New This Week

Circulation Supervisor,  Oregon State University Libraries, Corvallis, OR

Library Applications Development Manager,  University of Massachusetts Boston,  Boston, MA

Postdoctoral Research Associate – Digital Humanities,  University of Virginia Law Library, Charlottesville  VI

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

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LITA: Libraries. Innovation. Technology. Awesomeness: Choose your own adventure!*

We probably knew this on the day of the meeting, but “Choose Your Own Adventure” is a registered trademark, so this is probably a good place to start with the discussion.

You are invited to virtually join the LITA members present in Dallas for the LITA Town Meeting – Monday 1/23 from 8-10am CST.  Instructions and links for how to participate virtually will be posted to the LITA Blog (http://litablog.org) approximate 30 minutes before the session starts.

We will be using UStream (audio only) and ALA Connect Chat to facilitate virtual participation.  We will stream the audio for the outbound channel – so virtual participants can hear the general introduction and overview and then break out into three streams – one on each topic – so that the discussion in the room can be heard.  Remote participants can log in to ALA Connect (http://connect.ala.org/) chat to send questions and comments to a discussion moderator who will share those with the participants in the room.

No account is required to access the audio streams.  However to participate in the chat, you must have an account set up in ALA Connect.  You do not have to be a member of ALA or LITA to create an account in ALA Connect.(http://connect.ala.org/user/register)

We also encourage you to send in questions for the LITA Leadership.  Those can be sent in in advance (post on the LITA blog in comments (http://litablog.org/2012/01/lita-president-elect-zoe-stewart-marshall-hosts-the-lita-town-meeting/#respond) or reply to this posting with your question.  Or you can send in your questions the day of the Town Meeting through any of the chat streams. Or you can submit your questions via Twitter – please use the hash tag #LITATM12 – so we will be sure to see them.

There will be three general topics for discussion:

*what is the value that participation in professional associations in general and LITA in particular provide;

* how LITA can provide support for developing leadership skills in emerging technology leaders;

* where and how should LITA provide support for development of technology skills.

My thanks to the LITA members who have volunteered to wrangle the software and equipment needed to facilitate virtual participation!

Please do plan to join us and help us beta test ways to improved and enhance virtual participation in the work of the association. Your input on these important topics is greatly appreciated.

Zoe Stewart-Marshall
LITA Vice President/President-Elect

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EDIT: We will start the stream as soon as we work out Wifi issue. Please be patient.

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The 2012 theme is: New World of Data: Discover. Connect. Remix.

The Forum Committee is interested in pre-conferences and presentations about projects, plans or discoveries in areas of library-related technologies related to the identification, location, harvesting, harnessing, use, misuse, preservation and loss of data of all types and all formats in dynamic and emerging web environments. We welcome proposals related to all types of libraries: public, school, academic, government, special and corporate. Proposals on any aspect of library and information technology are solicited. View and download the complete call for proposals [pdf].

Due Date for proposals: February 17, 2012

Submit proposals to: http://lib.skidmore.edu/library/LITA_Proposal.html

Meet your fellow LITA members, and participate in a conversation about how LITA responds to and involves its membership in the larger information, association, community-building, and technology-related landscape.

LITA, like most of the library community, faces many challenges that strike at the heart of what it means to be a member of LITA and ALA. Meet members of the LITA Board and provide input regarding:

• the value that participation in professional associations in general and LITA in particular provide;
• how LITA can provide support for developing leadership skills in emerging technology leaders;
• where and how should LITA provide support for development of technology skills and
• other questions that are brought forward by the membership.

We welcome and encourage the open participation of all LITA members, and potential LITA members, in this meeting with the goal of strengthening the health of this community-based organization. Please do take some time and attend the Town Meeting. For those LITA members who are not able to physically attend, information about other avenues of input will be made available.

WHERE:

• Dallas Convention Center Room A201/202
• Twitter #alamwttt

We have a great slate of panelists for the Midwinter 2012 session:

• Stephen Abram, Gale Cengage Learning
• Marshall Breeding, Vanderbilt University Library
• Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC
• Nina McHale, Arapahoe Library District, Colorado
• Sue Polanka, Wright State University Libraries

Join us for a fun and casual discussion regarding technology trends to watch from some of today’s foremost experts.

We thank LITA members for their continued interest in and support of the Association’s publishing initiatives.

More information about the upcoming changes to ITAL will be available at the ITAL website.

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!

Mark Phillips of University of North Texas Libraries is presenting Digital Curation at the Command Line. Curation of digital content for long-term preservation seems like an impossible challenge, but many core tools for this work are available at the Linux command line. This workshop will provide a hands-on review of basic filesystem structure and navigation, permissions and ownership, and other tools for bit-level preservation. Attendees should have basic computing knowledge and some experience with Linux. Participants will need to bring a laptop; Ubuntu Live USBs will be distributed in the session.

Nina McHale of Arapahoe Library District, CO and Rachel Vacek of University of Houston will present Getting Started with Drupal. This workshop will provide a thorough introduction to the Drupal content management system. Presenter will guide attendees as they create Drupal sites in a sandbox environment, covering the basics of content creation, themes, modules, and user management. Demonstrations of innovative Drupal sites, including library sites, library intranets, and an electronic journal will be provided. Previous web experience is helpful, but not required. Participants should plan to bring a laptop.

• More information on these workshops and other LITA events at Midwinter can be found at the LITA web site.

