News & Noteworthy

LITA Updates, April 2015

This is one of our periodic messages sent to all LITA members. This update includes items as follows:

  • Last two days to vote in the LITA/ALA election
  • New LITA Guide just published
  • Four preconferences/regional workshops planned for San Francisco
  • Online Learning Opportunities in May

Last two days to vote

If your current LITA membership was activated by January 31, 2015, you qualify to vote. Sometime ago you received an email notice regarding the election. If you haven’t already voted, please do find that email from the ALA Election Coordinator. The ALA/LITA election ends on Friday, May 1 just before midnight. For more details, see the LITAblog post.

New LITA Guide now available

Technology Disaster Response and Recovery Planning (a LITA Guide) is now available through the ALA Store. Mary Mallery is the editor and she has written the first chapter. Other contributors include: Liz Bishoff, Thomas Clareson, Donia Conn, Denise O’Shea, Marshall Breeding and Paul Soderdahl.

AC15_logo_FINAL_150px_revFour LITA workshops in San Francisco

Register for one of the following four LITA workshops being offered in San Francisco. Simply go to the ALA Annual Conference registration and sign up. If you are already registered for conference, the workshop will be added to your registration. If you can’t attend the Annual Conference but a full day workshop on Friday, June 26th from 8:30 – 4:00 pm would be perfect for you, please go to the ALA Annual Conference registration site and sign up. You do not have to register for the Annual Conference. Three of the workshops are in the Moscone Convention Center; the fourth workshop is off site in a maker space. Registration will be accepted on site as space allows. These are your choices:

  • Creating Better Tutorials Through User-Centered Instructional Design. Hands-on workshop with experts from the University of Arizona.
  • Learn to Teach Coding and Mentor Technology Newbies – in Your Library or Anywhere! Work with experts from the Black Girls CODE to become master technology teachers.
  • Let’s Hack a Collaborative Library Website. This hands-on experience will consist of a morning in-depth introduction to the tools, followed by an afternoon building a single collaborative library website.
  • Build a Circuit & Learn to Program an Arduino in a Silicon Valley Hackerspace. This workshop will convene at Noisebridge, a maker space in San Francisco. Clearly, it will be hands on.

If you are attending Annual, be sure to review the LITA schedule. On Saturday, in addition to the all committees meeting in the morning, a number of IGs are holding discussions both in the morning and during the afternoon. The IG sessions continue through Sunday.

Sunday Afternoon with LITA includes the Top Technology Trends panel discussion, a brief awards ceremony, and the LITA President’s Program with Lou Rosenfeld. Details on all things LITA at Annual Conference, are available at http://www.ala.org/lita/conferences/annual/2015.

Online Learning opportunities

For more information, go to the LITA Web site.


I encourage you to connect with LITA by:

  1. Exploring our web site.
  2. Subscribing to LITA-L email discussion list.
  3. Visiting the LITA blog and LITA Division page on ALA Connect.
  4. Connecting with us on Facebook and Twitter.
  5. Reaching out to the LITA leadership at any time.

Please note: the Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) journal is available to you and to the entire profession. ITAL features high-quality articles that undergo rigorous peer-review as well as case studies, commentary, and information about topics and trends of interest to the LITA community and beyond. Be sure to sign up for notifications when new issues are posted (March, June, September, and December).

If you have any questions or wish to discuss any of these items, please do let me know.

All the best,

Mary

Mary Taylor, Executive Director
Library and Information Technology Association (LITA)
50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611
800-545-2433 x4267
312-280-4267 (direct line)
312-280-3257 (fax)
mtaylor (at) ala.org
www.lita.org

Join us in Minneapolis, November 12-15, 2015 for the LITA Forum.