2012

LITA Top Technology Trends at ALA Midwinter in Dallas

The LITA Top Technology Trends panel discussion at ALA Midwinter in Dallas took place on Sunday, January 22, 2012. This year’s panel of technology experts was a combination of veteran and new faces: Stephen Abram, Gale Cengage Learning , Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt University Library , Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC , Nina McHale, Arapahoe Library District, Colorado and Sue Polanka, Wright State University Libraries

Each trendster came prepared to discuss two technology trends of their choice. During Round One, the issues presented were:

  • frictionless access – smartphone technology that provides unfettered access to services without user interaction (Stephen Abram)
  • advent of “enterprise IT staff” for libraries – bringing in professional programmers rather than librarians who like programming (Nina McHale)
  • impending demise of the ILS (Marshall Breeding)
  • trend toward self-service (Sue Polanka)
  • rise of personal institutional curation services (Lorcan Demsey)

Round Two topics were:

  • on-demand tipping point– libraries offering a hybrid model to provide the physical experience for users (Stephen Abrams)
  • web analytics (Nina McHale)
  • reintegration of discovery with the backend systems (Marshall Breeding)
  • technologies that take instruction in a different direction, e.g. touch screens (Sue Polanka)
  • platform wars in consumer space and the implication for libraries (Lorcan Demsey)

The session was well attended with time allotted in each round for audience comments and questions. The session was also streamed live so that those unable to be there could participate virtually; the recording can be viewed on LITA’s USTREAM channel.