Here’s your chance to catch-up with your LITA friends, and maybe make some new ones. If you’re new to LITA, the Happy Hour is a great opportunity to get to know other members in a relaxed atmosphere. The LITA Membership Committee hopes to see you there!

LITA Happy Hour is immediately followed by the Emerging Leaders Soiree at the same location – these two crowds are so attuned it would be a shame to miss either one!

Here’s your chance to catch-up with your LITA friends, and maybe make some new ones. If you’re new to LITA, the Happy Hour is a great opportunity to get to know other members in a relaxed atmosphere. The LITA Membership Committee hopes to see you there!
(Cash bar, seating inside and outside – sorry, no swimming pool)

Have you taken a look at the LITA Conference Schedule in ALA Connect?
I know the display isn’t in Calendar grid format, but the new Conference Scheduler offers a complete listing of LITA programs, a way to indicate (and rank!) the various programs which interest you, and a way to export your “My Schedule” selections in iCal or other formats for importing into your regular calendar.

Check it out (and let me know if you agree! (or disagree))

Update: After some feedback, I generated an iCal of all LITA events (Search for LITA and then click the iCal button at the top right corner), and imprted it into the BIGWIG LITA Calendar:

You can also find the LITA Schedule in PDF linked on on the LITA website

Saturday, June 26 | 1:30-3:30 p.m.
Washington Convention Center, Room 143 B/C

Imagine living in a city where censorship does not exist. Where your First Amendment rights and liberties are not only tolerated but encouraged and celebrated? That culture is created and that society exists in physical form for one week every August in Black Rock Desert, Nevada in the community known as Burning Man.

The Intellectual Freedom Round Table is delighted that Larry Harvey, Executive Director of the Burning Man Project, will join Lauren Christos, Chair of the Intellectual Freedom Round Table, in a lively conversation on how intellectual freedom informs the Burning Man experience and our 21st century society. IFRT envisions that our program will challenge and expand the boundaries of currently held intellectual freedom beliefs. Through the social experiment that is Burning Man, the audience may come away with new and creative ideas to explore intellectual freedom in their personal and professional lives.

There will be ample opportunity for Q&A from the audience.

Capiz Bar

Inspired by the waterfront, the décor is awash with vibrant hues of blue and gold. At the bar enjoy a perfectly mixed martini, a freshly muddled mojito, classic drinks, local beers and wines and appetizers such as a salumi platter or creamy crab dip.

We have the area they call the library reserved for us.

Renaissance® Boston Waterfront Hotel
606 Congress Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02210
617-338-4111

Feedback welcome!

Friday, July 10, 2009
LITA Happy Hour
5:30 pm – 8:00 pm, Potter’s Lounge, Palmer House
Please join the LITA Membership Development Committee and members from around the country for networking, good cheer, and great fun! Expect lively conversation and excellent drinks. Cash bar.

Friday Evening with LITA
Friday, July 10, 2009
LITA 101: Open House
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Water Tower Place in the Palmer House Hotel
LITA Open House is a great opportunity for current and prospective members to talk with Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) leaders and learn how to make connections and become more involved in LITA activities.
Andrew Pace, LITA President; Donald Lemke, LITA Membership Development Committee Chair; Holly Yu, LITA Interest Group Coordinator; and Scott Muir, LITA Committee Coordinator and many other LITA leaders will be present.

(and the reason we all get to annual on Friday night)
LITA Happy Hour
5:30 pm – 8:00 pm, Potter’s Lounge, Palmer House
Please join the LITA Membership Development Committee and members from around the country for networking, good cheer, and great fun! Expect lively conversation and excellent drinks. Cash bar.

Sunday Afternoon with LITA
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Top Technology Trends
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm, the Grand Ballroom at the InterContinental Hotel
This program features our ongoing roundtable discussion about trends and advances in library technology by a panel of LITA technology experts. The panelists will describe changes and advances in technology that they see having an impact on the library world, and suggest what libraries might do to take advantage of these trends.

LITA Awards and Scholarships Reception/Ceremony
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm, the Empire Ballroom at the InterContinental
Presentation of LITA Awards and Scholarships. John Blyberg will receive the Brett Butler Award for entrepreneurship, Bill Misho will receive the Frederick G. Kilgour Award for research, Meredith Farkas will receive the Library High Tech award for communications in continuing education, and Michael Silver will receive the Student Writing Award.

LITA President’s Program: Make Stories, Tell Stories, Keep Stories
4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, the Grand Ballroom at the InterContinental
In 2007, Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, and Geert van den Boogaard took off from DOK Delft Public Library to embark on a North American tour of libraries en route to the Internet Librarian Conference. Their popular video tour captured the passion and enthusiasm of the people working on library innovation in the States, a theme that they have recently repeated in Australia. Now it’s time to tell their story. Come learn about innovations from our library colleagues in the Netherlands and join Erik Boekesteijn (DOK Delft Public Library), Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian), and Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) as they discuss the current state and future of library innovation and the opportunities to learn from the vast network of international stories about library innovation. The panel discussion will be followed by a book signing, Shanachie Tour – a library roadtrip across America, with all three authors present.
Speakers: Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, Geert van den Boogaard, Jenny Levine, and Michael Stephens

Many other excellent programs are being offered as well. Get a complete list with descriptions and locations provided.

Annual Conference Highlights for Those Attending or Not
LITA is offering two pre-conferences on Friday, July 10, from 9:00am to 5:00pm in Chicago. You do not need to attend Annual Conference to register for a LITA preconference. Also, please note that LITA will accept registrations on site. The registration rate for each is: LITA Member $235, ALA Member $315, or Non-Member $380.

A Thousand Words: Taking Better Photos for Telling Stories in Your Library
9:00am to 5:00pm, McCormick Place, W-475
Speaker: Helene Blowers and Michael Porter are joining Cindi Trainor
In this hands-on workshop, learn techniques for shooting and editing better photos, camera settings that make for the best photos, and basics of editing an image. Learn how to capture library events more effectively and artistically, take and select better photos for websites and promotional materials. Licensing work and finding others via Creative Commons will also be covered. Participants should bring a digital camera and laptop; familiarity with moving photos from camera to computer is a must.