Visit the ALA Midwinter Meeting registration page to register for these events. Please note: you do not have to register for the ALA Midwinter Meeting in order to attend these workshops. You may register for the workshop only or add a workshop to your existing Midwinter registration by calling ALA Registration at 1 (800) 974-3084 or through the online registration form in the “Your Events” section. Online Registration for workshops is available through January 16 or you may register onsite in Dallas.

Jodie is currently a systems librarian at Vanderbilt University. Tasha is currently a library assistant IV at the University of California.

The LITA Board wishes to ensure that its’ Emerging Leaders have meaningful leadership experiences within LITA, therefore Jodie and Tasha will work closely with the LITA President-elect.

The ALA Emerging Leaders Program enables newer librarians from across the country to participate in problem-solving workgroups, network with peers, gain an inside look into ALA structure, and have an opportunity to serve the profession in a leadership capacity. Each participant is expected to provide one year of service to ALA or one of its units.

LITA had a number of excellent applicants and congratulates these additional LITA members on being accepted into the ALA Emerging Leaders Program as well: Anita Dryden, Erica Findley, Shell McHugh, Willie Miller, Lilly Ramin, Heather Rayl, Coral Sheldon-Hess, Andrew Sherman, and Carli Spina. LITA has a very bright future with such bright, rising stars.

This five-day course will help participants learn how 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. This is a synchronous course with a daily lecture in iLinc, in addition to course material and discussion through Moodle. By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• understand and apply the major terms of Web services;
• use simple Web services like Yahoo Pipes to bring multiple sources of data together;
• build simple mashups with Javascript; build simple mashups with server-side scripts (PHP).

Registration and additional information is available on the LITA web site.

New vacancy listings are posted weekly and appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New Posting:

Product Manager, WorldCat Quality  OCLC , Dublin  OH

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

“We know libraries of all types are serving their communities with novel and innovative methods, and we want to collect as many examples of this work as possible. We’ve kept the nomination process simple so we can focus on the content, and we hope a little extra time will encourage more libraries to share their work with us,” said Christine Hage, chair of the Cutting-Edge Technology in Library Services selection committee.

“Cutting edge” refers to tested and successful implementations of technological advancements used in services such as:

• Improvements in traditional services and processes by inventing/re-inventing/twisting technology
• Introduction of new, innovative services that are flexible and responsive to community needs
• Methods for connecting libraries to their communities
• Funding initiatives or organizational models that ensure library information technology will remain current

Additional details, including submission information, for the nomination process can be found on the OITP website.

A joint committee of members from the Subcommittee on America’s Libraries for the 21st Century and LITA will review all nominations and may conduct selected interviews or site visits to identify those libraries that are truly offering a best practice or most innovative service. Libraries or library service areas will be publicized via the OITP and LITA websites, as well as highlighted through ALA publications and programs at the ALA Annual Conference in 2012.

The nomination form (.docx) is available online and may be emailed or faxed to Larra Clark at lclark (at) alawash.org or fax 202-628-8419.

Integrated Technologies Services Coordinator,  Kansas State University Libraries,  Manhattan,  KS

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

New Posting:

Director of Digital Initiatives (search EPA Staff #8607), University of North Carolina at Charlotte,  Charlotte,  NC

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

The purpose of the award is to recognize superior student writing and to enhance the professional development of students. The manuscript can be written on any aspect of libraries and information technology. Examples include digital libraries, metadata, authorization and authentication, electronic journals and electronic publishing, telecommunications, distributed systems and networks, computer security, intellectual property rights, technical standards, desktop applications, online catalogs and bibliographic systems, universal access to technology, library consortia and others.

At the time the unpublished manuscript is submitted, the applicant must be enrolled in an ALA-accredited program in library and information studies at the masters or PhD level.

To be eligible, applicants must follow the detailed guidelines and fill out the application form, available on the LITA web site. Send the signed, completed forms by February 28, 2012 to the Award Committee Chair, Heidi Hanson, University of Maryland, McKeldin Library, IT Division, College Park, MD 20742-7011. Submit the manuscript to Heidi electronically at hhanson (at) umd.edu.

The award will be presented at the LITA President’s Program during the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.

The Kilgour Research Award recognizes research relevant to the development of information technologies, in particular research which shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect of the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information or how information and data are manipulated and managed. The Kilgour award consists of $2,000 cash, an award citation and an expense paid trip to the ALA Annual Conference (airfare and two nights lodging).

Nominations will be accepted from any member of the American Library Association. Nominating letters must address how the research is relevant to libraries; is creative in its design or methodology; builds on existing research or enhances potential for future exploration; and/or solves an important current problem in the delivery of information resources. A curriculum vita and a copy of several seminal publications by the nominee must be included. Preference will be given to completed research over work in progress. More information and a list of previous winners can be found on the LITA web site.

Currently-serving officers and elected officials of LITA, members of the Kilgour Award Committee and OCLC employees and their immediate family members are ineligible.

Send nominations by December 31, 2011, to the Award jury chair:
Nancy Roderer
Johns Hopkins University William H Welch Medical Library
1900 E Monument St, Baltimore, MD 21205-2113
nroderer (at) jhmi.edu.

The 2012 Kilgour award will be presented at the LITA President’s Program on June 24th during the 2012 ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim.

