Twitter Chats

April 4/24 Twitter #LITAchat

A lot has changed since we had our last Twitter #LITAchat, Core passed and then COVID 19 happened. We are all navigating new territory in our jobs and life overall. So we wanted to bring you a weekly set of LITAChats discussing our shared experiences during these strange times.  The first in this series of LITAchats will start on Friday, April 24 from 12-1pm Central Standard Time. We will be asking you to show us your Zoom Virtual Backgrounds! We know that Zoom conferencing has been popular among many workplaces so we thought what would be better than showcasing some of the creative backgrounds everyone has been using. If you don’t have a background no worries, you can share about the best backgrounds you have seen from colleagues. Don’t know how to turn on Zoom Virtual Backgrounds? We will cover that too! We hope you’ll join us on Twitter for…

Awards and Scholarships

Congratulations to Samantha Grabus, winner of the 2020 LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award

Samantha Grabus has been selected as the winner of the 2020 Student Writing Award sponsored by Ex Libris Group and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) for her paper titled “Evaluating the Impact of the Long S upon 18th-Century Encyclopedia Britannica Automatic Subject Metadata Generation Results.” Grabus is a Research Assistant and PhD student at Drexel University Metadata Research Center. “This valuable work of original research helps to quantify the scope of a problem that is of interest not only in the field of library and information science, but that also, as Grabus notes in her conclusion, could affect research in fields from the digital humanities to the sciences,” said Julia Bauder, the Chair of this year’s selection committee. When notified she had won, Grabus remarked, “I am thrilled and honored to receive the 2020 LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award. I would like to extend my gratitude to the award committee…

Awards and Scholarships

ALA LITA Emerging Leaders: Inventing a Sustainable Division

In January 2020, the latest cohort of Emerging Leaders met at ALA Midwinter to begin their projects. LITA sponsored two Emerging Leaders this year: Kelsey Flynn, Adult Services Specialist at White Oak Library, and Paige Walker, Digital Collections & Preservation Librarian at Boston College. Kelsey and Paige are part of Emerging Leaders Group G, “Inventing a Sustainable Division,” in which they’ve been charged with identifying measures that LITA can take to improve its fiscal and environmental sustainability. As a first step in their assessment, the group distributed a survey to LITA members that will quantify interest in sustainable measures such as virtual conferences and webinars. Want to help? Complete the survey to give feedback that may shape the direction of our chapter. Group G is fortunate to have several other talented library workers on its team:  Kristen Cooper, Plant Sciences Librarian at University of Minnesota Tonya Ferrell, OER Coordinator at…

Education

Latest in LITA eLearning

So much has changed since COVID-19. Online learning is in greater demand and we are working hard to provide you with resources and more professional development opportunities that strengthens the library community. We hope you are well and staying safe. There’s a seat waiting for you. Register today! Digital Inception: Building a digital scholarship/humanities curriculum as a subject librarian Wednesday, April 22, 2020 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Central Time Presenter: Marcela Isuster, Education and Humanities Librarian, McGill University This presentation will guide attendees in building a digital scholarship curriculum from a subject librarian position. It will explore how to identify opportunities, reach out to faculty, and advertise your services. It will also showcase activities, lesson plans, and free tools for digital publication, data mining, text analysis, mapping, a section on finding training opportunities and strategies to support colleagues and create capacity in your institutions. In this 90-minute webinar, you’ll learn:…

General information

Join us this Fall for #CoreForum2020 – Proposal Deadline Extended!

Call for Proposals have now been extended to Friday, May 22, 2020. Share your ideas and experiences about library technology, leadership, collections, preservation, assessment, and metadata at the inaugural meeting of Core, a joining of LITA/ALCTS/LLAMA. We welcome your session proposal. For more information about the call for proposals and our theme of exploring ideas and making them reality, visit the 2020 Forum website: https://forum.lita.org  Event Details November 19-21, 2020 Baltimore, MD Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel COVID-19 Planning The 2020 LITA/ALCTS/LLAMA Forum Planning Committee is currently evaluating a contingency plan, should the COVID-19 public health crisis impact Forum in November.

A New Division Discussions

Core Is Approved!

We’re thrilled to announce that Core: Leadership, Infrastructure, Futures is moving forward, thanks to our members. The three existing divisions’ members all voted to approve the bylaws change that will unite ALCTS, LITA, and LLAMA to form Core: ALCTS: 91% yes LITA: 96% yes LLAMA: 96% yes The presidents of the three divisions, Jennifer Bowen, ALCTS, Emily Morton-Owens, LITA, and Anne Cooper Moore, LLAMA, shared the following statement: “We first want to thank our members for supporting Core. Their belief in this vision, that we can accomplish more together than we can separately, has inspired us, and we look forward to working with all members to build this new and sustainable ALA division. We also want to thank the Core Steering Committee, and all the members who were part of project teams, town halls and focus groups. We would not have reached this moment without their incredible work.” ALA Executive…

Education

Free LITA Webinar: Protect Library Data While Working From Home

A Crash Course in Protecting Library Data While Working From Home Presenter: Becky Yoose, Founder / Library Data Privacy Consultant, LDH Consulting Services Thursday, April 9, 2020 1:00 – 2:00 pm Central Time There’s a seat waiting for you… Register for this free LITA webinar today! Libraries across the U.S. rapidly closed their doors to both public and staff in the last two weeks, leaving many staff to work from home. Several library workers might be working from home for the first time in their current positions, while many others were not fully prepared to switch over to remote work in a matter of days, or even hours, before the library closed. In the rush to migrate library workers to remote work and to migrate physical library programs and services to online, data privacy and security sometimes gets lost in the mix. Unfamiliar settings, new routines, and increased reliance on vendor…

General information

March 2020 ITAL Issue Now Available

LITA ITAL logo

The March 2020 issue of Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) is available now. In this issue, ITAL Editor Ken Varnum shares his support of LITA, ALCTS, and LLAMA merging to form a new ALA division, Core. Our content includes a message from LITA President, Emily Morton-Owens. “A Framework for Member Success,“ Morton-Owens discusses the current challenges of LITA as a membership organization and reinvention being the key to survival. Also in this edition, Laurie Willis discusses the pros and cons of handling major projects in-house versus hiring a vendor in “Tackling Big Projects.” Sheryl Cormicle Knox and Trenton Smiley discuss using digital tactics as a cost-effective way to increase marketing reach in “Google Us!” Featured Articles: “User Experience Methods and Maturity in Academic Libraries,” Scott W. H. Young, Zoe Chao, and Adam Chandler This article presents a mixed-methods study of the methods and maturity of user experience (UX) practice in…