2006

Town Meeting notes (table 1)

Notes from LITA Town Meeting

A & A Cohen did a nice job facilitating our table discussions.

“My” table’s notes:
[edit – adding]Ranti Junus[/edit], Philip Sherman, Joe Ford, Michael Bolam, Maurice York, Susan Coleman, Aaron Dobbs (any errors or oversights are my own, my tablemates were excellent and prolific. These are my table speaker notes which do not reflect the details of our intra-table discussion.

Topics brainstormed: LITA Education mission

1. Given / Environmental scan
– There are 2 general audiences for LITA educational programs, which can be described as “techies/users” or tech-oriented implementers and end-result users
– We also identified an important group that doesn’t really fit in either (and generally do not participate/attend LITA programs on their own) group: the money holders or decision makers (sharp pencil people?)

2. Seeking
– Need to better address each audience with an eye toward not oversimplification for a tech-savvy attendee and not over-jargonizing for the new / novice / user experience focused rather than nuts and bolts focused attendee.

3. Define
– Specify target audiences in program description (LITA logo for the ‘advanced’ and ALA general logo for ‘regular’ level programs?)

4. Construct
– Get out into the non-LITA communities (in ALA and in Real Life)
– Use existing institutional resources (academic libraries, Hies, etc.) plus grants perhaps (ALA-based resources are next to impossible at current funding levels – the dues increase is a separate issue, of course)
– Use more online delivery, continue Regionals, continue with ALA meeting & conference programs (podcast the audio and perhaps slides from the programs – ALA Conference Services no longer records programs at conferences & meetings.
– Infiltrate the other ALA Divisions to become better aware of technology mis-perceptions and clarifications needed.
– Limitations:
– – Money, organization/de-duplication of effort, awareness of external organization needs