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Report of the Library and Information Technology Association to ALA Council
2004-2005

Colby Mariva Riggs , LITA President

May 23, 2005

The Library and Information Technology Association continues to educate, serve, and reach out to its members, other ALA members and divisions, and the entire library and information community. This three-part mission is supported by a wide variety of efforts and activities of the membership.

ALA has been involved in the preparation of the ALAhead 2010 Strategic Plan this past year. As a result of LITA’s involvement in these meetings, the LITA Board developed strategic initiatives to enhance our strategic planning. We are excited to present the strategic initiatives at the LITA President's Program.

The Year in Review

The 2004-2005 year was filled with exceptional educational opportunities. LITA offers these opportunities in the form of conference programs and discussions, preconferences and workshops, regional institutes, and the National Forum. The topics are timely, the quality is high, and attendance is expanding.

In the 2004-2005 year, eight Regional Institutes were offered on the following topics: XML and Libraries, Wireless Networks, and Institutional Repositories. These regional educational opportunities continue to be in demand and constitute an important component of LITA's educational offerings.

The 2004 National Forum, 10 Years of Connectivity: Libraries, the World Wide Web, and the Next Decade, was held in St. Louis, Missouri, October 7-10, 2004. This three-day educational event included preconferences, general sessions, and more than 30 concurrent sessions We offered three excellent preconferences: Developing a Culture of Assessment in Library Information Technology Services, What's In It For Me?, Evaluating and Reporting the Effectiveness of Electronic Information Services in a Multi-Library Environment, and Dancing Cheek to Cheek:  A Library's Tale of Content Management Systems and Collaborations with "Outside" IT. We presented three engaging keynote sessions: Globalization and Its Discontents: A Preview from 1904 by Dr. Robert Rydell, Professor of History, Montana State University, Stuff I've Seen: Personal Information Management and Use by Susan Dumais, Senior Researcher, Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group, Microsoft Research and Libraries and Library Systems in the New Information Landscape by Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information. There were over twenty-five programs in five concurrent sessions. Some of the topics discussed were new open source applications, library digitization projects including the use of tools such MarcXML, OAI-PMH harvesters, MyLibrary, and digital management systems. Other topics included voice-over-IP, geographical information systems, firewalls and ad-blockers, integrated library systems, streaming media and staff training. As a follow-up to the Forum we were able to host an audio-stream of Clifford Lynch’s presentation. This was in response to providing programming to members who are not able to attend the Forum.

LITA hosted a highly successful Town Meeting at the 2005 Midwinter Meeting. This interactive session is a vehicle for LITA to receive feedback from the membership in attendance. The LITA Board distributed a draft of the new strategic plan which included the strategic initiatives to the attendees. This was a wonderful opportunity for LITA to communicate in person the future directions of the Association. We received very valuable feedback on the draft plan which is reflected in the final version.

LITA is offering wonderful educational opportunities at the ALA 2005 Annual Conference. We will offer three preconferences: Implementing and Integrating Shibboleth, Introduction to Web Services and Developing a Culture of Assessment in Library Information Technology Services. We have over twenty programs with a diverse range of titles such as: Digital Imaging with JPEG 2000, Implementing a Federated Search Tool, Radio Frequency Identification Technology in Libraries, Strategies for Protecting Patron Information, Google and Libraries and Policies and Practices of Institutional Repositories. The LITA President's Program will be Digital Searching to Digital Reading: Helping Users in an Online World featuring Michael Lesk. Michael Lesk is best known for work in electronic libraries and since 2003 has been a Professor in the Library and Information Science Department of Rutgers University. He was recently elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, in recognition of his contributions to UNIX applications, information systems, and digital libraries. This Annual meeting will be marked by LITA’s first efforts in the area of providing streaming media from our web site. The LITA President’s program and the Top Technology Trends program will be available for viewing after the conference.

The LITA 2005 National Forum will occur in San Jose, California, September 29 - October 2, 2005, San Jose Marriott Hotel. The Forum theme is The Ubiquitous Web: Personalization, Portability, and On-line Collaboration. The agenda includes three preconferences: Greenstone Digital Library: Using the Librarian Interface, Implementing an Open Source Instant Message System for Online Communication and Collaboration and Application of JPEG 2000 in Archives and Libraries. We are excited about our four plenary sessions: Roy Tennant, Googlezon, Episode VI: Return of the Librarians, Danah Boyd, Blogging Outloud: Shifts in Public Voice, Michael Gorman, Bibliographic Control and the Web: An Oxymoron? and David Levy, Information and the Quality of Life: Environmentalism for the Information Age. We will provide over 30 concurrent sessions on a wide variety of timely topics.

In response to membership concerns, the LITA leadership continues to expand and improve communication from the organization to its members and among members. LITA was proud to release a new LITA logo which is featured on our recently redesigned web site based upon the results of our web user survey conducted by our Web Coordinating Committee. The LITA Office routinely provides updates on LITA activities which are posted to the LITA-L listserv. Meeting reports from Committees and Interest Groups have increased significantly and are posted directly to the LITA web site upon submission. The LITA Board will receive a report from our Web Policy Task Force at the Annual Conference which should provide guidance for an even stronger web presence.

In the area of LITA publications we are pleased to announce our new Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) editor, John Webb, and our new Acquisitions Editor, Kathlene Hanson. The new publication for 2004-2005 is E-Scholarship: A LITA Guide by Debra Shapiro. Our Publications remain a high priority for LITA as they represent part of the organization's commitment to educating and reaching out. John and Kathlene have started their new assignments with strong performances. LITA is proud to announce that Technology Electronic Review (TER) celebrated its ten year anniversary of this electronic serial publication, which is posted to LITA-L and is available on the LITA web site.

LITA's financial situation is changing. We introduced a slight increase in our dues this past year. It had been ten years since the last increase in dues, and, as we all recognized, costs have risen throughout this decade. LITA had reached a point where existing services and products would begin to suffer without additional support. The LITA Board is committed to bringing our members new products and services through a portion of this increase. We have appreciated the members who have renewed their LITA membership. We believe that this increase is essential to continue our organizational financial health. In view of this change in financial situation, LITA still continues to seek regular sources of additional revenue in order to meet its mission and the desires of its membership. LITA remains especially grateful for the active support of the many vendor sponsors and others. This financial backing for awards and scholarships, the Forum, and various receptions, meals and services ensures that LITA can focus on its mission of educating, serving, and reaching out.

Next year marks LITA’s fortieth anniversary. 2006 will be a year for LITA to celebrate our history, future, and our many accomplishments. We have a great task force spearheading our Fortieth Anniversary celebration activities.

LITA Board of Directors

Colby Riggs, President
Patrick Mulllin, Vice President/President-Elect
Thomas Wilson, Past President
Karen Schneider, Councilor
Kristin A. Antelman, Director at Large
Mark Beatty, Director at Large
David Dorman, Director at Large
Jennie McKee, Director at Large
Andrew Pace, Director at Large
Bonnie Postlethwaite, Director at Large
Flo Wilson, Director at Large
Colleen Cuddy, Parliamentarian (Ex Officio)
Mary Taylor, Executive Director (Ex Officio)

LITA Staff

Mary Taylor, Executive Director
Rob Carlson, Deputy Executive Director
Valerie Edmonds, Program Coordinator