Creating Library Web Services: Mashups and APIs
9:00am to 5:00pm, McCormick Place, W470a
Speaker: Karen Coombs, University of Houston
del.icio.us subject guides, Flickr library displays, YouTube library orientation; with mashups and APIs, it’s easier to bring pieces of the web together with library data. Learn what an API is and what it does, the components of web services, how to build a mashup, how to work with PHP, and how to create web services for your library. Participants should be comfortable with HTML markup and have an interest in learning about web scripting and programming and are encouraged to bring a laptop for hands-on participation.

[cribbed from LITA Update on 6/19]

See you in Chicago!

Midwinter 2009‘s “What’s Happening“document  is now available [PDF].

What library issues are most important to ALA members to share with President Obama?  The ALA Town Hall Meeting will discuss this topic on Saturday, Jan. 24, 3 PM to 4:30 PM, in the Four Seasons Ballroom at the Colorado Convention Center. Share your views at the Town Hall Discussion wiki.
http://wikis.ala.org/midwinter2009/index.php/Town_Hall_Discussion

Please visit this link to respond to the survey. You will be asked to provide your ALA Membership ID. The survey will take 10 minutes and offers both structured and open responses. Member ID numbers will be collected in order to correlate responses in the aggregate to membership participation in divisions, round tables, and committees, as well as by geographic regions and type of library or related field. Asking for your member ID saves approximately 12 questions and allows you to immediately begin the survey. No personal identifiers will be retained and responses will be reported solely in the aggregate.

Please direct any comments or questions about the survey to John Chrastka, ALA Director for Membership Development and Staff liaison to the TFOEMP at jchrastka@ala.org where they will be directed to the Task Force.

x-posted from the Member Blog

One day, in a spirit of “too much stuff to do, so I’ll do something completely unrelated instead” I populated this calendar with all the LITA events I could find for ALA Annual in Anaheim.  If you’re frustrated, as many are, with the ALA Event Planner, feel free to save events from this calendar into your own (trust me, this is *much* easier than the Event Planner for LITA events)

Por su servico…

Summary:
While several participants had differing views on why we all assembled, good discussion happened. ALA has mostly good processes for moving issues to and through Council for offical comment, which can break when stressed by the need for both speed and expertise. Generally, these processes work fine for issues which affect small groups of interest but strain when several large groups of interest have opposing views on an issue needing a swift response.

Suggestions for smoothing the rough patches included: providing mechanisms for year-round, asynchronous, online communication; raising awareness of issues which affect parts of ALA subgroups; identifying which groups are doing what about an issue, and fostering collaboration among disparate groups with similar interests.

Several related problems were identified and some ideas for mitigation/routing around were offered. The impression I got from the participants at this meeting is that ALA needs to specifically acknowledge and encourage the online collaborative tools already in use by ALA subunits *and provide an excellent way to host services which allow for this.* (ALA Communities was indicated as “not acceptable” when mentioned as an existing tool)

For the detailed bullets, please see “Aaron the Librarian | Dialogue on Government Information Notes“.

The design concept for the ALA website is now available for review. It’s up in Philadelphia on kiosks in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, but anyone can get to the site from anywhere. The URL is http://alamockups.luminanze.com.

Please visit when you get a chance. , Feel free to publicize the URL.

There is a link to a survey at the end of the mockups; please be sure to complete the survey to let us know what you think. Also, please remember this step in the process is just about the graphic design. Interactivity and site architecture and other features will be coming in future iterations of the design.

{URL corrected to http://alamockups.luminanze.com/}

WAC reviewed some Challenged Content Guidelines for discussion and possible adoption by Divisions
History: This is a response to a challenge to program write-up of a Program in 2003

Lots of cool stuff being done by ITTS, see the Agenda for the updates. We had wide ranging discussions about much of it (which I was too involved in to remember to take notes)

ALA ITTS Reports

• Sympa — All lists are now on Sympa
• I Love Libraries — added to ALA homepage in place of “Libraries & You” link (with no loss of links to content)
• Google (appliance) — Branding mostly changed to ALA from Google; search crawler was hammering web server, services moved to different server, all is better now; Searches should get more relevant responses rates as appliance continues to scan server
• Moodle — the Moodle test environment is much more flexible and well supported. WebCT will be evaluated against Moodle and the better option should win
• Collage Implementation — Rough (optimistic) guess is all units (except a few legacy programs) will be onto Collage by September

Action Items for 2008

• Now
  • Archives resolution
  • Chal Cont surv, results + what to do w/it
  • Onsite CMS training at future conferences — trainees will need to bring their own laptops
  • Posting Council Transcripts (resolution will be forthcoming to Council at this conference)
• Future
  • Access to conference content by non-conference attendees (notes will go out to WEBADV list)
    • This idea will be discussed by Division Boards at this conference

WAC Agenda

Guidelines for Challenged Content Memo

Important Resources for Committee Chairs

• LITA Staff
• LITA Table at Conferences
• LITA Committees web pages
  • Committee lists and membership
  • Reports submission form
    • All meetings are open (except awards or personnel matters
    • Please submit in timely manner (within a week or two of conference, please; not a week before the next conference)
  • Orientation Tip Sheet
  • Calendar
• LITA Manual
• Annual Program Planning (Manual Section 10)
  • 2008 Program Proposal Form
  • Speaker/Panelist Release Form

Committee Chairs suggested reciprocal LITA.org –> LITA wiki links for better committee flexibility. Web Committee will discuss this at the Web Committee Meeting. Also suggested adding Liaisons pages to wiki for more timely updating.

