LiS show up 36% at NEC. Bobby Pickering reports on some of the movers and shakers making an impact at this year's Library + information show as it returned to the NEC's Pavilion Hall.

The Library + Information show (LiS) returned triumphantly to the NEC in Birmingham last month, in a merger with the specialist museum exhibition MUREX that yielded a 36% attendance increase.

Show organisers said the increase in attendance, with 2,683 visitors over two days, was partly down to the return to a more central location. A source close to the show said: "It emphasised that this was a national exhibition with more people attending from all over. Last year it appeared to be more focused on London and the south east."

Show organiser VNU Exhibitions, a sister company of IWR, said that exhibitor satisfaction levels were high, with 65% already rebooking for 2006.

The NEC Pavilion exhibition space certainly felt larger and busier than last year's show at London's ExCel. The Reunion Bar was a well-patronised central meeting place and many of the sessions in the two seminar theatres were standing room only. Cilip earned special mention as having one of the busiest stands on view.

On the floor, academic and corporate librarians from across the UK were able to catch up with the latest developments from a range of library services and automation vendors.

Things are looking up

Among these, Bailey Solutions unveiled LookUp, another arrow in Penny Bailey's quiver. This is an online-hosted solution that lets organisations offer a catalogue of holdings to users across the internet.