LITA Blog

LITA is headed to the 2010 PLA National Conference in Portland, OR for a Top Tech Trends panel focused on public libraries. Panelists include David Lee King, Michael Porter, Monique Sendze, and Kate Sheehan.

LITA’s Top Tech Trends session will also be part of PLA’s Virtual Conference, consisting of live programming chosen from among the highest rated in PLA’s session preference survey. The Virtual Conference will feature panel discussions, author interviews, interactive workshops, and chats with colleagues, all from the comfort of your computer.

• Check out the LITA web site for information on LITA Happy Hour and Exhibit Booth hours at PLA.
• Visit the PLA Conference site for more information and registration.

LITA is pleased to announce Dr. John Willinsky as the 2010 winner of the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology. The award, which is jointly sponsored by OCLC, is given for research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work which shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect(s) of the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information, or the processes by which information and data is manipulated and managed. The awardee receives $2,000, a citation and an expenses paid trip to the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC where the award will be presented on June 27th.

Dr. John Willinsky is Khosla Family Professor of Education at Stanford University and founder of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP). The Award committee chose Dr. Willinsky from a strong field of nominated leaders in the field.

The Public Knowledge Project (http://pkp.sfu.ca/) is dedicated to improving the scholarly and public quality of research. It operates through a partnership among the School of Education at Stanford University, the Simon Fraser University Library, the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at Simon Fraser University, and the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia.

The Award Committee was impressed with the impact that the Project has had in the open access movement and in providing the leading open source software for journal and conference management publishing. The public Knowledge Project has the enviable distinction of having moved beyond R&D to become a highly successful suite of open source software (Open Journals System – OJS; Open Conference System – OCS; PKP Metadata Harvester, and, soon, Open Monograph Press – OMP). Over five thousand scholarly journals, for instance, use the Open Journals System (OJS). Dr. Willinsky is a tireless advocate for the role of libraries in supporting academic publishing in new ways and for the values of open access.

“I’m honored and delighted to be the recipient of the 2010 Frederick G. Kilgour Award” said Dr. Willinsky. “It is one of the great pleasures of my life to be able to work so closely with a terrific team of academic librarians on the Project and it means a great deal to me to make a small contribution to the libraries that have meant so much to me and my work.”

Members of the 2010 LITA/OCLC Kilgour Award committee are: Patrick J. Mullin, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chair); Michael Gorman, university librarian emeritus, California State University, Fresno (past chair); Rene J. Erlandson, University of Nebraska at Omaha; William C. Kurt, University of Nevada – Reno; Andrea Tomlinson, Chemical Heritage Foundation; Mary Alice Ball, LITA board liaison; and Roy Tennant, OCLC liaison.

The deadline for submission of manuscripts for the LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award has been extended to March 24, 2010. The award for the best unpublished manuscript submitted by a student or students enrolled in an ALA-accredited graduate program consists of $1,000, a certificate and publication in LITA’s refereed journal, Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL).

The purpose of the award is to recognize superior student writing and to enhance the professional development of students. The manuscript can be written on any aspect of libraries and information technology. Examples include digital libraries, metadata, authorization and authentication, electronic journals and electronic publishing, telecommunications, distributed systems and networks, computer security, intellectual property rights, technical standards, desktop applications, online catalogs and bibliographic systems, universal access to technology, library consortia and others.

At the time the unpublished manuscript is submitted, the applicant(s) must be enrolled in an ALA-accredited program in library and information studies at the masters or Ph.D. level.

To be eligible, applicants must follow the detailed guidelines and fill out the application form. Send the signed, completed forms by March 24, 2010, to Krista Clumpner, LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award Committee chair, Northern Michigan University, Lydia M. Olson Library, 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Marquette, MI 49855-5305. Submit the manuscript to Krista electronically at kclumpne@nmu.edu by March 24, 2010. The award will be presented at the LITA President’s Program during the 2010 ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC.

Did the LITA National Forum 2010 proposal deadline sneak up on you? You now have an extra week to get that proposal in; the deadline for proposals has been extended to March 1, 2010. View the complete call for proposals for more info.

New this year: submit a proposal for full 70 minute sessions OR “half” session slots as well as posters and preconferences.

The Committee is looking forward to reading your ideas on “The Cloud and the Crowd.”

The 2010 National Forum Committee seeks proposals for high quality concurrent sessions for the 13th annual LITA National Forum to be held at the Hilton Downtown hotel in Atlanta, Georgia from September 30 -October 3, 2010. The theme is “The Cloud and the Crowd;” submit proposals by February 19, 2010 online at:

http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/lita2010/

The 2010 Forum Planning Committee will review proposals starting in February 2010. You will be contacted about the status of your proposal by the end of March.

