Fellow LITA Members: By now you are aware of the violence that occurred overnight in Dallas, Texas. Five police officers were killed and nine officers and civilians were wounded when a gunman opened fire during a peaceful protest about the recent deaths of black men at the hands of police in other cities. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who have had loved ones killed or injured, as well as to the residents of Dallas who will be facing a great deal of uncertainty in the coming days. As you may know, LITA will hold its annual LITA Forum in Dallas’ sister city, Fort Worth, this November. LITA staff and leadership will monitor events in the Metroplex over the coming weeks and will stay in communication with our contacts at the Forum venue. We will pass along any LITA-related news or opportunities to support the community as they become…
Category: News & Noteworthy
Dr. June Abbas Wins 2016 LITA/OCLC Kilgour Research Award
Dr. June Abbas, Professor of Library and Information Studies at the University of Oklahoma, has been selected as the recipient of the 2016 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology sponsored by OCLC and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). The Kilgour Award is given for 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 is manipulated and managed. The winner receives $2,000, a citation, and travel expenses to attend the LITA Awards Ceremony & President’s Program at the ALA Annual Conference in Orlando (FL). Dr. Abbas has published more than 100 articles with the h-index of 13 since 2008, which demonstrates a significant impact on the field as seen from the more than…
Congratulate 2016 LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award Winner Tanya Johnson
Tanya Johnson has been selected as the winner of the 2016 Student Writing Award sponsored by Ex Libris Group and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) for her paper titled “Let’s Get Virtual: An Examination of Best Practices to Provide Public Access to Digital Versions of Three-Dimensional Objects.” Johnson is a MLIS candidate at the Rutgers School of Communication and Information. “Tanya Johnson’s paper on best practices for providing public access to digital versions of three-dimensional objects stood out to the selection committee due to her clear writing and practical, informative content. We are delighted to grant Tanya the 2016 LITA/ExLibris Award,” said Brianna Marshall, the Chair of this year’s selection committee. The LITA/Ex Libris Student Writing Award recognizes outstanding writing on a topic in the area of libraries and information technology by a student or students enrolled in an ALA-accredited library and information studies graduate program. The winning manuscript will be…
2016 LITA Election Results
Please join us in congratulating our newly elected LITA officers: Andromeda Yelton, Vice-President/President-Elect Topher Lawton, Board Member-at-Large Evviva Weinraub, Board Member-at-Large Aaron Dobbs, LITA Councilor View ALA election results on the ALA website.
Yes, You Can Video! Repeat!
Don’t miss this repeat of the highly popular how-to guide for creating high-impact instructional videos without tearing your hair out. Tuesday April 12, 2016 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm Central Time Register now for this webinar This LITA Webinar promises a fun time learning how to create instructional videos. Have you ever wanted to create an engaging and educational instructional video, but felt like you didn’t have the time, ability, or technology? Are you perplexed by all the moving parts that go into creating an effective tutorial? In this session, Anne Burke and Andreas Orphanides will help to demystify the process, breaking it down into easy-to-follow steps, and provide a variety of technical approaches suited to a range of skill sets. They will cover choosing and scoping your topic, scripting and storyboarding, producing the video, and getting it online. They will also address common pitfalls at each stage. Join Anne…
Universal Design for Libraries and Librarians, an important LITA web course
Consider this important new LITA web course: Universal Design for Libraries and Librarians Instructors: Jessica Olin, Director of the Library, Robert H. Parker Library, Wesley College; and Holly Mabry, Digital Services Librarian, Gardner-Webb University Starting August 1, 2016 Registration is now open. A Moodle based web course with asynchronous weekly content lessons, tutorials, assignments, and groups discussion. Register Online, page arranged by session date (login required) Universal Design is the idea of designing products, places, and experiences to make them accessible to as broad a spectrum of people as possible, without requiring special modifications or adaptations. This course will present an overview of universal design as a historical movement, as a philosophy, and as an applicable set of tools. Students will learn about the diversity of experiences and capabilities that people have, including disabilities (e.g. physical, learning, cognitive, resulting from age and/or accident), cultural backgrounds, and other abilities. The class…
LITA and ALA 2016 elections now open
Help shape the future of LITA by voting and then staying in touch with your elected officials to make your voice heard. The 2016 election will be open March 15 – April 22, and results will be announced on April 29. For the 2016 election, eligible members will be sent their voting credentials via email between March 15-18, 2016. If you have not as yet received your voting email, you can initiate the process at this ALA Elections Page. Use the 2016 ALA Council Candidate Sorter to filter by division, round table, ethnic caucus, library type, geography, and participation in the Spectrum Scholars and Emerging Leaders programs. Candidates for LITA Vice-President/President-Elect David Lee King Andromeda Yelton Candidates for LITA Directors-at-large (two elected for three year terms) Breanne Kirsch Topher Lawton Holbrook Sample Evviva Weinraub Candidates for LITA Councilor Aaron Dobbs Debra Shapiro LITA Members Running for ALA President Christine Lind Hage…
LITA Updates, March 11, 2016
In this issue of LITA Updates Hello from Your New Executive Director, Jenny Levine 2016 Election runs March 15 – April 22 LITA at ALA Annual (Hear Dr. Safiya Noble Speak at our President’s Program) Meet LITA Emerging Leader Melissa Stoner Current Online Learning Opportunities New #LITAchats on Twitter SAVE THE DATE: This year’s LITA Forum will be November 17-20 in Fort Worth, Texas! More information coming soon. Hello from Your New Executive Director Just a quick wave to introduce myself as the still-feeling-very-new Executive Director of LITA. I started in August and while I’m still learning the ins and outs of our community, my favorite things are feedback and suggestions. If you have either of these, please don’t hesitate to contact me in whatever way works best for you. jlevine@ala.org; w: 312-280-4267; m/sms: 708-955-4967 Hangouts: shiftedlibrarian; Twitter: @shifted Read my How I Work post on LITA Blog she/her/hers Watch…
The Why and How of HTTPS for Libraries, a LITA webinar
Attend this LITA webinar for the latest ideas in library web site security and privacy: The Why and How of HTTPS for Libraries Monday March 14, 2016 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm Central Time Register Online, page arranged by session date (login required) As more of our library browsing occurs over the Internet, the only way to continue to preserve patron privacy is to make sure that the library catalog and database traffic that travels between a web browser and a server remains encrypted. This one hour webinar will discuss how encrypted websites work, and demonstrate exciting tools from the Electronic Frontier Foundation that make it easy to encrypt library websites by default. Additional preliminary course materials: blog posting slides 1-page handout Takeaways Understand what HTTPS accomplishes Learn the common obstacles to HTTPS deployment Be able to make a strong case for HTTPS at your own library Presenter: Jacob Hoffman-Andrews,…
Vote for Us! DH Awards 2015
We’re honored that the LITA blog has been nominated by the Digital Humanities Awards in the category “Best DH Blog Post or Series of Posts“. Though the DH Awards don’t point to any specific posts as the basis for their nomination, we’re guessing it’s because of posts like Grace Thomas’ post on using Omeka in digital library services, Bryan Brown’s post musing on what librarianship means, Lindsay Cronk’s exploration of text mining tools, or Nimisha Bhat’s post on scholarly engagement and Twitter. And that’s hardly scratching the surface of the awesome content we strive to produce for LITA blog readers! We would love to have your vote! But hurry, since voting closes on Saturday, February 26. Vote for LITA blog on the DH Awards form. Thanks, as always, for reading the LITA blog! As a reminder, if you’re looking for a place to share writing on a library technology topic…