Category: General information

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…

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…

Are you a subject librarian interested in building digital scholarships? Join us for the upcoming webinar “Digital Inception: Building a digital scholarship/humanities curriculum as a subject librarian,” on Wednesday, April 22, from 1:00 – 2:30 pm CST.  Digital scholarship is gaining momentum in academia. What started as a humanities movement is now present in most disciplines. Introducing digital scholarship to students can benefit them in multiple ways: it helps them interact with new trends in scholarship, appeals to different kinds of learners, helps them develop new and emerging literacies, and gives them the opportunity to be creative. This 90-minute 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, etc. Finally, the presentation will…

The LITA/Library Hi Tech Awards Committee is pleased to select Alison Macrina as the 2020 recipient of the LITA/Library Hi-Tech Award. Macrina led the Tor Relay Initiative in New Hampshire, is the founder and executive director of the Library Freedom Project, and has written and taught extensively in the areas of digital privacy, surveillance, and user anonymity in the context of libraries and librarianship. In this role, Macrina was instrumental in creating the Library Freedom Institute, which trained its first cohort in 2018 and will train its third cohort in 2020. Macrina has also spoken on digital privacy and the work of the Library Freedom Project across the United States and published Anonymity, the first book in ALA’s Library Futures Series, in 2019. The committee was fortunate to receive several outstanding nominations for the 2020 award. Macrina stood out in this strong pool of candidates for the broad reach and impact…

LITA is looking for dynamic speakers with knowledge about the top trends in technology and how they intersect with information security and privacy. Library technology is quickly evolving with trends such as VR, cloud computing and AI. As library technology continues to impact our profession and those that we serve, security and privacy are quickly becoming top concerns. We hope this panel will provide insight and information about these technology trends for you to discuss within your own organization. If you or someone you know would be a great fit for this exciting panel, please submit your nomination today.   Submit your nominations – the deadline is April 17, 2020. The session is planned for Sunday, June 28, 2020, 2:30 – 3:30 pm, at the 2020 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, IL. A moderator and several panelists will each discuss trends impacting libraries, ideas for use cases, and practical approaches for…

LITA and OCLC are funding Hebah Emara’s participation in the ALA Spectrum Scholars program as part of their commitment to help diversify the library technology field. Emara is a second year distance student at the University of Missouri – Columbia School of Information Science and Learning Technologies MLIS program. She is interested in the ways libraries and technology intersect. Her background in IT and love of learning about technology, computers, and programming drew her to working in library technology. Libraries’ ability to bridge the digital divide and their use of technology to provide opportunities to their communities and solve problems are also of particular interest to Emara. Her decision to apply to the Spectrum Scholarship was fueled by a desire to learn from a community of peers and mentors.  Emara is currently the co-chair of a Tech UnConference to be held in April 2020 and organized by MentorNJ in collaboration with the…

2020 Forum Call for Proposals Submission Deadline: March 30, 2020 November 19-21, 2020 Baltimore, Maryland Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel Do you have an idea or project that you would like to share? Does your library have a creative or inventive solution to a common problem? Submit a proposal for the 2020 LITA/ALCTS/LLAMA Forum! Submission deadline is March 30th. Our library community is rich in ideas and shared experiences. The 2020 Forum Theme embodies our purpose to share knowledge and gain new insights by exploring ideas through an interactive, hands-on experience. We hope that this Forum can be an inspiration to share, finish, and be a catalyst to implement ideas… together. We invite those who choose to lead through their ideas to submit proposals for sessions or preconference workshops, as well as nominate keynote speakers. This is an opportunity to share your ideas or unfinished work, inciting collaboration and advancing the library profession…

The March 1 early-bird registration deadline for the Exchange is approaching. Register today and save! There’s still time to register for the Exchange at a discount, with early-bird registration rates at $199 for ALCTS, LITA, and LLAMA members; $255 for ALA individual members; $289 for non-members; $79 for student/retired members; $475 for groups; and $795 for institutions. Early-bird registration ends March 1. Taking place May 4, 6, and 8, the Exchange will engage a wide range of presenters and participants, facilitating enriching conversations and learning opportunities in a three-day, fully online, virtual forum. Programming includes keynote presentations from Emily Drabinski and Rebekkah Smith Aldrich, and sessions focusing on leadership and change management, continuity and sustainability, and collaborations and cooperative endeavors. In addition to these sessions, the Exchange will offer lightning rounds and virtual poster sessions. For up-to-date details on sessions, be sure to check the Exchange website as new information…

The deadline to submit LITA education proposals has been extended to March 15th. We’re seeking instructors passionate about library technology topics to share their expertise and teach a webinar, webinar series, or online course for LITA this year. Instructors receive a $500 honorarium for an online course or $150 for a webinar, split among instructors. Check out our list of current and past course offerings to see what topics have been covered recently. Be part of another slate of compelling and useful online education programs this year! Submit your LITA education proposal today! For questions or comments related to teaching for LITA, contact us at lita@ala.org or (312) 280-4268.