LITA invites applications for the member volunteer position of Acquisitions Editor. The Acquisitions Editor is charged with developing topics for LITA Guides and Monographs, soliciting suggested publications from LITA members and others, interacting with authors to produce the publications in manuscript format, and coordinating the editorial review of manuscripts by members of the LITA Publications Committee. 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. The applications review begins August 15, 2007. The complete job description can be found on the LITA website.
Author: mfrisque
ALA Web Planning Retreat
During the fall, ALA hired UserWorks to perform a usability assessment of the ALA Website. The assessment included a Web survey as well as personal and group interviews. A Web Planning Retreat has been scheduled for December 18th at ALA Headquarters in Chicago. The goal of the retreat according to Keith Michael Fiels, ALA Executive Director are to “answer the question, “What would we do if we were starting with a clean slate?” and to develop a vision statement and an outline of a plan for the ideal website to serve our diverse needs.†A blog and a wiki have been created so anyone who is interested can follow the process. The planning session will be blogged so if you have a chance check it out the blog on December 18th and comment on the posts. The participants as of December 1 are: Michelle Boule Cathleen Bourdon Lynne Bradley Linda…
Participate in the Usability Survey of the ALA Website and ALA Web Updates
If you have visited the ALA website recently you may want to participate in the usability assessment of the ALA website. According to announcement I received, “the survey is designed to take a thorough look at the site, its problems, and its strengths, in order to guide improvements, development, and a redesign.†The survey will run through the end of September. On a somewhat related note if you want to keep up on what ALA ITTS (Information Technology and Telecommunication Services) is working on take a look at their blog, the ALA ITTS Update.
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…
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…