1. 1. Introductions all around
2. President Bonnie Postelwaithe
3. Vice President Mark Beatty
   (I was stuck on a long bus and missed these 1st three)
4. Executive Director Mary Taylor
   1. LITA experiences 5% growth this year
      1. Mostly student members, we need to help our new mebers find their place in LITA
   2. National Forum in Nashville was a success, see you in Denver
   3. 4 Regional Institutes this year
      1. Mosly licensed by consortia and  institutions
   4. Schuman Publishers will be publishing LITA Guides
      1. So LITA gets 10% discounts from Schumann and ALA Editions LITA publications
   5. LITA-L moved to Sympa
5. Program Planning Chair Gail Clement
   Spoke about how LITA’s PPC is seen by other Division’s groups as a good model
   LITA PPC 1 year process is nimble, yet has a clear process to catch and fix omissions and errors
6. LITA Web Manager David Altenhof
   We’ve changed to the new CMS (first member unit to do so), it’s been a controlled crash so far
   Discussion about LITA site errors — if you’re having a problem, please please please report the problem to ALA IT or Help Desk (just a quick email with error and date & time of error will do)
   LITA Blog is alive and well, 27 volunteers covering >32 sessions
7. New Business / Questions
   Adjourned to Breakouts sessions

Washington Convention Center room 101
8:00 am to 4:00 pm
Saturday and Sunday

Do you find the most useful and energizing “session” is the ad hoc discussion in the hallway or during a break?  Do you yearn to expand on those conversations with colleagues who share your passion for ideas and concepts not necessarily on the formal program?  ALA is making space available and a facilitator, if necessary. Drop by for a while or stay for the day.

I thought I saw this on the Annual Wiki but now I don’t find it.  I cribbed the stuff above from Mary Ghikas’ “What’s Happening” notes (which I was given at my request while socializing in the Renaissance Washington Lobby)

Please have a look at the mockups UserWorks created for ALA as a result of the usability assessment and subsequent exercises they performed for us.

Background: http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2007/june2007/ALAwebsiteredesign.htm

More background: http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

The start page: http://userworks.com/ala/start.htm

These wireframes will be available at the kiosks at the registration area of the Washington Convention Center. WAC will talk more about this at the WAC meeting on Monday.

I’m liveblogging this session over on my blog, so far I’ve heard:

Mark Lloyd, Center for American Progress

Mark was speaking about the necessity of urban library support for the rural libraries provisions in this year’s Farm Bill. Please say to your Senators and Representatives: “Please support the rural library provisions in this year’s Farm Bill.”

Gloria Tristani, Spiegel & McDiarmid (former FCC Commissioner)

Gloria spoke about the importance of sufficient bandwidth for public libraries, wherever they are. She spoke about ALA WO efforts to simplify the E-rate for libraries, modify “poverty calculations” to bring libraries into parity with school districts and respond to “Notices of Inquiry” from the FCC. Sometimes FCC comment periods may say they are “closed,” if you have a comment you should send it in anyway (up until a decision is made). Grassroots advocacy and grassroots comments count with the FCC when they come in significant numbers.

While we are all here in DC, if we are interested in FCC-related stuff, we should take the opportunity to drop in on the FCC Commissioners — we are competing with many other players and a massive drop by of interested parties. Take the time to have a few relevant statistics about library connectivity to hand and encourage the FCC. Wisconsin specific data here for example.

Broadband deployment models that work

Bob Bocher Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction
Steven Hedges OPLIN
William Giddings MOREnet
Andrew McNeill Connect Kentucky

Partnering:
BadgerNet: state gov’t, K-20, libraries, tribes, telcos.
INFOhio, OSCnet, OhioLink, MORE: OPLIN also provides “postalized” pricing, same anywhere. All 3 agencies are now working together as Libraries Connect Ohio.
MOREnet started in 1986, REAL started in 1994, now 131 libraries with 107 branches.
Governor, State library, Dept of Ed, Dept of Higher Ed, U Missouri One network to rule them all (wait, no, There can be only one) in Missouri.

Funding:
MOREnet: Connection depends on tax revenues for service area — you get the connection speeds you need (smaller libraries pay ~$300/year, largest pays ~$12,000 per year) no questions asked.
BadgerNet: costs are “postalized” same cost anywhere — benefits rurals *big time* T-1=~$100/month, higher=~$250/month. Centralized purchase of access and divvied internally.
Dept of Higehr Ed, Sec of State via State Library, participant fees, E-rate reimbursements.

Services:
Video distance Ed, 24/7/365 Tech Support. Statewide VoIP soon, internet via WiSCnet, shared ILS in ~90% of WI libraries for resource sharing etc.

Success because:
strong state network office, strong legislative and executive support, governor support, collaboraive environment (inclusive), state-wide funding of connections.

Challenges:
Policy issues about funding of bandwidth for gaming may crop up if legislators ask about what kinds of traffic are being funded. WAN circuts insufficient, State USF has had 6 years of no growth, Web 2.0 interactions loading network, working to improve funding, general sys admin stuff (security, spam, remote mgmt, etc)
growing demand for bandwidth, term limits, site visits

Then a Q&A session to wrap up.

We are a busy group, as the time-slot conflicts demonstrate. What is it with the 1:30pm to 3:30pm slot on Saturday (10 overlaps) and the 10:30 to Noon slot on Sunday (9 overlaps)?! I guess we like to sleep in

Remember, the LITA Blogger’s Room is WCC 154B — Friday through Tuesday (8am-6pm) — LITA is sponsoring the room, but anyone who wants to (LITA member or not) is welcome to plug-in & power up with us.

Interestingly, the LITA Happy Hour is not [at the time of this post] listed on Friday evening on the LITA website. If you know the details, you know what to do… listed on this page: http://www.lita.org/ala/lita/litaevents/Annual2007Washington.cfm. It’s Saturday, 5:30pm to 8pm at the Capitol City Brewing Company.

—

• E-Rate Task Force reports/issues
• Copyright SubCommittee reports/issues
  * Reports from annual
  — L. Ray Patterson Award to Prue Adler
  — Copyright Advisory Network exponential growth (500K+ hits in 2006)
  * Section 108 Study Group from LC
  — Position papers available
• Telecommunications SubCommittee reports/issues
  * Meeting on Sunday 1/21/07 – details will be in the summary post on that

The ALA Washington Office is implementing new channels of communication to our members.

The first is the District Dispatch Blog.
Currently one can find current and past ALAWONs, Selected WO Events, Office of Information Technology Policy news and commentary, and the podcast mentioned below.

The second is the District Dispatch podcast.
District Dispatch #2 futures Rick discussing OITP and #4 features Carrie Lowe discussing E-Rate. Future episodes will include more specific information from OITP and OGR Staff members and podcasts from Midwinter in Seattle.