New vacancy listings are posted weekly and appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listing. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New Postings:

Assistant or Associate Librarian,  University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics,  St. Paul,  MN

Chief Technology Officer, Yale University Library, New Haven, CT

E-Learning Librarian, University of California, Berkeley Libraries, Berkeley, CA

Manager – Global Research Library,  Franklin Templeton Investments,  Fort Lauderdale,  FL

New Postings:

Academic Liaison Librarian, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA

Associate Director for Library Applications and Knowledge Systems, University of Maryland, Health Sciences and Human Services Library, Baltimore, MD

Collection Management Librarian – E-resource Cataloging, MTSU James E. Walker Library, Murfreesboro, TN

Digital Collections Librarian, John Spoor Broome Library at California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA

Director – Research & Information Resources, Schnader Harrison Segal & Lewis LLP, Philadelphia, PA

Information Services Librarian – Specialist in Natural/Behavioral Sciences, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York City, Brooklyn, NY

Library Specialist, Baker & McKenzie LLP , Chicago, IL

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Project Assistant, Collection Development and Digital Initiatives, Digital Lab/ Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA

Systems Administrator, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Systems Librarian, John Spoor Broome Library at California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA

Web Designer, Cline Library – Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ

The award, given to either an individual or an institution, may recognize a single seminal work or a body of work created during or continuing into the five years immediately preceding the award year. The body of work need not be limited to published texts, but can include course plans or actual courses and/or non-print publications such as visual media. More information: http://www.lita.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/awards/hitech/index.cfm

Currently serving officers and elected officials of LITA, members of the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award Committee, and employees and their immediate family of Emerald Press are ineligible.

Nominations must include the name(s) of the recipient(s), basis for nomination, and references to the body of work and should be sent to bvah (at) pdx.edu. Electronic submissions are preferred, but print submissions may be sent to Arthur W. Hendricks, Portland State University, 951 Sw Hall Blvd, Portland, OR 97201.

The award will be presented at the LITA President’s Program during the 2012 Annual Conference of the American Library Association in Anaheim.

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 11:00 a.m. Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listings. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week

Digital Collections Librarian,  Joyner Library/East Carolina University, Greenville , NC

Digital Records Archivist,  The Pennsylvania State University,  University Park , PA

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

This year’s highlights include:

• Dynamic keynote speakers, John Blyberg, Karen Coyle, and Barbara McGlamery.
• Two full-day preconferences: Learning to leverage Cloud-based IT to better manage IT, presented by Erik Mitchell and Technology Impact by Design: Using Goal-Based Assessments to Achieve and Document Success, presented by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe. You can attend a preconference only OR include a preconference with your Forum registration.
• Concurrent and poster sessions on a variety of topics including: digital humanities, mobile technology, linked data, semantic web, cloud-based resources, ebooks, preservation, data management, and much more.
• Up to twelve sponsors will be on hand to discuss their latest products and services during the Sponsor Showcase.
• St. Louis, the Gateway City, offers something for every interest including unique attractions, historic sites, charming neighborhoods and many entertainment options.

Here’s what previous attendees have to say about the National Forum:

• “I came away with substantial knowledge about project management, among other things, that I will be able to immediately apply in my department. Well worth the trip.”
• “It was one of the best conferences I have attended. I met a far greater concentration of peers – colleagues at other libraries doing similar work – at LITA Forum than I have met at other similar conferences.”

Registration is limited to 500 – don’t miss out! See the LITA web site for additional information and registration.

Roadmap to JPEG2000: September 13, 10:00-11:30 am CDT
Presented by Bill Comstock (Harvard University); Gretchen Gueguen (University of Virginia); Andrew Laas (ProQuest)

The session will include presentations by three implementers of the JPEG2000 standard in three different institutions. The presenters will cover how they have used the standard for preservation or access or both. They will outline the steps in their workflow process, the settings and standards they are using, as well as their hardware/software/environment. This session will go beyond previous sessions that may have delved into the theoretical questions of “what” and “why” to begin the discussion of “how.” The hope is that this will contribute to the small but growing dialogue on best practices for the implementation of this robust and promising format.

As there are few established best practices and standards for use of the format as of yet, widespread adoption has been limited. By sharing the practices that are emerging in various institutions, the session can help those struggling to overcome this barrier to be able to enjoy the many benefits JPEG2000 can offer. While the session will cover in some detail digitization workflows and practices of interest to technical staff, it will still offer useful information to project leaders and other library staff to best take advantage of this new standard.

Registration and additional information.

Posted in  News & Noteworthy | Comments (0) »

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 11:00 a.m. Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listings. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week

Developer , LYRASIS,  Atlanta,  GA

Digital Archivist Librarian ,  DePaul University,  Chicago,  IL

Scripter/integrator/cataloger, Index Data LLC, Boston, MA

The LITA National Forum is a three-day educational event featuring preconferences, keynote, concurrent, and poster sessions that explore leading-edge technologies and their applications in all types of libraries. Some of this year’s highlights include:

• Dynamic keynote speakers, John Blyberg, Karen Coyle, and Barbara McGlamery.
• Two full-day preconferences: “Learning to leverage Cloud-based IT resources,” presented by Erik Mitchell and “Technology Impact by Design: Using Goal-Based Assessments to Achieve and Document Success,” presented by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe. You can attend a preconference only OR include a preconference with your Forum registration.
• Many networking opportunities, including the informal Friday evening reception and Saturday evening networking dinners to get to know LITA leaders, Forum speakers, and peers.
• In addition, up to twelve sponsors will be on hand to discuss their latest products and services during the Sponsor Showcase.

Visit the LITA web site for registration and more info.

Creating Library Web Services: Mashups and APIs
Presented by Jason Clark (Montana State University); August 22-26, live, synchronous lectures 10:00 am – 12 noon CDT each day.

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.

