2009

Public Libraries Technology Interest Group Midwinter 2009

Meeting had a nice surprise of some new faces… with 15 people in attendance. Yea! What can you see as usefulness of a group like PLTIG? We had a lively discussion on some ideas: Competencies in technology in small & rural libraries … survey being done by Emerging Leaders. Roving Service model and the types of technologies that would support that development. This could be a place where the technical and non-technical could connect. Table talks where you could learn from an expert … Want to listen to what other libraries are doing. Look into webinars for sharing the information/content Training structures for libraries (drop-in training and mobile technology … e.g. I-touch) ACRL pre-conference on how to set up Facebook Apps; search plug-ins; widget box; Google gadgets; libex toolbar; Sometimes it’s the little libraries and how they are “making do” with smaller budgets & smaller population density… so how does…

2008

LITA Public Libraries Technology Interest Group Meeting

The PLTIG business meeting focused on further developing our program idea for Annual 2009. The program looks at how various libraries and consortia have used technology to bring their summer reading programs “online”–from patron front-ends to backends for creating statistical and tracking reports. (How many repeat customers did your summer reading program have this year?) Discussion focused on speaker selection, developing guidelines for speakers, preparing a resource list for attendees, and publicity options. The group also discussed plans for Midwinter. Instead of hosting a managed discussion as we have done in the past, we decided simply to hold a business meeting. We’ll work further on the 2009 program at Midwinter as well as begin the process of planning for Annual 2010. As part of the Midwinter discussion, we also touched on the perennial topic of “what’s the purpose of this IG?” We concluded that our purpose was to provide programming…

2007

Public Libraries Technology Interest Group

Sunday: 8 – 10 a.m. Our first event/meeting was a big success with almost 30 participants. Thanks to everyone who attended. Paul Keith and Irmgarde Brown (co-chairs) welcomed everyone, gave a brief introduction to our new interest group and encouraged public librarians to join LITA. Our Discussion Topic Our guest speaker was Brian Auger from Howard County Public Library in Maryland. Brian shared a few facts about his system: 3rd wealthiest county in the country, second smallest population at 260,000 people, and yet they circulate over 2M items a year out of only 6 branches. Howard County started re-thinking their commitment to “traditional” computer software as Web-based technologies began emerging. It appeared to them that such a basic system should be cheaper and easier to secure. With the support of only 2 I.T. staff back then, the library began a slow evolution into Linux (first by implementing the Linux Firewalls…