The third is the ALA Washington Office flickr pool.

Continuing on with the program from Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) Update: Part 1…
(a teaser for this part of the session was as previously blogged on LITAblog, btw)

Participatory Networks: The Library as Conversation
Joanne Silverstein (jlsilver@syr.edu)
Director of Research and Development
Information Institute of Syracuse (iis.syr.edu)

Information Institute of Syracuse was invited by the Office of Information Technology Policy at the ALA to write a White Paper about recent developments in Web-based innovations and their relationship to, and potential for use in libraries.

Background:

—Why call it “Participatory Networking”?

.The authors propose “participatory networking” as a positive term and concept that libraries can use and promote without the confusion and limitations of previous language. The phrase “participatory network” has a history of prior use that can be built upon.
.The phrase “participatory networks” represents systems of exchange and integration and has long been used in discussions of policy, art, and government. The phrase has also been used to describe online communities that exchange and integrate information. Implies a conversation between groups and people.
.For the purposes of discussion, we define participatory networking as digital, cultural communications and artifacts that are networked in technology, and that are collaborative in principle.

—Why not simply adopt the terms social networking, Web 2.0 or Library 2.0?

1. “Social networking” has negative connotations
.Social network sites (MySpace, Facebook) captured public attention. Proven very popular. Some attention, however, has been very negative.

2. the “2.0″ nomenclature is too vague
.Web 2.0: Ambiguity also dogs the Web 2.0 world. For some it is technology (blogs, AJAX, Web Services, etc.) For others it is simply a buzzword for the current crop of Internet sites that survived the burst of the .com bubble.

3. Web 2.0 implies more than just inclusion of users in systems.
.The term Library 2.0 is a vague term used by some as a goad to the library community. .this term limits the discussion of user-inclusive Web services to the library world. .when factoring in Dewey’s classification, Ranganathan, and the introduction of communications technology into the library, we would think the Library has to be on at least version 12 (beta of course)

—Libraries as Conversations

.“…treats information as a conversation” (Karen Schneider at www.plablog.org/2005/01/top-technology-trends.html)
.”the reason for a book is to afford conversation across space and time”(Jeffrey R., Young, Chronicle of Higher Education July 28, 2006)
.“Conversation is central to exchanging information.” (Klemm, 2002)

—Conversation Theory

Gordon Pask (1928-1996)
.relativist, constructivist theory, draws on cybernetics (flow on information). It derives from teaching and learning: learning is the quintessentially constructivist activity
.Intelligence resides in interaction, Conversation
.describes recursive interactions called “Conversation”differences may be reduced until agreement or “agreement over an understanding” is be reached.

Participatory Networking — the Study/White Paper

.Goals
.Library as Facilitator of Conversation
.Participatory Networking
.Libraries as Participatory Conversations
.Recommendations

Goals:
.Review what’s going on in libraries, describe it in context and present it to library administrators, decision and policy makers. Make them aware of the good work going on out there.
.We also want to present library decision makers with the opportunities and challenges of participatory networks as set in a context of conversation theory.
.Finally, we want to present a cohesive framework for libraries to not only fit tools such as Blogs and Wikis into their offerings (where appropriate), but also to show how a more participatory, conversational, approach to libraries in general can help libraries better integrate current and future functions.

Library as Facilitatior of Conversation:

.Conversations create knowledge.
.Some conversations span millennia. Others only a few seconds. Some happen in real time, some do not.
.In some conversations, there is a broadcast of ideas from one author to multiple audiences.
.Some conversations start with a book, or a video, or a Web page.
.Users need sophisticated processes to facilitate the conversation. The library serves this vital role for many communities, the implication is that libraries are in the conversation business.
..Bricks and mortar libraries: you can observe the conversations as library speaker series, book groups, and collection development processes.
..Online: library has fallen short of the ideal of conversation facilitator.
There is great opportunity, however, for online libraries to provide invaluable conversational, participatory, infrastructure to their communities online.

Participatory Networking

Participatory networking, at least the technological foundations of it, stem from developments in “Web 2.0”
What pervades the Web 2.0 approach is the notion that Internet services are increasingly, no surprise, conversations.
A core concept of Web 2.0 is that people are the content of sites.
Examples
Flickr (www.flicr.com) provides users with free Web space to upload images and create photo albums. Users can then share these photos with friends, or with the public at large. Flickr facilitates the creation of shared photo galleries around themes and places.
MySpace (www.myspace.com) lets users create rich profiles, including blogs, to link up to new people with common interests.

It may not be possible to narrow down a definition of Library 2.0. And perhaps we don’t need to.
But we do want to make clear the notion of Participatory networks comprises:
We use the phrase participatory networking to encompass the concept of using Web 2.0 principles and technologies to implement a conversational model within a community (a library, a peer group, the general public, etc.).

What if the user, finding no relevant information in the catalog, adds the information?
Possibly s/he adds information from their expertise (say through a Wiki),

Can your library functions be as easily incorporated into these types of conversations? Can a user search your catalog and present the results on his or her Web site? The point is that libraries need to be proactive in a new way. Instead of the mantra, “Be where the user is”, we need to, “Be where the conversation is.”

Eventually, blogs, Wikis, RSS, and AJAX will all fade in the continuously dynamic Internet environment.
However, the concepts of participatory networks and conversations are durable.

All in all a long presentation, at the end of the day too.  The Information Institute of Syracuse has a commenst and particiaption page and an about page.  Please feel free to explore their contenta dn leave your comments.

Things not talking about (pretty quiet on these fronts at the moment?)

• Digitization project
• CALEA
• Telecommunications Act
• E-government

Talked about

• Research report
• New project: Connectivity study
• New project: State library E-rate training

Research Report: Public Libraries and the Internet 2006

• Key findings
• Public library connectivity is a valuable community resource
• Public libraries are improving their connectivity
• Challenges ahead
• Key findings – Qualitative
• What’s the most important impact on the community?
• Libraries and emergency service

New Project: E-rate Training

• Problem of complexity
• Our strength: state E-rate coordinators
• Our need: increased participation, better data collection, information sharing

New Project: Connectivity Study

• The next Internet revolution
• Are libraries ready?
• What’s actually going on in the field?