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Understand and apply the major terms of web services
• Use simple web services like Yahoo Pipes to bring multiple sources of data together.
• Build simple mashups with Javascript
• Build simple mashups with Server-side scripts (PHP)

Registration and additional information.

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 11:00 a.m. Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listings. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week

Digital Asset Manager,  MTV Networks , New York,  NY

Director of the Biomedical Libraries,  Dartmouth College Library, Hanover, NH

Library Systems Administrator, Cedar Rapids Public Library, Cedar Rapids,  IA

Web Administrator  (#20092315),  New York University,  New York , NY

Network Systems Administrator, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

Just a few reasons why this year’s National Forum is not to be missed:

• Dynamic keynote speakers, John Blyberg, Karen Coyle, and Barbara McGlamery.
• Two full-day preconferences: “Learning to leverage Cloud-based IT resources,” presented by Erik Mitchell and “Technology Impact by Design: Using Goal-Based Assessments to Achieve and Document Success,” presented by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe. You can attend a preconference only OR include a preconference with your Forum registration.
• Many networking opportunities, including the informal Friday evening reception and Saturday evening networking dinners to get to know LITA leaders, Forum speakers, and peers.
• In addition, up to twelve sponsors will be on hand to discuss their latest products and services during the Sponsor Showcase.

Visit http://ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/conferences/forum/2011/index.cfm for registration and more info.

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 11:00 a.m. Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listings. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week

Application Support Specialist ,  LYRASIS,  Atlanta ,  GA

Coordinator of Reference and Electronic Resources,  Siena College,  Loudonville,  NY

Electronic Resources / Reference Librarian,  Boston Athenaeum, Boston,  MA

Project Manager/Records,  Federal Reserve Board,  Washington,  DC

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

When/Where is the Conference?
2012 Annual Conference, Anaheim, CA: June 21–26, 2012

What kind of topics are we looking for?
Anything relating to libraries and technology! (That narrows it down, right?) A few ideas might include: Comparing two or three library tools (LibGuides vs Google Pages), (Un)Successful Implementation of a New Technology, From the Trenches of an ILS Migration, Technology for Marketing, Marketing Technology, Managing Technology, Project Management, How to Quickly Build a Web App that looks Decent, Managing People and Technology, Supporting Continuing Ed for Technology, Video Creation and Editing, Including/Leveraging Users, Tech Tools for Data Management, etc etc etc. Please keep an eye on the LITA Listserv for a poll for more ideas soon!

When are proposals due?
August 5, 2011

How I do submit?
Fill out this form

When will I have an answer?
The committee will be reviewing proposals in August, final decisions will be made in September

Do I have to be a member of ALA/LITA/an IG/a committee?
No! We welcome proposals from anyone who feels they have something to offer regarding library technology. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide financial support for speakers.

Got another question?
Please feel free to email me (abigailgoben@gmail.com) and the group will figure it out.

New This Week

Dean, James E. Walker Library,  Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro ,  TN

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

Using Scrum to Streamline Web Applications Development and Increase Staff Involvement
Presented by Michelle Frisque (Northwestern University); July 18, Noon -2:00pm CDT

Are your web projects consistently taking more time to complete than originally planned? Are you having problems prioritizing your web projects? Is it unclear what roles staff will play in creating, designing, testing and/or approving a web project? If you answered yes to any of these questions Scrum may be the solution for you. Scrum is an iterative, incremental framework for agile software development. Work is done in short bursts, also known as sprints, of two to four weeks allowing the programming or web team to have features ready for use within weeks instead of months.

The Scrum framework allows programmers to move new features, updates and changes to the production environment faster. Web Committee members play a more active role in the development process, assisting in gathering requirements, working with the programming team to prioritize features, and coordinating the testing of features before they are deployed.

Registration and additional information

New This Week

Digital Archivist and Electronic Content Manager,  The Archives of the Episcopal Church,  Austin, TX

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

Streaming Video by Ustream.TV

Top Technology Trends

Sunday June 26, 1:30-3:30 pm. Featured trendsters include Lorcan Dempsey, Nina McHale, Clifford Lynch, Monique Szendze, and Jennifer Wright. Hashtag #ttt11

LITA President’s Program: Building the Future:  Addressing Library Broadband Connectivity Issues in the 21st Century

Sunday, June 26, 4-5:30pm. Features Robert Bocher, Technology Consultant with the Wisconsin State Library, who will explore the broadband landscape and how ALA is working with Internet2 to address the broadband needs of libraries, schools and higher education.

The Ultimate Debate: “Library Web Scale Discovery Services: Paradigm Shift or More of the Same?”

Monday, June 27, 1:30-3:30. The classic showdown returns, featuring Roy Tennant, Marshall Breeding, Andrea Shurr, and Anne Prestamo.

In addition to the programs above, the LITA Board meetings (Saturday, 9-12 and Monday, 1:30-5:30) will also be streamed live.

We’ll see you online!

Board of Directors I: Saturday, June 25, 2011 – 8:00am – 12:00pm
Board of Directors II: Monday, June 27, 2011 – 1:30pm – 5:30pm

All of the documents relating to the Board meetings can be found here:

2011 Annual Conference Board Documents

If you plan to attend the Board meetings virtually, we’d love to know who you are! Please fill out the following form in order to let us know:

LITA Board Meeting Sign-Up Sheet

The streaming video will be via the LITA Ustream channel, but we will embed a stream here as well as soon as we begin. Follow in either place!

