tom Jacobson (VP, Product Management), and Lester Owencroft (VP, Product Marketing). Key takeaways:

Sierra & Polaris commitment — Kursh: “We’re 100% committed to the development and support of both Polaris and Sierra.”
Vega as the path forward — Vega positioned as the primary solution going forward, with encouragement for libraries to engage early.
Community feedback — Attendees valued direct feedback loops into product development and in-person access to Clarivate staff.

Source: Insights from IUG 2025 Executive Leadership Panel (iii.com)

Evening

8:00–10:00pm — Trivia Night

Los Angeles/Miami/Scottsdale Rooms · RSVP Required

Session Notes from This Day

Kicking the Elephant out of the Room: Cataloging without OCLC

How an 11-library Polaris consortium in Idaho left OCLC, transitioned through BTCat, and landed on BookWhere Suite — dropping cataloging costs from six figures to five.

Cloudflare Protection for Sierra ILS

Practical guide for library sys admins on putting Sierra's web OPAC behind Cloudflare: what works, what breaks, and what to watch out for.

Executive Leadership Panel

Open Q&A with Clarivate executive leadership on Sierra's future, Vega platform strategy, public library headwinds, AI investments, mobile apps, and improved communication with the customer community.

Sierra SSO Technical Implementation Guide

Technical deep-dive on SAML SSO for Sierra staff authentication: protocol fundamentals, IdP setup, Sierra configuration, Keycloak, SCIM provisioning, MFA, passwordless auth, conditional access, and SAML debugging.

Sierra Staff and Single Sign-On

Session recap from IUG 2026: implementing SAML SSO for Sierra staff and patron authentication, MFA practices, shared accounts, identity providers, and Keycloak as a potential unified identity layer.

Sierra Sys Admin Forum

Open forum for Sierra system administrators covering migration considerations, bot protection, paging lists, accessibility, SDA vs. Sierra Web, and more.