Things are generally “cooking” in DC, but mostly on simmer until the lame-duck session starts — then we’ll have to be on our toes for fast, questionable activity.

Part 2 will have my notes about the Participatory Networks portion of this presentation notes (this link is to the original LITAblog post about this)

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/10/office-for-information-technology-policy-oitp-update-part-1/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/10/library-guides-and-quizzes-how-they-can-help/ http://litablog.org/2006/10/library-guides-and-quizzes-how-they-can-help/#comments Sat, 28 Oct 2006 20:22:54 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/10/28/library-guides-and-quizzes-how-they-can-help/ Ed Salazar, Web/Reference Librarian at Northcentral University in Prescott Arizona, covered some concerns which led to implementation of how they do it at NCU. Some of the reasons are few (3) librarians and a burgeoning student population, making face-to-face instruction a challenge.
Easy to understand guides, and quizzes to test and/or explain concepts, are helpful to students in their quest to find reliable informagtion. Some of the techniques used to build the guides are screen-captures, flowcharts, and other pathfinders.

The provision of these servcies over the web reduces in-person demand and better serves students by being available anytime the student wants them. To build these services, the library collaborates with the IT department for the backend, librarians collaborate on the quides and quizzes, and the feedback from faculty and students are used to enhance the services.

Quizzes and guides are built in a web-based environment, librarians can create or edit quiz questions and guides on-the-fly in a CMS type environment.

The library at NCU is more Open Source leaning than the IT department, OS is not supported by university IT. Still OS apps are used in the creation of these services.

For screen capture, CamStudio and Wink(Windows), Istanbul and Byzanz(Linux), and vnc2swf(all platforms) are used.
For Quizzes, PHP Web Quiz, SMS Studio Demo, WebQuiz, and Online Survey and Web Poll are used. (Links are my guesses, btw) Other software mentioned were: Camtasia, Captivate, Snapz Pro, and Qarbon Viewlet Builder. [We had a lively discussion after the presentation ended about various software that could be used for all this.]

With data created with the above tools, NCU rolled their own homegrown quizzes. Since these were housed on the IT departments (windows) servers, the code used was ASP and some JavaScript.

Tips to remember about screen captures, consider using smaller screen sizes (1024×768 or 800×600), ADA compliance is very important – make sure you check your material for this, keep it short & sweet – filesizes get big – fast, and the audio doesn’t have to be perfect the first time through – you can always edit later.

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/10/library-guides-and-quizzes-how-they-can-help/feed/ 1 http://litablog.org/2006/10/participatory-networks-the-library-as-conversation/ http://litablog.org/2006/10/participatory-networks-the-library-as-conversation/#comments Wed, 04 Oct 2006 15:28:42 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/10/04/participatory-networks-the-library-as-conversation/ ALA OITP and the Information Institute of Syracuse have written a first draft technology brief on participatory networks and interactive social networking. Comments and participation by interested parties are welcome. (wiki and discussion forum)

For information about the project, please see the project’s About Page.

The draft document will be presented and discussed at the LITA NAtional Forum in Nashville at the end of October; the finalized document will be presented in mid-November.


]]> http://litablog.org/2006/10/participatory-networks-the-library-as-conversation/feed/ 2 http://litablog.org/2006/06/so-what-will-i-find-on-the-lita-blog/ http://litablog.org/2006/06/so-what-will-i-find-on-the-lita-blog/#comments Sun, 25 Jun 2006 17:18:53 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/06/25/so-what-will-i-find-on-the-lita-blog/ At the LITA BIGWIG meeting, we were discussing why there is a LITA Blog – a new member said he wasn’t sure of the purpose for the blog. So here’s a little ramble about the LITAblog purpose from the middle of the meeting…

Going back to ancient history, I recall the original intent was to Blog the conferences (I think it was ALA-specific conferences). I blabbed off a quickie summary of the history of the intent(s) and have no idea what I said. but there was general agreement that the paragraph below is what you should expect to find here on LITA Blog.
Luckily, Chris Strauber has a great memory and he shared a summary of what I said with me:

LITA Blog is for posting any library technology related conference content so non-attendees will have access to it, posting content which is related to conference content, and not duplicating conversations which are going on elsewhere unless we can add something to that discussion.

People have asked what is appropriate content for blog posts, can they post business meetings, etc. BIGWIG seems agreed that business meeting posts are welcome, as well as programming, as well as anything LITA related.

If you are a new submitter / have used your litablog account infrequently, likely you will be parked in the moderation queue for a few posts. This is to ensure your identity isn’t hijacked as much as to make spamming more difficult. It’s a user-centered service, not an impediment nor an insult.

Anyway, this post will probably be clarified by a later post covering the BIGWIG meeting. Thanks for reading!

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/06/so-what-will-i-find-on-the-lita-blog/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/06/leslie-burgers-blogger-bash/ http://litablog.org/2006/06/leslie-burgers-blogger-bash/#comments Sun, 25 Jun 2006 14:54:28 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/06/25/leslie-burgers-blogger-bash/ Stopped off at Leslie Burger’s Blogger Bash, which turned out to also be a Celebration for Gulf Coast Library Heroes (the PL employees who just kept coming to work to hlep the public — even though they may have been/still are in the same or worse straits as the general public).

Had a grand time, tik-takking away on the sidelines trying to dump everything I heard about the gulf coast libraries into a text file so I could copy & paste it into my blog “later” (read: when I could get free wifi again). Saw & spoke with several fine upstandnig library folken from the gulf coast, and caught up with the lib-bloggers present, including (apologies for forgetting those of you whom I’ve not listed, I’m sure you’ll tease me unmercifully for years to come – especially those of you I’ve linked to the “wrong” blog or heckled when you introduced yourself [really only heckled Karen Schneider: “Who?!”)

