ALA Masters series features Catherine Murray-Rust and Kelvin Watson at the 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting

For Immediate Release
Mon, 12/12/2016

Contact:

Amy McGuigan

Conference Manager

ALA Conference Services

amcguigan@ala.org

Innovative library leaders Catherine Murray-Rust (Georgia Institute of Technology) and Kelvin Watson (Queens Library) discuss transformative projects they have been involved with, in the Midwinter Meeting noontime ALA Masters series on Saturday, January 21st and Sunday, January 22nd, 12:30-1:30pm, in room B313 of the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. Attendees are encouraged to bring their lunch and join these informal sessions.

On Saturday, Catherine Murray-Rust, Dean of Libraries and Vice Provost for Academic Effectiveness at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will talk about about reimagining the research library for the 21st century, including (in their case) creating a shared collection with Emory University, renewing two library buildings, and adopting such techniques as portfolio management and supply chain thinking to reshape every job, process, program, and service. The Library Next project is focused on renewal and the evolution of physical spaces and library services to meet the institution’s changing research, teaching, and learning needs. The goals of the project are “to show what a library really can be, and what research librarians and archivists really can do, like no other research library in America has yet done.  . . . Georgia Tech’s own strategic plan includes enriching the student experience, developing an innovative environment, sustaining excellence in research and scholarship, and providing a cutting-edge infrastructure to support the faculty’s vision.  . . . The new, re-imagined Georgia Tech Library building will be a space to provide many new physical, informational, and technological resources to do just that.” 

And on Sunday, January 22nd, attendees can join Kelvin Watson, Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice-President for the Queens Library to discuss wide-ranging innovations that are transforming the Queens Library, and learn about their efforts to radically transform and improve the way library patrons discover and access eResources through a Virtual Library System. This system will provide a best-of-breed solution for all their users, keeping the library’s doors open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and shifting the balance of power from providers to libraries and the customers they serve. Attendees will learn about how the Virtual Library System allows users seamless access to digital materials, all within Queens Library’s own web and mobile interfaces, extending beyond the confines of any physical location and into people’s homes with the tools and devices that allow deeper interaction with the library’s offerings.

2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting & Exhibits: The conversation starts here . . .

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