Your 2006 LITA Forum Planning Committee and the LITA Office have been hard at work preparing for this year’s Forum which will be held in Nashville, TN from October 26-29. The Forum website has been updated with links to the online registration form and hotel registration in the Sheraton Nashville Downtown Hotel. Register now to save $50 off the regular registration rate; this offer ends on August 15th! A special room rate of $109/night for single or double occupancy is available at the conference hotel using the reservation link from the Forum website: http://www.lita.org/forum06. More information on the concurrent sessions and the schedule will go up on the Forum website as we get closer to the dates of the Forum, so please check the website for updates. Content this year includes: Two full day preconferences to provide opportunities for hand-on experiences and in-depth discussions: Open Source Software Installfest Developing Best…
Month: July 2006
Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher now a wiki
As some of you may have noticed, I have had trouble keeping the Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher current. In the process of preparing for my latest update, I found that the wiki function had become available, and the Tool Kit seemed ideal for that — um, once Bonnie Postlethwaite suggested it to me, anyway. So here it is: Tool Kit for the Expert Web Searcher. The Web page won’t be taken down, at least for quite a while, because the URL is pretty widespread, and I want people to be able to find the new version. Soon, a cross link should be on the old page. Because of the nature of wikis, this is really an experiment, and I’m kinda skeered about what’s going to happen. I want to open the Tool Kit to the expertise and contributions of others; at the same time, I want it…
LITA 2.0
This past spring, I was fortunate to participate in the ALA Library2.0 Bootcamp sponsored by ALA. This was a wonderful learning opportunity and testing ground for how ALA could use Web2.0 concepts and tools to incorporate into the member experience of ALA. The group of people were about 50% ALA staff and 50% members. ALA retained The Otter Group and Kathleen Gilroy to facilitate the process. Michael Stevens and Jenny Levine served as the faculty. The group was divided into 10 teams, each with their own topic. I served on Team 9 with our own LITA Blog Guru, Michelle Boule, Mary Taylor (LITA Executive Director), and Sherry Vanyek, (ALA Director of ITTS). Our topic was Integrating Library Services Into Search Engines. We used our topic as the first to appear on the new LITA Wiki which can be found at http://wikis.ala.org/LITALibrary2.0/index.php/Main_Page . There is no concensus on the use of…
Core Competencies in Library Technology: What IT Is and Where IT's Going
8:00 AM- 10:00 AM Location: Morial Convention Center room: Rm. 398-399 Kevin Moderow, Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County In the 1990’s most of the Charlotte & Mecklenburg County branch libraries hired Automated Support Coordinators to handle public computer problems so the rest of the library staff did not have to answer those types of questions. The Coordinators were hired by and reported to the branch libraries, not central IT. A new director came on board and wanted to centralize computing support, reduce the number of IT staff, increase the technical skills of all library staff, standardize procedures, and improve communication between IT and the rest of the library. The solution, create a mobile front line support team. Instead of having Coordinators in each library, Level 1 support was responsible for several branches and would go where needed at the time of need. They created Level 2 support teams…
LITA PreConference: Contracting for Content in a Digital World
LITA Preconference Friday, June 23, 8:30 am – 2:30 pm Contracting for Content in a Digital World A panel of experts discussed the forces and interests on the national and international scene that are shaping the new terms libraries, publishers, aggregators and search engines are negotiating in contracts and licenses today. Sybil Boutilier, Manager of Contract Administration for San Francisco Public Library, the program coordinater and moderater welcomed the participants and introduced the session.
Program: Next Stop Blogging
Despite the crowded Monday 10:30 a.m. time slot, this program was packed to the gills, with over 160 in attendance and many more possible attendees who wandered up and then away as they saw how full the room was. My notes are spotty as I ran out of the room a couple of times for extra forms and for AV support (the microphone was squealing mightily). The presenters were Jason Griffey, Karen Coombs, and Steven Bell. Jason talked about BIGWIG’s selection process for the blogging software we ultimately ended up with, Karen talked about useful add-ons, and Steven provided the “marketing and strategies” angles. Jason began by explaining the major differences between hosted and installed software, pointing out that LITA selected the installation route because we’re LITA and we wanted the geekier approach, but that an organization’s “technology comfort zone” might point to another solution. He emphasized the need to…
Meeting Report from ALA Web Advisory Committee
ALA Annual Conference, New Orleans, Monday, June 26, 2006, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm, New Orleans Marriott, Convention Center Hotel, Natchez Room Members Only Content Report/Update The task force has gathered the existing Members Only policies however Michelle Frisque was unable to get the task force to come to any conclusions/recommendations based on what we discovered. Michelle will send what she has up to this point and WAC will continue this discussion after the conference. Event Planner WAC continues to have concerns about the usability of the Event Planner. WAC is writing a memo outlining our concerns that will be sent to Conference Services. Report from the ALA Executive Board Liaison, Jim Rettig Topics covered included how money from the dues increase will be used and conference attendance. Jim is ending his board liaison term; next year’s liaison will be Terry Kirk. WAC thanked Jim for his support and service…
A "Next generation" library catalog – Executive summary (Part #1 of 5)
This is the Executive summary of a text outlining an idea for a “next generation” library catalog. In two sentences, this catalog is not really an catalog at all but more like a tool designed to make it easier for students to learn, teachers to instruct, and scholars to do research. It provides its intended audience with a more effective means for finding and using data and information. The full text of this document formatted as a single HTML page is available at: http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/ngc/ Executive summary People’s expectations regarding search and access to information have dramatically changed with the advent of the Internet. Library online public access catalogs (OPAC’s) have not kept up with these changes. The proposed “next generation” library catalog is an attempt to address this phenomenon. It’s design less like a “catalog” — an inventory list — and more like a finding aid. It contains data as…
A "Next generation" library catalog – Introduction and assumptions (Part #2 of 5)
This is an introduction and list of assumptions outlining an idea for a “next generation” library catalog. In two sentences, this catalog is not really an catalog at all but more like a tool designed to make it easier for students to learn, teachers to instruct, and scholars to do research. It provides its intended audience with a more effective means for finding and using data and information. The full text of this document formatted as a single HTML page is available at: http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/ngc/ Introduction In library parlance, an OPAC is an “online public access catalog”. The operative word in this phrase is “catalog”. Traditionally speaking, the OPAC is thought of as an index to the things owned or licensed by a library. It is an electronic version of the venerable card catalog. As such it contains “cards” pointing to books, not the books themselves. It contains “cards” pointing to…
A "Next generation" library catalog – Technologies (Part #3 of 5)
This is an outline of computer technologies for implementing a “next generation” library catalog. In two sentences, this catalog is not really an catalog at all but more like a tool designed to make it easier for students to learn, teachers to instruct, and scholars to do research. It provides its intended audience with a more effective means for finding and using data and information. The full text of this document formatted as a single HTML page is available at: http://dewey.library.nd.edu/morgan/ngc/ Technological design Model for a “next generation” library catalog Technically speaking, this “next generation” library catalog is the combination of a relational database with a full-text index. Access to this database/index combination is provided through open standards such as Z39.50, SRW/U, OpenURL, and OAI-PMH. Database The database is designed to contain XML files enhanced with facet/term combinations. When at all possible these XML files (based on any DTD or…