So, look for likely posts from at least:

Aaron the Librarian

Free Range Librarian

Library Web Chic

Pattern Recognition

PLA Blog

Thoughts from a Library Administrator

A Wandering Eyre

and many more, I’m sure. We just agreed on a tags for the event — ALA2006, BloggerBash2006

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/06/leslie-burgers-blogger-bash/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/06/ala-membership-committee-i/ http://litablog.org/2006/06/ala-membership-committee-i/#comments Sat, 24 Jun 2006 21:44:58 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/06/24/ala-membership-committee-i/ ALA Membership Committee I
6/24/2006 10:30 AM — 12:00 PM
Morial Convention Center Rm. 290

Mostly fyi, since I’m sure tired of the whole membership dues issue, Council tasked the ALA Membership Committee to study what should be covered in a study about the possibility of a graduated dues structure. Dizzying resolution, imho.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing, the details of the preliminary discussion can be found at Annual 2006 – ALA Membership Committee I

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/06/ala-membership-committee-i/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/06/oitp-advisory-committee-meeting/ http://litablog.org/2006/06/oitp-advisory-committee-meeting/#comments Sat, 24 Jun 2006 14:41:38 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/06/24/oitp-advisory-committee-meeting/ OITP Advisory Committee Meeting(s)
Hilton Garden Inn French Quarter Downtown
Walk from Convention Center, not on Bus route 4
Friday June 23

Contents:
OITP Macro Issues
OITP Finances
OITP Pressures/Observed Trends
Other discussions
*Possible net neutrality resolution
*Copyright
*Strategic Planning

For details see: Annual 06 – OITP Advisory Committee Meeting

-Aaron
’

(again, apologies if this is a faux pas)

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/06/oitp-advisory-committee-meeting/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/06/incoming-ala-committee-chair-orientation/ http://litablog.org/2006/06/incoming-ala-committee-chair-orientation/#comments Sat, 24 Jun 2006 14:27:45 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/06/24/incoming-ala-committee-chair-orientation/ Incoming ALA Committee Chair Orientation
Hilton N. O. Riverside — Napoleon BR
Thursday 6/22/06

Put on by ALA OTLD with a very nice buffet. Not very many new ALA committee chairs were able to make it, which is too bad as the food was good and the ideas shared were good (some common sense, others insightful). The ALA Parliamentarian, Eli Mena, presented tips on meeting process and conflict avoidance/deflection/resolution. A lot of common sense, all really good to remember, and great soundbytes – including: “Committee work should be like a canoe…”

For details see: Annual 06 – Incoming ALA Committee Chair Orientation

Not sure about the potential faux pas I’m possibly committing (self-link love); but double posting the content seems silly.

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/06/incoming-ala-committee-chair-orientation/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/06/welcome-to-the-lita-blog-room-mcc-274/ http://litablog.org/2006/06/welcome-to-the-lita-blog-room-mcc-274/#comments Sat, 24 Jun 2006 13:59:39 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/06/24/welcome-to-the-lita-blog-room-mcc-274/ Ran into the MCC staff who set up the room this morning on arrival. Nice pair of competent geeks, I approve.

I’ve been mentioning the existence of the room to folks at programs and meetings already, watchout, we may see some Martians (RUSA-MARS) and NMRT folks or maybe more, since Michelle said she was Word-of-Mouthing the room as well.

Anywho, drop a note when you get here – or leave a question, Enquiring minds want to know!

-Aaron
’

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/06/welcome-to-the-lita-blog-room-mcc-274/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2006/03/ala-election-update/ http://litablog.org/2006/03/ala-election-update/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2006 20:36:27 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/2006/03/23/ala-election-update/ A quickie update from Mary Ghikas on the ALA election stats…
——–
As of this afternoon’s report (3/22/06) the number voted was:
4,513, including 4467 web and 46 paper

Note that we are finally up to the date of the 1st report in 2005.
As of 3/22/05, the number voted was 2,764.

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/03/ala-election-update/feed/ 2 http://litablog.org/2006/01/so-what-could-we-do-with-the-dues-increase-revenue/ http://litablog.org/2006/01/so-what-could-we-do-with-the-dues-increase-revenue/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2006 20:55:02 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=188 Here’s what I heard, in my capacity of (physically-present) electronic member of the ALA Membership Committee, from several days ago with vendor receptions and copious lack of sleep in between the hearing and the recall…

Some of what will happen with an approved dues increase:

ALA Staffing improvements

-filling the staff positions that have been “held open” — some of which are development positions tasked with raising non-dues revenue
-Administrivia (salaries, etc for ALA staff – not a whole lot of this, though)

Several identified improvements that require $3,000 – $7,000 each (which have been needed for a long time but were impossible due to lack of funds)

-website and http://communities.ala.org improvements
-streamlining several member benefits processes
-better Round Table and Divisional support
-improved legislative advocacy support (the research portions of this are mostly grant funded, btw)

Currently ALA generates $4 for every $1 generated from dues, plans for some revenue from the raised dues are targeted at generating an additional $2 for each extra $1 from dues.

My impressions for what *won’t* happen if we choose to not increase dues:

Important pieces of ALA 2010, which was developed with input from a large majority of ALA members will fail, possibly spectacularly – depending on which fail.

-Development will fall off
-Legislative Advocacy (including research as the ground support withers) will suffer
-Intra-Association communication will not systematically improve

In short, from my exalted view (not *in* my exalted view -grin-) of the larger ALA organization on the Membership Committee, the organization needs a dues increase (in my apparently unpopular opinion, we are not making a large enough increase and we should just do it rather than attempt to ease the pain over a few years).

I urge you to review the ALA 2010 site. Read what we, the members, told ALA staff they ought to work toward for us. There should be a stream of Keith Fiels making the presentation he made to many ALA and Divisional Committee meetings at MidWinter at some point in the near future.

For the record I understand, and sympathize with many, arguments put forward opposing this increase. However, we are at a critical juncture – both within and outside our profession and our professional association. If we fail to stand for the broad ideals which underpin what we do (and live) we will have done a vast disservice to our future.

If you’re wondering, I will be voting for the increase – it is a minor burden on my home budget (one extra family dinner out per year for three years), but I feel we cannot afford to mark time and lose the ground we have maintained and gained in recent years.

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/01/so-what-could-we-do-with-the-dues-increase-revenue/feed/ 3 http://litablog.org/2006/01/etig-emerging-technology-interest-group-this-is-still-a-draft-pls-do-not-publish-yet/ http://litablog.org/2006/01/etig-emerging-technology-interest-group-this-is-still-a-draft-pls-do-not-publish-yet/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2006 18:49:24 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=186 Emerging Technologies IG (*very brief* I was a tad late). Free wheeling discussion – Michelle B sounded like she got good notes…

Mentioned Emory podcasting prof & Boilercast at Purdue.
FRBR-ized displays
Draw knowledge from external (non-library) vendors for easeof applications?

