Alex is a research librarian who spends his day managing and researching questions and projects with his company’s library team. He loves spreading the word about illumin, our research management system—his first mission.
He first fell in love with illumin after constantly losing and repeating his research, which meant wasting valuable time on the same tasks.
This caused Alex a lot of stress and frustration – along with confusing, unreliable reports and ineffective request tracking systems… that is, until he discovered illumin!
Now, Alex spends his days doing what he loves—researching, gathering statistics, and creating reports for his team. He even finds time to enjoy carrots and chai with Bob the Bibliographer!
With all that productivity, you’d think Alex would be satisfied, but no. He decided Liberty Digital, our Integrated Library System (ILS), deserved his attention… with style.
We had the chance to sit down for an exclusive interview with Alex to get a glimpse into a day in the life of one of Softlink IC’s key team members. Here’s what he shared:
Both illumin and Liberty Digital offer the latest user-friendly technology. They help deliver the services your users need and the outcomes you expect. Trust me, I’m an alpaca!
For full insights, watch the video below.
Name: Alex the Alpaca
Title: Research Librarian
Loves: Green grass & statistics
Hates: losing work & llamas.
What are the main responsibilities of your position?
Well, I mainly deal with spreading news about Softlink’s amazing products, illumin and Liberty!
But lately, I’ve been exploring other fields such as rapping, racing with Rob Otter, and playing ping pong! The latest rap I made was about my favorite parameters in Liberty, you should check it out here!
Recently, I was even lucky enough to be included in the Liberty Management Panel, lucky me!
What are some of your favorite features of Liberty and illumin?
My favorite feature of Liberty has got to be search field backgrounds! There are so many amazing designs that I’ve seen from Liberty users, I just can’t wait to see what people will do with the full screen search fields planned for a future Liberty release!
By far my favorite feature of illumin is its integration with Liberty. Did you know that you could automatically transfer your Liberty borrowers into illumin, for FREE?!
You can also have your illumin knowledge base automatically imported into your Liberty system during housekeeping through integration, isn’t that so handy? We even have a solutions article which teaches you exactly how to integrate the two systems together, contact us here to find out more.
What sort of activities do you do outside of work?
Outside of work I do a lot of the same things that I do at work. I’ve started my own rap career and have created my own YouTube channel to become famous one day! I may even upload some videos of me and my friends performing alpacapella!
Aside from my channel, I absolutely love going for a drive with Rob, and we like to practice on the way to work. I also LOVE to eat food! Grass and hay are some of my absolute favorites!
See how Vinson & Elkins built a centralized, searchable resource portal for 800 attorneys — and gave their research team the data to prove their department’s value.
The Softlink IC team spent four days at ALIA National 2026 in Sydney this month. More than 800 library and information professionals gathered at Rosehill Gardens from 11 to 14 May, and the conversations were frank.
This is what came up most.
On April 23, 2026, the Softlink IC community came together in London for a focused, practical User Group Meeting designed to help library and knowledge professionals get more value from their systems, data, and time.
The next few months are packed – and more importantly, they’re full of opportunities for you to sharpen your strategy, connect with peers, and get more value from Liberty Digital and illumin.
For librarians and knowledge professionals supporting legal, corporate, government, and research teams, referencing is more than a formatting requirement. It’s part of maintaining credibility, protecting institutional reputation, and enabling reliable research outcomes.
Public libraries are evolving rapidly, and expectations from both local councils and communities continue to grow.. Councils want clear evidence that their libraries deliver meaningful outcomes for ratepayers, while patrons expect modern digital experiences that are easy to access and use.
