Empowering libraries through technology
New vacancy listings are posted weekly on Wednesday afternoons. New This Week Systems Librarian, International Monetary Fund, Washington D.C. (search for “systems librarian” on the site) Part-Time Librarian, Rancho Mirage Library and Observatory, Rancho Mirage, CA Visit the LITA Jobs Site for more available jobs and information on submitting your own job posting.
Ruth Mahaffy has been selected to receive the 2019 LITA/Christian Larew Memorial Scholarship ($3,000) sponsored by the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) and Baker & Taylor. Mahaffy will graduate from Emporia State University’s School of Library and Information Management in 2020. This Scholarship is for master’s level study, with an emphasis on library technology and/or automation, at a library school program accredited by the American Library Association. Criteria for the Scholarship includes previous academic excellence, evidence of leadership potential, and a commitment to a career in library automation and information technology. Mahaffy is the Bilingual Services Director at the Sioux Center (IA) Public Library, where she started the Library’s first outreach to Spanish speaking immigrants in 2010, which now has over 1,000 attendees at programs for Spanish speakers and English language learners each year (in a town of 7,000). She also drafted a new internet use policy that addresses the rights of minors to…
LITA is still accepting applications through August 30, 2019, to sponsor two Emerging Leaders for 2020. LITA sponsorship provides $1,000 to attend the 2020 ALA Midwinter and Annual conferences in order to participate in the program. It also puts you on the fast track to get involved with LITA in a leadership capacity. Apply now! ALA Emerging Leaders is a leadership development program that enables newer library workers to participate in problem-solving workgroups, network with peers, and gain an inside look into ALA’s and LITA’s structure. Participants select a project to work on virtually between February and June. The team will then present its work at the 2020 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. Contact us if you have questions about the Emerging Leaders program or this sponsorship opportunity.
Dear ALCTS, LITA, and LLAMA Members, As we get ready for the ALA Annual Conference in Washington, DC, we want to update you on the potential merging of our three ALA divisions into a single, new division dedicated to supporting members working in service areas across all types of libraries. When we began this discussion early last year, we had hoped to bring the proposed merger to a member vote during the spring 2019 election. However, that timeline proved too ambitious. We wanted to make sure the new division could provide far more robust service to members than the three divisions can provide separately. We also needed more time to work through key operational details and to sufficiently involve our members in the discussion. In recognition of this, the three Boards agreed at Midwinter to pause the project. Since then, the Steering Committee has had discussions about how best to…
Sharon Han has been selected as the winner of the 2019 Student Writing Award sponsored by Ex Libris Group and LITA for her paper titled “Weathering the Twitter Storm: Early Uses of Social Media as a Disaster Response Tool for Public Libraries During Hurricane Sandy.” Han is a Master of Science in Library and Information Science candidate at the University of Illinois School of Information Sciences. “Sharon Han’s paper is an excellent case study of the nascency of social media that also offers pragmatic guidance for libraries responding to community needs in times of crisis. Her substantial dataset, well-developed taxonomy, and the systematic coding and analysis resulted in interesting research findings as well as fertile grounds for further research on social media as an extension of library services,” said Lisa Janicke Hinchliffe, the Chair of this year’s selection committee. When notified she had won, Han remarked, “I am honored to receive…
The North Carolina State University Libraries has been selected to receive the 2019 LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication in Library and Information Technology. Sponsored by Emerald Publishing and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA), the Award recognizes outstanding individuals or institutions for their long-term contributions to the education of the Library and Information Science technology field. “The Award Committee selected NC State University because of its work through the Data Science and Visualization Institute for Librarians (DSVIL) to increase the pool of data science-savvy people working in libraries,“ said Chair Tod A. Olson. Since 2015, the annual week-long event has hosted 119 participants, and covered topics such as data exploration, statistical analysis, bibliometric analysis, data visualization, data description, sharing, and reuse, data cleaning and preparation, version control with git and github, analyzing textual data, and mapping and geospatial visualization. Olson went on to commend the team at…
Charles McClure has been selected as the recipient of the 2019 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, sponsored by OCLC and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). He is the Francis Eppes Professor of Information Studies in the School of Information at Florida State University and the Director of the Information Use Management and Policy Institute at FSU. Previously he was a Distinguished Professor at the iSchool at Syracuse University and Associate Professor at the University of Oklahoma. The Kilgour Award honors research relevant to the development of information technologies, especially work which 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 are manipulated and managed. It recognizes a body of work probably spanning years, if not the majority of a career. The winner…
We’re pleased to announce the slate of candidates for the 2019 spring election. President-Elect Topher Lawton Instructional Technology & Assessment Librarian Georgetown University Library Evviva Weinraub Associate University Librarian for Collections & Technologies Northwestern University Director-at-Large (2 elected for 3-year terms) Matt Beckstrom Systems Manager/Librarian Lewis & Clark Library Galen Charlton Infrastructure and Added Services Manager Equinox Open Library Initiative Hong Ma Head of Library Systems Loyola University Chicago Michael Rodriguez Licensing and Acquisitions Librarian University of Connecticut Candidates for LITA Councilor Aaron Dobbs Scholarly Communication Librarian Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Jodie Gambill Librarian for Digital Projects Vanderbilt University The 2019 election will run March 11-April 3, and results will be announced on April 10. We encourage all LITA members to help shape the future of the organization by voting in the election. The Board thanks the LITA Nominating Committee for all of their work: Abigail…
The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Board of Directors is aware that there were several reports on social media from attendees who encountered aggressive behavior, racism, and harassment at the 2019 ALA Midwinter Meeting, which violated our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and that there were multiple incident reports filed, including one formal complaint regarding the violation of the Code of Conduct as well. We thank those who were able to share their experiences and draw attention to the systemic issues that our society and profession face. As an association with an unwavering commitment to the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, LITA believes that clear action is necessary and seeks partnerships within ALA and beyond to address these issues of systematic oppression. It is our belief that safety, both physical and psychological, is a requirement for the full engagement of participants. LITA is committed to ensuring, through…
The LITA Board recently voted to make webinars older than one year available for free to all LITA members, so we’ve begun posting recordings in the LITA Members community in ALA Connect. Once you’re logged in using your ALA username and password, you can browse to the community’s library of files or just go directly to the folder for archived webinars. Each year we’ll add the previous year’s recordings. Going forward, we also plan to archive recordings from our popular Top Tech Trends programs at the ALA Midwinter Meeting and Annual Conference. The 2018 TTT sessions from Midwinter and Annual are already archived in the community. In addition, audio recordings are available from nine of the sessions held at the 2018 LITA Forum. Attendees also took publicly-available collaborative notes in Google Docs to provide additional context, and many presenters shared their slides and handouts. While some of these non-webinar recordings are…