The 2026 Ex Libris Bluegrass User Group (eBUG) annual meeting will be held at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Library in Chattanooga, TN on Friday, September 25th, 2026 with a pre-conference scheduled for Thursday, September 25th. 

In the spirit of ELUNA Annual Meeting themes referencing their location, our theme for this year is “CHA: Collaboration, Help, and Access”

Welcome and Introductions
EBUG Officers and User Community

EBUG Open Discussion
Round Robin/Brainstorming Session with eBUG Colleagues

How did eBUG Afternoons go this past Fall?

What else could we offer to the community? 

Break

Pre-Conference Session : Where are we with NDE? and What's New at your Library?

Break

ExLibris Sales and Support Roundtable

Thursday Evening Meetup at a Local Chattanooga Restaurant

Breakfast/Registration

Welcome
Albert Salatka,  EBUG Chair

ThirdIron Presentation

Break

Lunch

Provided by eBUG

EBUG Update and Officer Elections
Albert Salatka, eBUG Chair
Ryan Dowell, eBUG Co-Chair
Jamen McGranahan, eBUG Treasurer

Link Clean-up After Joining the Tenn-Share OverDrive Consortium

After Southern Adventist University joined the Tenn-Share OverDrive Consortium, we found that the 700+ records in our database were no longer pointing to the actual resource. We needed to find a way to correct all of those links. After trying to do it manually, one record at a time, we started investigating more automated fixes. I'll show the combination of Change jobs, Normalization jobs, and Drools that we used to fix the record set.

UTK's Implementation of Primo NDE

We will discuss how UTK implemented Primo NDE. We’ll compare VE’s native abilities with NDE’s, identify customizations we wanted to transfer to NDE, and highlight additions we made to NDE since we were already implementing it. Additionally, we’ll share any pitfalls or frustrations we encountered during the implementation process. We are currently planned for a Beta Launch for Fall Semester.

Scaling the L2: Adding a Large Dataset to Alma Digital

We are pleased to share what we wish we had known before we began to add a 2TB dataset into our Alma Digital collection. This was a multi-department collaboration that was as educational as it was challenging! 

On the Lookout for Rubies: Adventuring through Library Systems to Discover and Retrieve Library Resources

We are building a game that will take the audience on a journey through our Ex Libris products and various other library-world technologies. We aim to lightly challenge players’ knowledge of Alma and Primo as they solve puzzles and riddles and collect special keyword “keys.” The game can be done solo but will be more enjoyable in small groups. The tone will be lighthearted and humorous; we will monitor players’ progress and help them get unstuck if needed. It is entirely web-based and accessible with no additional equipment or credentials needed.

The objectives for this proposal are for individuals to think through how their users are discovering and retrieving. The users are indirectly requiring us to solidify our precision of library resources along with discovering those resources. There are tools helping in this process such as LibGuides and LibKey in order to enhance discovery and retrieving resources for users. These tools allow for integration with Ex Libris products as well.

The takeaways for this proposal is to have individuals familiarize themselves with Ex Libris products; evaluate workflows for discovery and retrieving library resources; to have fun working with library systems.

83,000 Objects and Counting: Lessons from Managing a Large Local Collection in Primo

This session will describe our experience managing a local collection of more than 83,000 multipage digital objects embedded directly in the Primo user interface, with both full text and metadata indexed for search.

We will discuss the practical realities of supporting discovery at this scale, including configuration decisions that affect how embedded objects display and behave, and strategies for ensuring that full-text indexing delivers meaningful results for multipage materials. Attendees will hear how we balanced out-of-the-box functionality against local customization, and what we learned about performance, display, and user experience along the way.

A significant portion of the session will focus on our migration to Primo Next Discovery Experience (NDE). We will share lessons learned about planning and testing at scale, identifying and resolving display and indexing discrepancies,, and prioritizing fixes when tens of thousands of objects are affected. We will include what went smoothly, what surprised us, and aspects we feel could be improved.

From Prompt to Production: Building Library Tools with Claude 

This session will give an entry-level overview of utilizing Claude Code to develop a few library tools to address ongoing projects at East Tennessee State University. We experimented with three areas: collection weeding, electronic resource use, and a dashboard for our makerspace help desk. Each of these projects utilizes one or more API’s from ExLibris and/or Springshare. The presentation will focus on AI prompting, phased development, and a general overview of each application. We will also cover risk assessment and security concerns to consider with AI-assisted programming.

More sessions will be added prior to our conference! Keep an eye out here for more info!

EBUG Business Meeting/Wrap-Up