2007

Top Tech Trends (Good Parts version)

You should really listen to the podcasts. There are things I won’t be able to do in words. Like give you the experience of Karen Schneider singing her recruiting song. Or summarize Clifford Lynch (can anyone do that?). So, for the time-pressed, here is a summary of the Top Tech Trends discussion at ALA Midwinter, in the fabulous Spanish Ballroom of the Fairmont Olympic in Seattle. Present were: Jennifer Ward (the committee chair), Maurice York, Clifford Lynch, Marshall Breeding, and Karen Schneider. Absent speakers were: Roy Tennant, Sarah Houghton-Jan, Eric Lease-Morgan, and Thomas Dowling. There was much discussion of possible alternatives to the traditional OPAC. Tennant and Houghton-Jan mentioned OCLC and some version of Worldcat as a potential OPAC for consortia. Schneider questioned the assumption that our primary finding aid should be a locally tweaked dataset, and Breeding commented that the trend is toward national or international aggregations of that…

2007

Greetings from the LITA President

I managed to corner both current LITA president Bonnie Postlewaite and Vice-President and President-Elect Mark Beatty at ALA Midwinter 2007 and get some brief video of them. We at LITABlog realize that not everyone attends conferences, and so might not recognize Bonnie or Mark. Hopefully these next couple of videos will put a face with the names…I apologize for the low audio, at Annual we’ll have a slightly better sound rig. First up: Bonnie Postlewaite, LITA President

2007

Lots of ideas at the LITA Emerging Technologies IG

When: Monday Jan. 22, 2007 The scene: Around 60-70 people attended this IG on the final day of the ’07 Midwinter conference. It was standing room only, which of course meant that several sat on the floor. The discussion was wide-ranging, with Joe Ford, of Joseph Ford & Associates, presiding as incoming chair. The primary role of the Emerging Technologies IG at Midwinter is to program the summer session as close to the bleeding edge as possible, and to that end, nearly everyone attending had suggestions on what they would like to see this coming June in Washington D.C. With very little coaxing, the group took off on a free-wheeling discussion, talking about what emerging technologies most interest or concern them. Several themes quickly emerged: the implications of widely available broadband, large amounts of personal storage capacity, the effects of widely social information consumption, as well as the legal and…

2007

Tech Trends 2007

Tech Trends, Midwinter 2007 One area that was greatly discussed during the two hour exchange was the ILS. Trendsters discussed open source, convergence of vendors and the fact that these are no longer boot strapped companies but ones that private investors think have value. The top technology trend that are and will continue to have a great impact on library services are enterprise ILS services, outsourced services, green / sustainable building design including heat source pumps, RFID, gaming, and techno mobile vans .The recognition of “the library as place” and the need to recognize new sets of services is having the greatest impact on librarians. Librarians need to learn that their services are both virtual and place-centered. They need a forum with experts who can share trends that are changing services. For example, there is a product called Goldfire. This is an innovation platform that indexes everything. As a matter…

2007

ALCTS Pre-conference: Definitely Digital – Part 1

Definitely Digital: An Exploration of the Future of Knowledge on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Friday, January 19, 2007 — Grand Hyatt Seattle, Eliza Anderson Amphitheater This preconference is the first event of the 50th anniversary of ALCTS. Information will be made available via the ALCTS website after the conference. It is co-sponsored by Amazon.com. There were four speakers plus a panel discussion. My notes below give the major points from the four speakers, but I have not reported on the panel discussion, which covered the questions discussed in the pre-conference blog: Digiblog, the ALCTS Blog. First Speaker James Hilton, “Scholarship in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges” VP & CIO, U of Virginia He began by listing and explaining some assumptions about scholarly publishing. Publishing is a basic need of scholarship because it is how collaboration takes place. The…

2007

Top Tech Trends Part 4 – Karen Schneider

In part four, we hear from Karen Schneider about her thoughts on the near-future of library technology. If you’re enjoying these podcasts, leave us a comment and let us know…we’d love to hear this is a valuable thing for our members. Plus, it will help us justify expanding our podcasting reach for Annual this summer. Thanks again to Maurice York, whose work allowed us to provide these to the LITA members.

2007

Digital Libraries Interest Group

Sunday, January 21 1:30pm to 2:30pm. Some topics presented for future discussion: How is Web 2.0 being used? GIS Systems: metadata requirements Institutional Repositories: capturing data output from faculty Raw Data Storage: practices and procedures, storage of statistical data and field research National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP) Digitization practices for cultural and heritage collections Partnering and sharing of resources for digitization projects Discussion Topic: Education and Preparation of Digital Librarians. Question: What is being taught in current library and information school programs? Several students who are currently enrolled in a program responded to this question. Some reported they are taking metadata classes that cover topics such as crosswalks and standards. Other courses being taught include web design, archiving, and preservation. Those involved in a practicum or internship are working on projects that include activities such as document scanning, working with cataloging, and creating metadata. Question: What are…