Category: ALA Annual Conferences

[Updates underscored] Council 3 wrapped up at 12:15 on June 29, very timely and very congenial. Over our three Council meetings we had several items on the agenda that are very LITA-relevant. I will try to provide links to documents if/when they go online. Special thanks to our charming parliamentarian, Eli Mina, who in his Peter Lorre voice gently keeps us in line, and to ALA ED Keith Fiels for providing a rock-solid wi-fi connection that made many Councilors very happy. The days when 200 librarians could vanish for a week without any connectivity are long behind all of us. Note: we had over 27,000 registrants for this conference–an all-time record, 1,000 registrants higher than the runner-up (San Francisco, the last time we were there) and 7,000 more than Orlando. Council items LITA-worthy: Resolution in support of community broadband, out of Committee on Legislation, with strong encouragement from OITP. Pat…

Handouts and a photo too!

Most of you (except Poor Pitiful LITA Councilor) are back at work and dealing with the onslaught of post-conference catch-up. But know that your conference posts have been appreciated, read, and enjoyed! At yesterday’s meeting, LITA Board members had many fine things to say about all your efforts. Reporters from Library Journal and American Libraries, our version of the MSM (Mainstream Media), have been following your posts, as well. I plan to complement Will’s “Federated Search” program write-up with a post once I get home, since, after arriving late, I caught the last speaker, which he missed, and I also snagged all the handouts. Will did such a great job on that post that I hesitate to even touch the topic, but I’ll try. I also have notes from the Google Scholar/Print talk, though I may just comment on Leo’s fine writeup. If you have notes from things you attended,…

ALCTS PARS Reformatting Committee Sunday, June 26, 2005 8:00-10:00 a.m. Analog and Digital Preservation Technology Apologies for the lateness and the brevity of this post. I was both late for this session and had to leave early—the very worst kind of guest. However, I determined that I still really wanted to blog it. I went for the brief time allotted in part because I’ve been to good PARS sessions in the past. Even more, I went because this was the only session at ALA that came up in the event planner on a keyword search for microfilm. My day job is as a newspapers and microform librarian. This was held in one of the smaller conference rooms on the first floor of McCormick. Fairly well attended, i.e., someone in almost every third seat. When I arrived, the first speaker, whose name I did not get, was discussing video preservation strategies….

(Btw: we have over 80 posts on this blog. Woohoo!) I’m sitting here in ALA Council listening to discussion about the recommendations from the Task Force on Library School Closings. Earlier today I negotiated discussions about two draft resolutions, one on biometrics and one on RFID, and offered to bring the matter to LITA. When someone from IFC asked me why LITA needed to weigh in–after all, OITP had reviewed the resolutions, wasn’t that enough–I said that LITA’s strategic plan notes that emerging technologies is one of its central concerns. I did not add that it’s really good for LITA members to be continually challenged to think about intellectual freedom issues related to technology–and it’s really good for other divisions to be reminded that all library and information science professionals, including LITA’s members, have a place at the table on cross-cutting intellectual freedom issues, particularly issues that are so clearly…

ALCTS Newspaper Users Discussion Group Sat., 06/25/2005 2:00-4:00 p.m. Palmer House Private Dining Room 5 Smallish room, approx. 25 attendees tops. I recognize most from previous NUDG sessions at midwinter and annual. OCLC Terminologies Project and the Newspaper Genre List. Eric Childress and Diane Vizine-Goetz, both from OCLC The mapping of fields from the U.S. Newspaper Project (circa 1970-1990) to MARC fields should be useful for those projects still working with the old data. Attendees described OCLC’s efforts to convert USNP LDRs to MARC 21 MFHD later this summer. Mark Sweeney, not present, has been involved in efforts. Microfilm and Digital Newspaper Projects in Pennsylvania Sue Kellerman, Penn State University Libraries Overview of progress on the PA Newspaper Project, which went on hiatus for 15 years due to lack of funding. Old data, rechecking, cooperation among repositories, filming, next steps. Plus very successful project to digitize Penn State student newspaper….

“We will all be out of our comfort zone for a while.” Googling the Better Mousetrap: Cyber Resources on the Front Line of Reference RUSA 2005 President’s Program Monday, 06/27/2005 Sheraton Chicago Ballroom VI/VII [Mere minutes late! Getting better at timing leaving the McCormick wifi teat and busing to a hotel. In my next life, I’m staying at the Sheraton. It’s right on the river, and I found the ballroom easily! Large ballroom, not quite full but crowded.] Most complicated evaluation form ever seen. Eek—forgot to fill out! Will mail… Panelists: John Dove, President, Xrefer Chris Nasso, Gale Group Bill Pardue, Arlington Heights Memorial Library Marilyn Parr, Library of Congress J. L. Needham, Google Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia/Wikimedia Abstract: How do information/reference sources live and grow on the web? A panel of librarians, publishers, and search engine designers will discuss: Design issues for online information resources: past, present, and future Patterns…

Sunday, June 26th, 10:30am – 12:00pm
Session descr. from the LITA site: Greenstone digital library software is a comprehensive, multilingual open-source system for constructing, presenting, and maintaining digital collections. Greenstone developer Ian H. Witten will introduce Greenstone and demonstrate installation and collection building. Washington Research Library Consortium and University of Chicago Library representatives will discuss Greenstone implementations at their organizations, including software requirements and selection, collection and interface customization and use of METS-encoded metadata. Laura Sheble will present results from the 2004 Greenstone User Survey.

Boy, that was a packed program! I thought yesterday’s “Top Technology Trends” was packed. Today there were even more people. (see photos…) Participants What everyone came to see was the panel discussion featuring Google’s Adam Smith along with representatives from the five libraries that have agreed to let Google digitize their books. In order of seating, that was John Price-Wilkin (Michigan), Catherine Tierney (Stanford), Ronald Milne (Oxford), Dale Flecker (Harvard), and John Balow (NYPL). Maurice York (Emory) on the far left was moderator. Google Print Although the program was subtitled “What’s in Store for Google Print and Google Scholar”, most of the attention was paid to Google Print — quite rightly because it involves libraries handing over to Google the very things that make them unique, namely, their collections. It soon became clear however that some of the libraries appear to be engaged in “Pilot Projects”. Harvard for example, is…

We should be doing a lot more with usage stats than we are.