Technology expert to discuss next generation catalog connections

Contact: JoAnne Kempf
Office of ALA Governance
(312) 280-3212
jkempf@ala.org

NEWS
For Immediate Release
February 24, 2009

The next installment in the series of ALA President Jim Rettig’s ALA Connections Salons will be an online discussion with Marshall Breeding, director for innovative technologies and research for the Vanderbilt University Libraries. He is also the executive director of the Vanderbilt Television News Archive and the founder of Library Technology Guides ( www.librarytechnology.org). Breeding will discuss next generation library catalogs. The discussion will take place from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Thursday, March 5.

Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL) Coordinator Tom Peters will begin the hour with an interview with Breeding. Following the interview, participants will be free to ask questions and engage with Breeding and with one another to discuss other ways ALA can make connections.

The salon will take place in OPAL, a user-friendly site offering online rooms where participants can interact via voice-over-IP, text chatting, synchronized browsing and other functions. The link for the salon is http://tinyurl.com/6ncakq, and a tip sheet for users is available at http://www.opal-online.org/firsttimetips.htm.Â

Like its 17th and 18th Century European counterparts, the ALA Connections Salon offers a place for ALA members to gather and discuss professional topics of interest. Future salons will take place each month throughout Rettig’s presidency on from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. EST Fridays as follows:

April 17Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Advocacy Connections
May 15Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Education and Recruitment Connections
June 19Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Future Connections

For more information about ALA President Jim Rettig’s initiatives, please visit http://jimrettig.org/content/initiatives/initiatives.htm .