LITA Jobs

LITA Job Board Analysis Report – Laura Costello (Chair, Assessment & Research) LITA Assessment & Research and Diversity & Inclusion Committees

| Chrishelle Thomas

Background & Data This report comes from a joint analysis conducted by LITA’s Assessment & Research and Diversity & Inclusion committees in Fall 2019. The analysis focused on the new and emerging trends in skills in library technology jobs and the types of positions that are currently in demand. It also touches on trends in diversity and inclusion in job postings and best practices for writing job ads that attract a diverse and talented candidate pool.  The committees were provided with a list of 678 job postings from the LITA job board between 2015-2019. Data included the employer information, the position title, the location (city/state) the posting date. Some postings also included a short description. The Assessment & Research Committee augmented the dataset with job description, responsibilities, qualifications, and salary information for a 25% sample of the postings from each year using archival job posting information. Committee members also assigned…

Continue Reading
Awards and Scholarships

Congratulations to Dr. Jian Qin, winner of the 2020 LITA/OCLC Kilgour Research Award

| Chrishelle Thomas

Dr. Jian Qin has been selected as the recipient of the 2020 Frederick G. Kilgour Award for Research in Library and Information Technology, sponsored by OCLC and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). She is the Professor and Director at the iSchool, Syracuse University.  The Kilgour Award honors 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 are manipulated and managed. It recognizes a body of work probably spanning years, if not the majority of a career. The winner receives $2,000, and a citation. Dr. Qin’s recent research projects include metadata modeling for gravitational wave research data management and big metadata analytics using GenBank metadata records for DNA sequences, both with funding from NSF. She also collaborated with a colleague to develop a Capability Maturity Model…

Continue Reading
Library experiences

LITA/ALA Survey of Library Response to COVID-19

| Chrishelle Thomas

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) and its ALA partners are seeking a new round of feedback about the work of libraries as they respond to the COVID-19 crisis, releasing a survey and requesting feedback by 11:59 p.m. CDT, Monday, May 18, 2020. Please complete the survey by clicking on the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/libraries-respond-to-covid-19-may-2020.  LITA and its ALA partners know that libraries across the United States are taking unprecedented steps to answer the needs of their communities, and this survey will help build a better understanding of those efforts. LITA and its ALA partners will use the results to advocate on behalf of libraries at the national level, communicate aggregated results with the public and media, create content and professional development opportunities to address library staff needs, and share some raw, anonymized data elements with state-level staff and library support organizations for their own advocacy needs.  Additional information about…

Continue Reading
LITA Forums

#CoreForum2020 is now a Virtual Event!

| Chrishelle Thomas

Join your ALA colleagues from across divisions for the 2020 Forum, which is now a virtual event!  WHERE: In light of the COVID-19 public health crisis, leadership within LITA, ALCTS, and LLAMA made the decision to move the conference online to create a safe, interactive environment accessible for all. WHAT: Call for proposals have been extended to Friday June 12, 2020.  WHEN: Forum is scheduled November 18 and 20, 2020 HOW: Share your ideas and experiences with library projects by submitting a talk for the inaugural event for Core:  https://forum.lita.org/call-for-proposals For more information about the LITA, ALCTS, LLAMA (Core) Forum, please visit https://forum.lita.org 

Continue Reading
Education

WFH? Boost your skill set with LITA CE!

| Chrishelle Thomas

Reserve your spot and learn new skills to enhance your career with LITA online continuing education offerings. Buying Strategies 101 for Information TechnologyWednesday, May 27, 2020, 1:00-2:30 pm Central TimePresenter: Michael Rodriguez, Collections Strategist at the University of Connecticut In this 90-minute webinar, you’ll learn best practices, terminology, and concepts for effectively negotiating contracts for the purchase of information technology (IT) products and services. View details and Register here. Using Images from the Internet in a Webpage: How to Find and CiteWednesday, June 3, 2020, 2:00-3:30 pm Central TimePresenter: Lauren Bryant, Priority Associate Librarian of Ray W. Howard Library In this 90-minute webinar, you’ll learn practical ways to quickly find and filter creative commons licensed images online, learn how to hyperlink a citation for a website, and how to use creative commons images for thumbnails in videos and how to cite the image in unconventional situations like this. View details and Register here. Troublesome Technology Trends: Bridging the Learning DivideWednesday, June 17, 2020, 1:00-2:30 pm…

Continue Reading
General information

May 5/1 Twitter #LITAchat

| Chrishelle Thomas

Last week, Anne Pepitone kicked off the discussion with Zoom Virtual Backgrounds, shared her favorites, and provided tips on how to use them. The next Twitter #LITAchat will be on Friday, May 1, from 12-1pm Central Time when we’ll talk about apps that help you work from home. What do you use to help with project management, time management, deadlines, or to just stay focused? We invite you to join us tomorrow to share, learn, and chat about it with your colleagues. Follow LITA on Twitter. We’re looking forward to hearing from you! -The LITA Membership Development Committee

Continue Reading
Education

Data Privacy While Working From Home

| Jessica D. Gilbert Redman

Today’s guest post is brought to you by our recent presenter, Becky Yoose. Special thanks to Becky for being willing to answer the questions we didn’t have time for during our webinar! Hello everyone from your friendly neighborhood library data privacy consultant! We covered a lot of material earlier this month in “A Crash Course in Protecting Library Data While Working From Home,” co-sponsored by LITA and OIF. We had a number of questions during the webinar, some of which were left unanswered at the end. Below are three questions in particular that we didn’t get to in the webinar. Enjoy! Working from home without a web-based ILS We don’t have a web-based version of our ILS and our County-based IT department says they can’t set up remote desktop (something to do with their firewall)… do you have any recommendations on how to advocate for remote desktop? If I have…

Continue Reading
Library experiences

Strategies for Surviving a Staffing Crisis

| Janet Crum

Library staff are no strangers to budget and staffing reductions. Most of us have way too much experience doing more with less, covering unfilled positions, and rigging solutions out of the digital equivalent of chewing gum and bailing wire, because we can’t afford to buy all the tools we need. In the last two years, my department at Northern Arizona University’s Cline Library operated with roughly half the usual amount of staff. In this post, I’ll share a few strategies that helped us get through this challenging time. First, a quick introduction. My department, Content, Discovery & Delivery services, includes the digital services unit (formerly library technology services) as well as collection management (including electronic resources management), acquisitions, cataloging, physical processing, interlibrary loan and document delivery, and course reserves. We are a technology-intensive department, both as users and implementers/supporters of technology. Here are some of the strategies we used to…

Continue Reading