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:

In exchange for the discounted registration, students will assist the LITA organizers and the Forum presenters with the on-site operations for the Forum. This year’s theme is “Rivers of Data, Currents of Change.” We are anticipating an attendance of 400-500 decision makers and implementers of new information technologies in libraries.

The selected students will be expected to attend the full LITA National Forum, Friday noon through Sunday noon, but not the pre-conferences on Thursday and Friday. You will be assigned a variety of duties, but will be able to attend the Forum programs, which include 3 keynote sessions, approximately 30 concurrent sessions, and 12 poster presentations.

The student rate is $180 – half the regular registration rate for LITA members. This rate includes a Friday night reception at the hotel, continental breakfasts, and Saturday lunch.

To apply for the student registration rate, please provide the following information:

1) Complete contact information including email address,
2) The name of the school you are attending, and
3) 150 word (or less) statement on why you want to attend the LITA National Forum

Please send this information no later than August 15, 2011 to lita (at) ala.org, with LITA Forum Student Registration Request in the subject line.

Those selected for the student rate will be notified no later than August 22, 2011.

The new editor will lead the ITAL Editorial Board in identifying a model for publishing ITAL as an e-only, open access journal. With LITA Board approval, the ITAL Editorial Board will move forward to implement the model. LITA seeks an editor for ITAL who can provide both leadership and continuity for the journal.

Responsibilities

1. The editor assumes final authority for the content of each issue of ITAL. Responsible exercise of that authority requires definition of and adherence to standards and scope for ITAL.
2. The editor is responsible for the full publication workflow, from receipt and double-blind review of manuscripts, communication with authors, copy-editing and publication.
3. The editor appoints and works closely with the ITAL Managing Editor.
4. The editor chairs the ITAL Editorial Board Committee and is an ex officio member of the LITA Publications Committee.

Qualifications

• Must be a current LITA member and knowledgeable about current issues in library and information technology.
• Must have a publication record or background, which demonstrates excellent writing skills.
• Must have editorial experience. Experience in electronic publishing is desired.
• Must be able to attend ALA Annual and ALA Midwinter.

Benefits

Although there is no pay associated with the position, the person will receive a stipend of $1500/year or will be reimbursed for travel and lodging expenses up to $1500/year, and receive free press registration for attending the ALA Midwinter meeting and Annual Conference. No reimbursement is provided for other LITA programs or if the editor is unable to fulfill stated responsibilities.

Submit applications by Tuesday, June 7, 2011 to:

Kristin Antelman, Chair, LITA Publications Committee
Associate Director, Digital Library
North Carolina State University Libraries
Campus Box 7111
Raleigh, NC 27695-0001
Work: (919) 515-7188
Fax: (919) 515-3628
E-mail: kristin_antelman (at) ncsu.edu

When: Sunday, June 26, 2011 – 1:30pm – 3:30pm
Where: Convention Center, Auditorium A

The illustrious panelists:

• Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC
• Clifford Lynch, CNI
• Nina McHale, Univ of Colorado, Denver
• Monique Sendze, Douglas Country (CO) Libraries
• Jennifer Wright, Free Library of Philadelphia

New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday at approximately 11:00 a.m. Central Time. They appear under New This Week and under the appropriate regional listings. Postings remain on the LITA Job Site for a minimum of four weeks.

New This Week

Director of Information Technology, City of Charlottesville, VA, Charlottesville, VA

Information Literacy and Instructional Technology Librarian,  Oakland University, Rocheste,  MI

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

Just a few reasons why this year’s National Forum is not to be missed:

• Dynamic keynote speakers, John Blyberg, Karen Coyle, and Barbara McGlamery.
• Two full-day preconferences: Learning to leverage Cloud-based IT resources and serverconfiguration software to better manage IT, presented by Erik Mitchell and Technology Impact by Design: Using Goal-Based Assessments to Achieve and Document Success, presented by Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe. You can attend a preconference only OR include a preconference with your Forum registration.
• Many networking opportunities, including the informal Friday evening reception and Saturday evening networking dinners to get to know LITA leaders, Forum speakers, and peers.
• In addition, up to twelve sponsors will be on hand to discuss their latest products and services during the Sponsor Showcase.

Visit www.lita.org/forum for registration and more info.

Getting Started with Drupal
Speakers: Nina McHale, University of Colorado Denver; Rachel Vacek, University of Houston
This preconference session will provide a thorough introduction to the Drupal content management system. Librarian Drupalers Rachel Vacek and Nina McHale will guide attendees as they create Drupal sites in a sandbox environment, covering the basics of content creation, themes, modules, and user management. Previous web experience helpful, but not required. Concludes with demonstrations of innovative Drupal sites, including library sites, library intranets, and an electronic journal.

User Experience Design for Websites
Speaker: Sarah Houghton-Jan, San Jose Public Library
Learn how and why to create positive user experiences in your interactive digital spaces. Work with experts in library web design and user experience design to learn some tips, tricks, and best practices that you can implement immediately. Discover best practices for designing interactive digital spaces: websites, catalogs, mobile apps and sites. Come and learn to do the following: improve the overall usability of your digital spaces; design to meet user needs and goals as well as your own organizational objectives; improve the elegance and beauty of your designs; reduce the number of steps users must take to meet their objectives; reduce excessive features that do not meet user needs; and create manageable project plans to implement user experience design at your library.