<5% library virtual users start at a library catalog – user defined pathways need to be explored, modeled, and incorporated into search structure

Changing focus from “search” to “find” Ambient Findability – book with which to follow up

PodCasting/VlogCasting

Switch from DVD/VHS to streaming & synchronous/asynchronous downloads – which can be placed in ot linked form online exhanced classes or placed in syllabi.

Search interfaces, NCSU, Grokker, 3D/spatial representation of search results

[Re-phrasing]ETIG/LITA is starting to be more aware of PLA technology discussions[/re-phrasing]
PLA is starting technology discussions – there is not much, if any, LITA involvement – we need to get into and help inform their discussions. Infiltrate all the ALA silos.

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/01/etig-emerging-technology-interest-group-this-is-still-a-draft-pls-do-not-publish-yet/feed/ 5 http://litablog.org/2006/01/ala-council-ii-dues-proposal-status/ http://litablog.org/2006/01/ala-council-ii-dues-proposal-status/#comments Tue, 24 Jan 2006 17:10:20 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=189 After much discussion (1.5 hours), Council voted to place the proposed dues increase on the 2006 Spring Ballot for member consideration and voting. As soon as a link to the approved proposal is available (and found) I’m sure it’ll show up in the comments. Exec Summary: 30% increase phased in 10% increments over 3 years.
[edit - adding]
There was also extensive opining about the dues structure, there are pockets of support (including SRRT, rural & low income state councilors, and a few well-off councilors) for a graduated dues structure, based upon salary. The membership committee (I’m an electronic member of that group) closely examined a graduated structure and concluded, in the end, this was an undesireable option. An interesting factor in this discussion was the early 1970′s graduated dues structure and comments in Council minutes about the perception of the existence of a “class structure” based upon the amount of dues individuals paid (or said they paid). Embedded in the minutes, sometimes between the lines, was also a perception that many people felt others were not correctly reporting their income, hence the flat dues structure was adopted.
[/edit]
]]> http://litablog.org/2006/01/ala-council-ii-dues-proposal-status/feed/ 2 http://litablog.org/2006/01/town-meeting-notes-table-1/ http://litablog.org/2006/01/town-meeting-notes-table-1/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2006 22:42:56 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=185 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

]]> http://litablog.org/2006/01/town-meeting-notes-table-1/feed/ 2 http://litablog.org/2005/11/calea-research-in-progress/ http://litablog.org/2005/11/calea-research-in-progress/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2005 16:39:22 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=98 The ALA’s Office of Information and Technology Policy (OITP) has been reviewing the possible impact on public libraries of the federal Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, CALEA. ( See ALA’s CALEA site for background information.)

As part of its work in this area, OITP wants to get a better idea on how public libraries in your state connect to the Internet. Thus, I hope you will take a few minutes and answer the following questions. Even estimated numbers will be useful and appreciated. Please consult with any networking staff as needed.

For the public libraries in your state *not* still on dial-up Internet access:

1) Approximately what percentage of those libraries connect to the Internet via a non-library managed wide area network (WAN)? (This includes WANs managed by municipal or county governments and statewide WANs. The latter are often managed by state government or a not-for-profit entity that may include K-12 and higher education.)

2) Approximately what percentage of those libraries connect to the Internet via a library managed WAN? (This includes WANs managed by a regional library consortium or cooperative. Such WANs are also often used to link libraries that are part of shared integrated library systems. These WANS may include non-public libraries too.)

3) Approximately what percentage of those libraries do not connect to the Internet via a WAN, but connect via a circuit going directly to an Internet Service Provider, ISP? (This includes a library with a DSL or other type of telecommunication circuit going to the ISP or a library that gets Internet access via a local cable company.)

There may be circumstances in which your libraries do not fit easily in the above scenarios. Thus, feel free to add any other information you think will be helpful. (Let Bob know if information on this subject is also on the Web.)

Responses received by COB Tuesday, August 2, will be most useful but responses after this date will be appreciated too.

* Please send responses to: robert.bocher@REMOVECAPS.dpi.state.wi.us

Please let Bob know if you have any questions. Thanks for your cooperation.

-Posted for
Bob Bocher, Member, ALA OITP Advisory Committee

]]> http://litablog.org/2005/11/calea-research-in-progress/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2005/07/rfc-on-un-wgig-inet-gov/ http://litablog.org/2005/07/rfc-on-un-wgig-inet-gov/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2005 21:32:15 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=97 The ALA OITP Advisory Committee is looking for assistance in preparing comments related to the Working Group on Internet Governance Report announced below.
Ms Carrie Lowe is coordinating OITP’s comments; if you would like your comments on the WGIG report to be considered for inclusion in OITP’s [very short deadline] response, please email your comments to Carrie [clowe.at.alawash.dot.org] by July 29, 2005.

The UN Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) released their first report yesterday and the US Department of State has put forth an RFC (comments due August 1); the Department of State is also accepting comments on Internet governance in general until August 15.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE

[Public Notice 5098]

United States International Telecommunication Advisory Committee;
Request for Comments on the Working Group on Internet Governance Report

The Department of State announces a request for comments on the
report of the Working Group on Internet Governance, which is scheduled
to be released to the public on July 18, 2005. The UN Working Group on
Internet Governance (WGIG), created by Phase 1 of the WSIS, was tasked
“to investigate and make proposals for action, as appropriate, on the
governance of Internet by 2005.” The text of the report will be
available at http://www.wgig.org or on the Department of State’s World
Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Web site at
http://www.state.gov/e/eb/cip/wsis2005.
The Department of State will be accepting comments from the public
on the WGIG report through August 1, 2005. Comments should be sent to
Sally Shipman, International Communications and Information Policy, at
shipmansa@state.gov.

