2007

ALCTS Pre-conference: Definitely Digital – Part 1

Definitely Digital: An Exploration of the Future of Knowledge on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Friday, January 19, 2007 — Grand Hyatt Seattle, Eliza Anderson Amphitheater This preconference is the first event of the 50th anniversary of ALCTS. Information will be made available via the ALCTS website after the conference. It is co-sponsored by Amazon.com. There were four speakers plus a panel discussion. My notes below give the major points from the four speakers, but I have not reported on the panel discussion, which covered the questions discussed in the pre-conference blog: Digiblog, the ALCTS Blog. First Speaker James Hilton, “Scholarship in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges” VP & CIO, U of Virginia He began by listing and explaining some assumptions about scholarly publishing. Publishing is a basic need of scholarship because it is how collaboration takes place. The…

2007

Top Tech Trends Part 4 – Karen Schneider

In part four, we hear from Karen Schneider about her thoughts on the near-future of library technology. If you’re enjoying these podcasts, leave us a comment and let us know…we’d love to hear this is a valuable thing for our members. Plus, it will help us justify expanding our podcasting reach for Annual this summer. Thanks again to Maurice York, whose work allowed us to provide these to the LITA members.

2007

Digital Libraries Interest Group

Sunday, January 21 1:30pm to 2:30pm. Some topics presented for future discussion: How is Web 2.0 being used? GIS Systems: metadata requirements Institutional Repositories: capturing data output from faculty Raw Data Storage: practices and procedures, storage of statistical data and field research National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIP) Digitization practices for cultural and heritage collections Partnering and sharing of resources for digitization projects Discussion Topic: Education and Preparation of Digital Librarians. Question: What is being taught in current library and information school programs? Several students who are currently enrolled in a program responded to this question. Some reported they are taking metadata classes that cover topics such as crosswalks and standards. Other courses being taught include web design, archiving, and preservation. Those involved in a practicum or internship are working on projects that include activities such as document scanning, working with cataloging, and creating metadata. Question: What are…

2007

Town Meeting, always interesting

Liki Originally uploaded by Wandering Eyre. The LITA Town Meeting yesterday was action packed even at 8am. I know there were a couple of other people taking actual notes. These are just my thoughts. The activity that Mark Beatty had the packed room complete involved writing things we liked about LITA or things that LITA could do on pieces of paper. Groups then took their “tags” and made tag clouds out of them. It was fun, loud, and very productive. I was again reminded why I love LITA. People like being here. We like each other and the “people” aspect of LITA got more tags then anything else. Education, training, and technology were close follow-ups. Some very hopeful member also requested a new Mac, but I am not sure that is in budget. The picture here is one of the tags for the “Liki” as it has come to be…

2007

LITA IRC meeting

About a dozen people attended the meeting on Monday morning from 10:30 to 12:30. International Visitor Grant The first topic of discussion focussed on the very generous donor who funded the attendance of a librarian from Trinidad and Tobago at the LITA Forum in October – he was so impressed by the moving thank you he received from the winner (“a memory I will always treasure ..”) that he is funding two more awards. The announcement for this year’s award had been written, and accepted by the committee. Details of procedures will be ironed out by Claudia with the LITA liaison, Karen Starr. There was general excitement about the possibility of more awards, particularly for international librarians from areas other than the Caribbean. Ideas for encouraging more donors were solicited, and some will be pursued. Members of the committee were surprised by the fact that LITA charged a $500 overhead…

2007

Top Tech Trends

With enormous thanks to Maurice York, the first of many LITA Podcasts! There are seven segments in all for about an hour and forty-five minutes of trending goodness. For the sake of immediacy, this is pretty much the raw audio–not much editing or finessing. A more refined audio experience will be posted as we go. If you enjoy these, be on the lookout for more podcasts from the 2007 ALA Midwinter meeting from LITA. We’ll be podcasting more than just the Top Tech Trends in the upcoming days, including some video from the LITA officers, and reactions to the LITA Town Meeting. If you’ve never subscribed to a podcast before and would like some tips on how to subscribe or applications to use, post a comment to this post and I’ll go more into depth….just trying to get this up quickly for now!

2007

LITA Town Meeting

Today, I attended my first LITA Town Meeting. It was great, and I hope to attend many more. I liked that it was a good blend of meeting other LITA members, learning about our users, and brainstorming about the future. The Town Meeting started with a breakfast and introduction to the LITA leadership. We were shown the LITA Wiki, the LITA committee volunteer form, and were told that there is still time to apply to be on a committee. Appointments will be made over the next three months. Then, even though it was a large meeting, everyone introduced themselves and revealed how long they had been LITA members. Reception was warm for new members, and the crowd was impressed with folks who had longer memberships. Then, Mark Beatty, vice-president/president-elect, gave a presentation on his presidential theme. He gave an overview of the OCLC Perceptions report, the Pew report on Social…