Virtualize IT: Laying the Foundation for the Library of the Future
Speaker: Maurice York, North Carolina State University
Explore how to create a virtualization strategy with a vision towards the library spaces and services of the future. Participants will: use a technology profile of their organization in assessing readiness and fit for virtualization; examine how forms of virtualization map to library services and spaces; receive tools for estimating savings in hardware costs, utilities, and carbon emissions; learn how virtualization and cloud technologies inform planning and transform library spaces

More LITA events at Annual

How to Register for a Preconference

• Register for Annual Conference online and add a preconference in the “Your Events” section.
• Already registered for Annual Conference? Add a preconference to your existing Annual Conference registration by calling ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 or accessing your registration online; add events in the “Your Events” section then check out and pay only for the events you’ve added.
• Please note – you do not need to be registered for the ALA Annual Conference to participate in a workshop. To register only for a workshop using the online form; in section “Registration Type,” select “Institutes and Ticketed Events Only” then select the workshop in section “Your Events.” When you check out, you will pay only for the workshop.

• Zoe Stewart-Marshall, Vice-President/President-Elect
• Lauren Pressley, David Lee King, and John Blyberg, Directors-at-Large

LITA members elected as ALA Councilors-at-Large include: Diane Chen, Jenny Emanuel, Mary Anne Hodel, David Hurley, Julius Jefferson, Wei Jeng-Chu, Em Claire Knowles, Charles Kratz, Mike Martin, Bobbi Newman, Andrew Pace, Mary Pagliero Popp, and Holly Tomren.

New This Week

Head of Technical Services,  Harvard University Library,  Cambridge,  MA

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

New this Week

Assistant Middle and Upper School Librarian, The Buckley School, Sherman Oaks, CA

Director of Library Services,  City of Rowlett,  Rowlett, TX

Emerging Technologies Librarian, Arizona Health Sciences Library , Tucson,  AZ

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

Getting Started with Drupal
Speakers: Nina McHale, University of Colorado Denver; Rachel Vacek, University of Houston
This preconference session will provide a thorough introduction to the Drupal content management system. Librarian Drupalers Rachel Vacek and Nina McHale will guide attendees as they create Drupal sites in a sandbox environment, covering the basics of content creation, themes, modules, and user management. Previous web experience helpful, but not required. Concludes with demonstrations of innovative Drupal sites, including library sites, library intranets, and an electronic journal.

User Experience Design for Websites
Speaker: Sarah Houghton-Jan, San Jose Public Library
Learn how and why to create positive user experiences in your interactive digital spaces. Work with experts in library web design and user experience design to learn some tips, tricks, and best practices that you can implement immediately. Discover best practices for designing interactive digital spaces: websites, catalogs, mobile apps and sites. Come and learn to do the following: improve the overall usability of your digital spaces; design to meet user needs and goals as well as your own organizational objectives; improve the elegance and beauty of your designs; reduce the number of steps users must take to meet their objectives; reduce excessive features that do not meet user needs; and create manageable project plans to implement user experience design at your library.

Virtualize IT: Laying the Foundation for the Library of the Future
Speaker: Maurice York, North Carolina State University
Explore how to create a virtualization strategy with a vision towards the library spaces and services of the future. Participants will: use a technology profile of their organization in assessing readiness and fit for virtualization; examine how forms of virtualization map to library services and spaces; receive tools for estimating savings in hardware costs, utilities, and carbon emissions; learn how virtualization and cloud technologies inform planning and transform library spaces

+More LITA events at Annual

How to Register for a Preconference

• Register for Annual Conference online and add a preconference in the “Your Events” section.
• Already registered for Annual Conference? Add a preconference to your existing Annual Conference registration by calling ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 or accessing your registration online; add events in the “Your Events” section then check out and pay only for the events you’ve added.
• To register only for a workshop using the online form; in section “Registration Type,” select “Institutes and Ticketed Events Only” then select the workshop in section “Your Events.” When you check out, you will pay only for the workshop. You may also call ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084.

Click here to take the survey through SurveyMonkey.

The survey will run through May 3 and typically takes about 5 minutes to complete. Participation is voluntary and all responses are confidential.

Thank you for taking this opportunity to assist us in better serving you!

New This Week

Web and Digital Projects Developer ,  Duke University,  Durham,  NC

Web Services Developer (Web Designer), University of Maryland Libraries, College Park, MD

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job

New This Week

Coordinator of Information Technology, Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham, AL

eScholarship Operations Coordinator, UC Office of the President, Oakland, CA

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

New This Week

Applications Developer, The New York Public Library, New York, NY

Head, Information Technology and Applications Department, Georgia Institute of Technology Library and Information Center, Atlanta, GA

OCLS Librarian , Central Michigan University,  Mount Pleasant,  MI

Senior Librarian, Baker and McKenzie, Chicago, IL

Web Services Developer, McConnell Library, Radford University, Radford, VA

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

The Tech Set includes ten printed books, ten wikis, and ten podcasts by the following authors:

• Marshall Breeding (Next-Gen Library Catalogs)
• Sarah Houghton-Jan (Technology Training in Libraries)
• Jason Griffey (Mobile Technology and Libraries)
• Lauren Pressley (Wikis for Libraries)
• Robin M. Hastings (Microblogging and Lifestream in Libraries)
• Cliff Landis (A Social Networking Primer for Librarians)
• Steve Lawson (Library Camps and Unconferences)
• Kelly Nicole Czarnecki (Gaming in Libraries)
• Connie Crosby (Effective Blogging for Libraries)
• Thomas Sean Casserley Robinson (Library Videos and Webcasts)

The Award Committee especially appreciated The Tech Set use of “a creative, innovative approach” and the series “covering a wide variety of timely topics, providing a way to keep the topics updated and interactive, and for being written in an easy-to-understand manner for readers both at the beginning of their quest for information and those more advanced who want an overview and updated information online.”

