General information

Come Map with Us! LITA Education Webinar Series

Join LITA Education and instructors Mita Williams and Cecily Walker in “Re-drawing the Map”–a webinar series! Register for a single webinar or all three at a discounted rate! Can’t make all the dates but still want to join in? Registered participants will have access to the recorded webinars. Full details  Web Mapping: moving from maps on the web to maps of the web Tuesday Nov. 18, 2014 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Central Time Instructor: Mita Williams Register for this webinar Get an introduction to web mapping tools and learn about the stories they can help you to tell! OpenStreetMaps: Trust the map that anyone can change Tuesday December 9, 2014, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Central Time Instructor: Mita Williams Register for this webinar Ever had a map send you the wrong way and wished you could change it?  Learn how to add your local knowledge to the “Wikipedia…

ALA Midwinter Meetings

Midwinter Workshop Highlight: Meet the Field Research Presenter!

We asked our LITA Midwinter Workshop Presenters to tell us a little more about themselves and what to expect from their workshops in January. This week, we’re hearing from Wayne Johnston, who will be presenting the workshop: Developing mobile apps to support field research (For registration details, please see the bottom of this blog post) LITA: Can you tell us a little more about you? Wayne: I am currently Head of Research Enterprise and Scholarly Communication at the University of Guelph Library. Prior to joining the Library I worked for the United Nations in both New York and Geneva. My international experience includes work I’ve done in Ghana, Nepal, Croatia and Canada’s Arctic. LITA: Who is your target audience for this workshop? Wayne: I think this workshop will be most relevant to academic librarians who are supporting research activity on their campuses.  It may be of particular interest to those working…

2015

Midwinter Workshop Highlight: Meet the Programming Presenter!

We asked our LITA Midwinter Workshop Presenters to tell us a little more about themselves and what to expect from their workshops in January. This week, we’re hearing from Elizabeth Wickes, who will be presenting the workshop: Introduction to Practical Programming (For registration details, please see the bottom of this blog post) LITA: We’ve seen your formal bio but can you tell us a little more about you? Elizabeth: I once wrote an entire Python program just so I could have a legitimate reason to say “for skittle in skittles.”  Attendees will meet this program during the workshop.  I can also fix pretty much anything with hot glue.  LITA: Who is your target audience for this workshop? Elizabeth: This workshop speaks to the librarian or library student who is curious about programming and wants to explore it within a very library-centric context.  So many of the existing books and resources on programming…

2015

Midwinter Workshop Highlight: Meet the UX Presenters!

We asked our LITA Midwinter Workshop Presenters to tell us a little more about themselves and what to expect from their workshops in January. This week, we’re hearing from Kate Lawrence, Deirdre Costello, and Robert Newell, who will be presenting the workshop: From Lost to Found: How User Testing Can Improve the User Experience of Your Library Website (For registration details, please see the bottom of this blog post) LITA: We’ve seen your formal bios but can you tell us a little more about you? Kate: If I didn’t work as a user researcher, I would be a professional backgammon player or cake decorator (I am a magician with fondant!). Or both. Deirdre: I’m horse crazy! Robert: In a past life I was a professional actor. If you pay really really close attention (like, don’t blink), you might spot me in a few episodes of Friday Night Lights or Prison…

ALA Midwinter Meetings

LITA Midwinter Institutes

Registration for LITA’s Midwinter Institutes opened today with ALA’s joint registration! Whether you’ll be attending Midwinter or are just looking for a great one day continuing education event in the Chicago/Midwest area, we hope you’ll join us. When? All workshops will be held on Friday, January 30, 2015, from 8:30-4:00 Cost for LITA Members: $235  (ALA $350 / Non-ALA $380) (If you are a member of LITA use special code LITA2015 to receive the price of $235.) Workshops Descriptions: Developing mobile apps to support field research Instructor: Wayne Johnston, University of Guelph Library Researchers in most disciplines do some form of field research. Too often they collect data on paper which is not only inefficient but vulnerable to date loss. Surveys and other data collection instruments can easily be created as mobile apps with the resulting data stored on the campus server and immediately available for analysis. The apps also enable added functionality…