In addition, according to the decision of PrepCom II, all
governments and other stakeholders are invited to submit written
comments and proposals on the issue of Internet governance to the WSIS
Executive Secretariat (to wsis-contributions@itu.int) by August 15.
Thereafter, a compilation of these contributions will be forwarded to
the WSIS PrepCom III, together with the report of the WGIG.

Dated: June 20, 2005.
Anne Jillson,
Foreign Affairs Officer, International Communications and Information
Policy, Department of State.
[FR Doc. 05-12668 Filed 6-24-05; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4710-07-P

]]> http://litablog.org/2005/07/rfc-on-un-wgig-inet-gov/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2005/06/ala-membership-committee-rumour-clarification/ http://litablog.org/2005/06/ala-membership-committee-rumour-clarification/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2005 21:45:56 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=73 I heard some rumours about stuff under the bailiwick of the ALA Membership Committee [on which I am a virtual member] so I’ll share what I know (it should already be in Council minutes by now, so it’s not quite “pre-”news)

Council requested a recommendation on different dues structure options. The requested recommendation on dues *structure* was voted out of committee & went to Council today, (hopefuly to put to rest any more considerations on changing it). After some hard work, comparison, and delving into the ALA archives, the Committee recommended keeping the current flat dues structure. <2% of professional associations have salary based scales, >80% have flat dues.
An historical note: ALA used to have a salary based sliding scale (in the 1970′s) however, Council minutes reflected a feeling of distrust of self-reporting salaries, among several other reasons – which was funny to read

Soon ALA will have mechanisms in place to allow dues payment on an installment plan. The small caveat is this: in order for this to be revenue neutral to the association a small surcharge (approximately $2.00) to cover the costs for each extra transaction. On a related note, the renewals invoice process will soon change from 4 paper invoices (assuming one does not pay on the first or subsequent invoices) to a combination of a postcard, an email or two, a paper invoice, and a cover sleeve on one’s last American Libraries issue.

Questions, comments, smart remarks?
Post ‘em in comments or email me & I’ll be sure to express them for you.

]]> http://litablog.org/2005/06/ala-membership-committee-rumour-clarification/feed/ 1 http://litablog.org/2005/06/the-googlization-of-everything-a-threat-to-the-information-commons/ http://litablog.org/2005/06/the-googlization-of-everything-a-threat-to-the-information-commons/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2005 12:48:06 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=63 The Googlization of Everything: A Threat to the Information Commons?
Speaker: Siva Vaidhyanathan

I was so into what Siva was saying I forgot to take notes, my apologies. Here are the highlights that made it into my notes (busy day has smushed out most of the specifics I’m sorry to say – hopefully I’ll be able to channel it all back out of my subconscious in a week or so)

Siva spoke to the program title, which was developed before he was the speaker (he said he was happy to do so). Funny, but great.

He started off about how today was a surreal day to be discussing Google and it’s potential future since he/we expect to hear a decision from SCotUS tommorrow (Monday, 6.27.05) on the MGM v Grokkster case.

So: Siva starts out after the above caveat: “There is no functional diference between Grokkster and Google.” How’s that for a stunner? I missed a bit as I quickly pondered this & found that I agree.

I tuned back in just in time to get this: “there is one difference; Grokkster *doesn’t* copy, Google *does*” (regarding Google Print – which Siva kept calling “Google Library”), intersting and true.

The SCotUS decision will be a watershed moment (I’m not sure, now, which way I hope they decide). Deciding for Grokkster means probable copyright meltdown & hurried, suboptimal fix, deciding for MGM means the bright future envisioned and hoped for by many will be a wasteland.

3 big worries about Google Print:
Privacy (Google, unlike libraries, has no ethical constraints against sharing/giving access to reading/searching habits)
Privatization (See Brewster Kahle’s 3 models regarding this)
Property (which means a copyright meltdown is possible – which would be a bad thing – libraries would likely *not* have a seat at the table)

I saw several LITAns there, hopefully they can/will fill out my sketchy notes in the comments (or post a better summary, please!)

]]> http://litablog.org/2005/06/the-googlization-of-everything-a-threat-to-the-information-commons/feed/ 6 http://litablog.org/2005/06/l-ray-petterson-award-program-copyright-misinformation/ http://litablog.org/2005/06/l-ray-petterson-award-program-copyright-misinformation/#comments Mon, 27 Jun 2005 07:44:08 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=62 L. Ray Petterson Award Program: Copyright Misinformation
[disclaimer: I'm on the award committee]

OITP Sonsors this Award, named for the late L. Ray Patterson, a reknown fighter for Fair Use and using Copyright for the public’s interest.

This (the inagural) year’s recipient is Professor Kenneth Crews of IUPUI’s Copyright Management Center (among many other affiliations).

Congratulations to Professor Crews on an honor well deserved!

Related link:
ALA Press Release

]]> http://litablog.org/2005/06/l-ray-petterson-award-program-copyright-misinformation/feed/ 0 http://litablog.org/2005/06/washington-office-update/ http://litablog.org/2005/06/washington-office-update/#comments Sat, 25 Jun 2005 17:34:26 +0000 AaronDobbs http://litablog.org/?p=43 Several big Washington Office projects are having congressional impact.

The ALA PATRIOT Act Study (‘Impact and Analysis of Law Enforcement Activity in U.S. Libraries’), an attempt to gague the impact of Section 215 on libraries, is now in the data analysis stage — preliminary data appears solid, though some audience members were sub-satisfied with the specificity of the questions asked, which limits usability of the results.

• Response rates: ~33% public libraries in a stratified sample, ~25% academic libraries from the census
• 137 reports of official, paper/documented requests for information *nb: Atty Generals Ashcroft & Gonzalez say Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act has been used 0 times *nb2: there is no legal way to answer a specific question regarding this, so there is no good way to aggregate this

Relevant links:
ala.org/oitp

Public libraries and the Internet 2004 Survey results:

• 98.9 libraries provide free internet access
• 10.4 public computers / public library building
• 90% of libraries report not enough computers available at peak hours
• 48% of libraries report ‘high-speed’ (>769kbps) connections
• 18% provide wireless, 21% more plan to go wireless within a year

Relevant links:
www.ii.fsu.edu
ala.org/oitp
www.gatesfoundation.org

OITP Telecommunications Blog:
oitpblog.org

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