View the complete call for proposals for more info.

Check out the slate of candidates for the 2010 LITA election. Positions up for election include Vice President/President-Elect, Councilor, and two Directors-at-large. Polls open March 18 and close April 23. Voting instructions will be delivered to the email address listed in your ALA member record; to update your email address log in to your member profile.

Cindy Hepfer, hardworking ALA Voting Representative to NISO has forwarded to us a group of announcements related to ISO/DIS 16175, Information and documentation–Principles and functional requirements for records in electronic office environments. This is a Fast track ballot, used to create an ISO standard from an existing standard, in this case the International Council on Archives and the Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative standard of the same title. Fast track standards are submitted for their first ballot at the enquiry (DIS) stage; if there are no negative votes, the standard can proceed directly to publication.

This ballot is in three parts:

Part 1: Overview and statement of principles
Part 2: Guidelines and functional requirements for records in electronic office environments
Part 3: Guidelines and functional requirements for records in business systems

As a reminder of the process: ALA is a voting member of NISO, while NISO is the official US voting member of other International Organization for Standardization (ISO) groups. On behalf of ALA, Cindy will be providing feedback to NISO as to whether ALA believes that NISO should approve or disapprove the standard. NISO staff will review and consider our feedback along with that received from numerous other voting members.

Because this is an ISO standard, access to the text for review is only available via Cindy (her email is: HSLcindy@buffalo.edu). Any ALA member who wishes to see a copy of the draft standard must explicitly state to Cindy that he/she is a current ALA member. (It helps me to provide activity information to LITA if you also copy me on your request at metadata.maven@gmail.com).

Deadline for comments to Cindy is Monday, May 17, 2010.

Diane I. Hillmann
LITA Standards Coordinator

The LITA President reviewed a market survey, comments from the joint LITA Board Meeting with the Committee and Interest Group chairs in 2008, the LITA Town Meeting in 2009 and the LITA Board Meeting in 2010 and identified all of the possible ideas that LITA could explore as potential strategies for the next LITA Strategic Plan.  Those strategies were then sorted under major categories.

At today’s LITA Town Meeting we are going to review the the existing strategies and identifying missing strategies. During the Town Meeting we will break out into groups and each group will review one section. Each group will then perform the following tasks for their assigned section:

1. add possible strategies that are missing
2. identify which strategies are worth developing and incorporating into the future strategic plan and give them a time frame (can be complete in 1 year, 2-3 years or 3+ years)
3. identify the possible strategies that are essential to the future of LITA

The groups will reconvene and share the results of their discussion. The rest of the board can provide their thoughts as well.

You can also follow us via Twitter using #litath.

The draft strategic plan is on ALA Connect.

Update: did you listen, watch, read or attend? Give us your feedback!

1/24/10 update – Alas, we did not manage to capture the audio, as we had intended, but you can read an abridged summary of the conversation and see all the links shared during the session thanks to one of our committee members. The live blog, comments, and tweets tagged #alamwttt can be viewed below.

Join the LITA Top Technology Trends Committee on Sunday, January 17, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. E.S.T. for a lively discussion of top technology trends in librarianship, with panelists Amanda Etches-Johnson, Jason Griffey, Joe Murphy, Lauren Pressley, and David Walker. The discussion will be moderated by Gregg Silvis.

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Will you be in Boston? Join us in person: Boston Convention Center (BCEC-162A/B).

It’s that time again, folks; the semi-annual Top Technology Trends conversation is upon us. This year’s midwinter has us enjoying the history and chill of Boston, but like the last midwinter Top Tech discussion in Denver, you can participate from the warmth of your living room or from wherever you may be, a week from this Sunday.

WHERE: Boston Convention Center (BCEC-162A/B), here at litablog.org, from ustream.tv, or via Twitter (#alamwttt) links to follow soon!
WHEN: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. E.S.T.

The start of the second decade of the century starts with five Trendsters who are new to the Top Tech Table:

Amanda Etches-Johnson, User Experience Librarian at McMaster University
Jason Griffey, Head of Library Information Technology at University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Joe Murphy, Science Librarian, Yale University
Lauren Pressley, Instructional Design Librarian, Wake Forest University
David Walker, Web Services Librarian, California State University System

Join us for a fun and casual discussion, moderated by Gregg Silvis, LITA Top Tech Trends Committee chair.