General information

Call for Proposals: Midwinter 2015 Workshops (Chicago, IL January 2015)

The LITA Education Committee is now accepting innovative and creative proposals for workshops to be presented at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Chicago in January. We’re looking for interactive full day workshops on technology in libraries–use of, new ideas for, and trends. *When/Where is the Conference?* 2015 ALA Midwinter Conference; January 30-February 3, 2015, Chicago, IL Workshops will be presented on Friday, January 30. *What kind of topics are we looking for? * We’re looking for workshops that offer a deeper dive into subjects and provide hands on experience with technology currently being used and emerging in libraries. Workshops and Preconferences offered recently included: Strategic Social Media: Creating Library Community Online Level Up Web: Modern Web Development and Management Practices for Libraries Managing Data: Tools for Plans and Data Scrubbing Practical Linked Data with Open Source Web Therapy Building Web Applications with HTML5, CSS3, and Javascript: An Introduction to HTML5…

2013

LITA Lightning Rounds at ALA Annual

We are pleased to present our Lightning Presentation talks for ALA Annual in Chicago. Please join us at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday in room S102a at the Convention Center! Andrew Youngkin from the National Network of Libraries of Medicine will talk about “Exploring mHealth devices for health technology instruction.” Andrew will share observations & assessment of several mHealth devices such as the FitBit One, Jawbone Up bracelet, and iHealth Blood Pressure cuff and discuss how these devices will be incorporated into future technology outreach and instruction. Peter Murray from LYRASIS will talk about “Host Your Own Virtual Lightning Talks using Google Hangout.” It’s a lightning talk about hosting lightning talks. He will discuss how the coordinator of the Code4Lib Virtual Lightning Talks uses Google Hangouts-On-Air to enable presenters and viewers from around the world to share their experience and knowledge and share tips and tricks. Mike Robinson from the University…

General information

Call for Proposals: LITA Lightning Rounds at ALA Annual

Will you be at ALA in a few weeks? Do you have a great new technology idea that you’d like to share? LITA Program Planning Committee is accepting proposals for Lightning Presentations at ALA. Please complete this form by May 8 at midnight to be considered. This program, coordinated by Katie Miller, will be held Saturday, June 29 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. Presentations should be 5-7 minutes

Committees and Interest Groups

Introduction to Python: Join Us in Chicago for a LITA Preconference

Are you ready to start coding? Have you made your ALA Annual travel plans yet? The Library Code Year Interest Group (a joint ALCTS and LITA Interest Group) will be offering a full-day pre-conference workshop on Python before this year’s ALA Annual Conference in Chicago. Attendees will learn the basics of the Python programming language with ample opportunities for hands-on, project-based practice. Using a curriculum based on the one developed by the Boston Python Workshop, we will teach attendees the syntax and key features of Python while providing them with an opportunity to work through practice exercises. During the second half of the day, attendees will have the opportunity to complete a short project in Python to use the skills they have learned. Experienced teaching staff will be on hand to provide support and feedback throughout the workshop. While we’ll cover a lot of ground, this workshop does not assume…

General information

LITA Call for Proposals: ALA Annual 2013

The LITA Program Planning Committee is now accepting innovative and creative proposals for the 2013 Annual American Library Association Conference. We’re looking for full day pre-conferences and 90 minute conference presentations on technology in libraries–use of, new ideas for, and trends. Last year we received 95 proposals and we’re excited about all of your new ideas to share with us. Changes from last year!! Due to changes announced in June by the ALA Conference Committee – DS comments, all divisions are limited to accepting 20 programs each next summer. All programs will be 90 minutes, located in the convention center, and will be recorded. All proposal submissions will need to choose a Conference Track. Please see Appendix A in the Roadmap here (http://connect.ala.org/node/178761) for more details. Vendors wishing to submit a proposal should partner with a library representative who is using the product. The library/librarian should submit the proposal. *When/Where…