Kroski is Emerging Technologies and Web Services Librarian at Barnard College as well as a writer, educator, international conference speaker, and blogger. She is an adjunct faculty member teaching emerging technologies at Long Island University, Pratt Institute, and San Jose University.

Karen Starr, LITA President, said “The expertise and work of Ellyssa Kroski and the ten Tech Set authors embody LITA’s leadership role in enabling and exploring new technologies for the use of librarians and information professionals in the 21st century. Congratulations to each of them for the recognition of their collective expertise, contribution to the core library and information knowledge base, and its impact on the national and local library and information communities.”

Visit Neal-Shuman for more information about The Tech Set or contact Kathryn Suarez at Suarez.kathryn (at) neal-schuman.com.

New This Week:
Reference Librarian,  Hazard Community & Technical College, Hazard ,  KY

Visit the LITA Job Site for more available jobs and for information on submitting a  job posting.

• Election Open
• Movers & Shakers Announced
• ITAL March Issue and ITALica Available
• Tech Set named 2011 Best Book in Library Literature
• Webcourse on Mashups and APIs
• Annual Conference Information
• Award Winners Announced

Full text of update: http://eepurl.com/c52AE

Mr. Wilkin serves as the associate university librarian for Library Information Technology and Technical and Access Services in Ann Arbor, Mich. and is the executive director of HathiTrust. In addition to his work on the HathiTrust and the Google Books project, Mr. Wilkin was the primary investigator on a number foundational grants and projects including a Mellon Foundation grant for creating an OAI harvesting platform, and was the principal investigator in the Making of America IV, the American Voice project, a grant from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for conversion of 7,500 19th century US imprint monographs. Over the last 18 years, he has researched and published in the fields of digital libraries, open source software and multi-institution collaboration. His work in transforming books to digital platforms has positioned him as one of the leaders in digital libraries.

The award recognizes outstanding persons or institutions for their long-term contributions in the area of Library and Information Science technology and its application. It consists of $1,000 and a certificate of merit. The award will be presented at the LITA Awards Presentation on Sunday, June 26, 2011 at the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans.

About Emerald
Established in 1967, Emerald Group Publishing is the world’s leading publisher of management research. In total, Emerald publishes over 700 titles, comprising 200 journals, over 300 books and more than 200 book series as well as an extensive range of online products and services. Emerald is both COUNTER and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

This five-day course will help participants learn how to bring pieces of the web together with library data: del.icio.us subject guides, Flickr library displays, YouTube library orientation. 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. This hands-on course is synchronous with a daily lecture followed by a hands-on exercise. Instructors will be available for any questions during the exercises. By the end of this course, participants will be able to: understand and apply the major terms of web services; use simple web services like Yahoo Pipes to bring multiple sources of data together; build simple mashups with Javascript; build simple mashups with Server-side scripts (PHP). Register online.

With support from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Dr. Cohen leads the development of the free, open-source Zotero (http://zotero.org) software for managing and sharing research sources. Zotero is currently implemented as a set of Web browser and word processor plug-ins that can synchronize citations and other information with a public server, which also serves as a social network and discovery platform for fellow researchers. Work is currently underway to develop a stand-alone implementation of Zotero for Windows, Linux and Macintosh operating systems as well as plug-ins for a broader range of Web browsers.

Cohen’s scholarship includes the exploration of digital humanities and pursuing new ways to collect and preserve history on the Web. He has directed several archival projects, including the September 11 Digital Archive, ECHO: Exploring & Collecting History Online, and the Hurricane Digital Memory Bank: Preserving the Stories of Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. Cohen is the author of four books and has delivered dozens of papers and featured presentations at venues of interest to library technologists.

“I am incredibly humbled by this recognition,” Dr. Cohen said, “and I enormously appreciate the collaborative work that I have been fortunate to be a part of with librarians, technologists, scholars and especially my extraordinarily talented colleagues at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University.”

The award, which is jointly sponsored by OCLC, is given for research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work that shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect(s) of the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information, or the processes by which information and data is manipulated and managed. The awardee receives $2,000, a citation and an expenses paid trip to the ALA Annual Conference in New Orleans, where the award will be presented on June 26.

Members of the 2011 LITA/OCLC Kilgour Award committee are: Michael Witt, Purdue University (chair); Patrick J. Mullin, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (past chair); Zinthia Briceno-Rosales, Washington State University; Ronald A. Peterson, University of Delaware; H. Frank Cervone, Purdue University-Calumet; Mona C. Couts, LITA board liaison; and Roy Tennant, OCLC liaison.

+More information on the Kilgour Award and other LITA awards

All LITA Preconferences are full-day workshops held on Friday, June 24 9:00 am-4:30 pm:

Getting Started with Drupal
Speakers: Nina McHale, University of Colorado Denver; Rachel Vacek, University of Houston
This preconference session will provide a thorough introduction to the Drupal content management system. Librarian Drupalers Rachel Vacek and Nina McHale will guide attendees as they create Drupal sites in a sandbox environment, covering the basics of content creation, themes, modules, and user management. Previous web experience helpful, but not required. Concludes with demonstrations of innovative Drupal sites, including library sites, library intranets, and an electronic journal.

User Experience Design for Websites
Speaker: Sarah Houghton-Jan, San Jose Public Library
Learn how and why to create positive user experiences in your interactive digital spaces. Work with experts in library web design and user experience design to learn some tips, tricks, and best practices that you can implement immediately. Discover best practices for designing interactive digital spaces: websites, catalogs, mobile apps and sites. Come and learn to do the following: improve the overall usability of your digital spaces; design to meet user needs and goals as well as your own organizational objectives; improve the elegance and beauty of your designs; reduce the number of steps users must take to meet their objectives; reduce excessive features that do not meet user needs; and create manageable project plans to implement user experience design at your library.

Virtualize IT: Laying the Foundation for the Library of the Future
Speaker: Maurice York, North Carolina State University
Explore how to create a virtualization strategy with a vision towards the library spaces and services of the future. Participants will: use a technology profile of their organization in assessing readiness and fit for virtualization; examine how forms of virtualization map to library services and spaces; receive tools for estimating savings in hardware costs, utilities, and carbon emissions; learn how virtualization and cloud technologies inform planning and transform library spaces

More LITA events at Annual

How to Register for a Preconference

• Register for Annual Conference online and add a preconference in the “Your Events” section.
• Already registered for Annual Conference? Add a preconference to your existing Annual Conference registration by calling ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 or accessing your registration online; add events in the “Your Events” section then check out and pay only for the events you’ve added.
• Please note – you do not need to be registered for the ALA Annual Conference to participate in a workshop. To register only for a workshop using the online form; in section “Registration Type,” select “Institutes and Ticketed Events Only” then select the workshop in section “Your Events.” When you check out, you will pay only for the workshop.

The 2011 theme is: Rivers of Data, Currents of Change

Due Date for proposals: February 18, 2011

The committee is especially interested in receiving proposals about projects that are experimental and demonstrate risk-taking.

Find additional information and submit a proposal at: http://connect.ala.org/node/113177.

The LITA Board is committed to fostering openness and transparency in its operations and communications. We are dedicated in particular to extending the rich programming and discussion that LITA fosters by reaching out to the LITA online community and pursuing the technological infrastructure and policy necessary to capture and stream high-quality content to the membership.

The Board is currently developing a set of guiding principles that will affirm our belief in openness and transparency as a core component of how LITA conducts business. We understand the importance of educating Board and Committee members on association governance issues for meetings held virtually and in-person. We also understand and place emphasis on informing and gathering feedback from the membership at-large regarding Board and Committee activities. We are similarly committed to elucidating and addressing the complex issues represented by the use of today’s technologies and current ALA policies. For example, the ALA Policy Manual (7.4.4 and 7.4.5) currently stipulates that conference meetings declared to be open are open only to registered attendees, which complicates the popular interpretation of the Open Meeting Policy with regards to streaming technology.

These issues are not exclusive to LITA, but impact the entire American Library Association and all its divisions and groups. The LITA Board promises it will be among the groups in ALA leading these discussions, and will actively seek a positive way forward. LITA members are recognized throughout ALA and beyond as leaders in technology. As much as we seek to push the envelope, we are bound to operate within certain guidelines. By raising these issues at the Association level, we mean to instigate a clarification and modification of ALA policy that will benefit the entire membership in a meaningful and sustainable way by bringing Association and Division meetings into the 21st century.

Streaming programmatic content is an identified need, articulated at several LITA meetings over the past year. In response to this need, the LITA Board approved a Content Streaming Task Force charge in December 2010 which will identify the legal, technological and policy issues related to providing content streaming as a core service to LITA members. Mechanisms will be explored for actively engaging and addressing questions and comments made by virtual participants.

The members of LITA’s Content Streaming Task Force will be appointed after the Midwinter conference to develop recommendations for the infrastructure we need to sustain content streaming and will communicate its work to, as well as solicit feedback from, LITA members. The LITA Board embraces technology not only as a means to do our work, but as an essential way to reach all LITA members. We look forward to and appreciate the collective collaboration of LITA members as we move forward.

Sincerely,
Karen J. Starr
KStarr (at) nevadaculture.org
LITA President (2010-2011)

The work of Vernor Vinge pushes information and technology to its incredible, but possible, conclusions. In A Fire UponThe Deep and A Deepness in the Sky, Vinge examines the concept of the technological singularity, a theoretical point where machine intelligence overtakes human intelligence, and does so in ways that play with information systems and processes. In Rainbows End, Vinge explores one potentially very real future for libraries in which we live in a world of complete information immersion. Jason Griffey interviews Vernor Vinge; futurist, author, thinker, and visionary. This program was recorded live on Saturday, January 8th 2011 at 1pm in the San Diego Convention Center. Sponsored by LITA’s Imagineering Interest Group.

The bi-annual gathering of library technology practitioners and thinkers, hosted by the Library Information Technology Association, gathers in San Diego to ponder topics ranging from WikiLeaks to Angry Birds, from cloud-based information systems to mobile services. The program was recorded live on January 9th, 2011 at 8am in the San Diego Convention Center Room 26 A/B.

The San Diego panelists include:

~Lorcan Dempsey, Vice President and Chief Strategist, OCLC
~Rachel Frick, Program Director, Digital Library Federation
~Erik Mitchell, Assistant Director for Technology Services, Wake Forest University
~Monique Sendze, Associate Director of Information Technology, Douglas County Libraries, Colorado
~Jeffrey Trzeciak, University Librarian, McMaster University

The program is moderated by Jason Vaughn, Director of Library Technologies at University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Due to network difficulties beyond our control, the recorded program joins the panelists already in progress. Our apologies for the few minutes that are lost. Enjoy the show!