LITA Highlights at ALA Annual Conference 2012

ALA Anaheim 2012 Annual Conference logo

 

 

 

 

 

 

LITA Programs and Meetings

Complete LITA Schedule (locations available in May)

Preconferences held Friday, June 22, 8:30am - 4:00pm (registration required)

Web Content Strategy for Libraries

Speakers: Nina McHale, Arapahoe Library District, CO; Chris Evjy, Jefferson County Public Library, CO

Sponsored by the LITA Dupal4Lib Interest Group

Your library’s new website is powered by a high-octane content management system (Drupal, WordPress, etc.) that gives you more power than ever to communicate with your patrons. But what are you saying? How are you saying it? What kind of service are you providing online? How can you ensure that it’s just as good as in your buildings? Content strategy to the rescue! Topics will include strategy development, training & adoption, production control and governance.

Creating Library Linked Data: What Catalogers and Coders Can Build

Facilitator: Debra Shapiro, University of WI-Madison School of Library & Information Studies

Sponsored by the LITA/ALCTS Linked Library Data Interest Group. (Division Member Rate available to LITA & ALCTS members)

This preconference is positioned to take advantage of the growing interest in the library community to work to transform the wealth of quality, library-created metadata - billions of bibliographic records, finding aids, descriptions of digital content - into linked data. Some of the infrastructure necessary is already in place, such as the availability of the DDC as linked data, Library of Congress' efforts making the vocabularies it maintains available in Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), and the Open Metadata Registry, where RDA, Dublin Core, and other element sets are available in Semantic Web-consumable form. Production level tools to create linked data, as well as discovery systems to deploy linked data, are yet to be built.

The preconference will be an un-conference-style event. Eric Miller of Zepheira will deliver a short keynote to begin the day, followed by a series of lightning talks from librarians and technologists involved in a variety of linked data efforts. Afterward, we will break into work groups, to begin to design linked data systems, and discuss associated issues. The project work will be followed with reports from each group, so that everyone can share in the progress being made. Please join us in this important effort to begin the migration of library data into linked data, woven into the Semantic Web!

Confirmed lightning talk speakers and work group facilitators include:

Building Digital Collections Using Islandora

Speakers: Kirsta Stapelfeldt, University of Prince Edward Island; David Wilcox, University of Prince Edward Island

This session will introduce the key concepts underpinning the Islandora Digital Asset Management system.  Participants will learn the basics of running this rich repository system and how to utilize common "solution packs" to create and theme collections in Islandora. Participants will learn how to begin modeling and curating custom data collections, and how to migrate from other repository systems, including ContentDM, DSpace and more. Textbooks and system access will be provided; participants should bring computers.

Registration:

  • Register online for the ALA Conference and add a LITA Preconfernce in the "Your Preconferences and Optional Events" section.
  • It is possible to register and attend a preconference only. Using the online form; in section "Registration Type," select "SO Institutes and Ticketed Events Only" then select the workshop in the section "Your Preconferences and Optional Events." When you check out, you will pay only for the workshop.
  • You may also add a workshop to your existing confernce registration by calling ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 or accessing your registration online.
  • You may register online through June 14; onsite registration will also be accepted in Anaheim.

LITA 101: Open House

Friday,  June 22, 3:00 pm -4:00 pm

LITA Open House is a great opportunity for current and prospective members to talk with Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) leaders and learn how to make connections and become more involved in LITA activities.

Sunday Afternoon with LITA, June 24

Top Technology Trends & LITA Awards Presentation

1:30 pm - 3:30 pm

This program features our ongoing roundtable discussion about trends and advances in library technology by a panel of LITA technology experts. The panelists will describe changes and advances in  technology that they see having an impact on the library world, and suggest what libraries might do to  take advantage of these trends. Presentation of LITA Awards and Scholarships will take place prior to the Top Tech Trends program. This year's panelists include: Stephen Abram, Gale Cengage Learning; Lorcan Dempsey, OCLC; Meredith Farkas, Portland State University Library; Clifford Lynch, CNI; Nina McHale, Arapahoe Library District, Colorado


The Fourth Paradigm: Data-Intensive Research, Digital Scholarship and Implications for Libraries

LITA President's Program Hosted by Colleen Cuddy

4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Speakers: Tony Hey, Microsoft Research; Clifford Lynch, Coalition for Networked Information

Tony Hey will describe the emergence of a new, ‘fourth paradigm’ for scientific research – involving the acquisition, management and analysis of vast quantities of scientific data. This ‘data deluge’ is already affecting many fields of science most notably fields like biology, astronomy, particle physics, environmental science and oceanography. The term eScience or eResearch is used to describe the development of the tools and technologies to support this more data-intensive, collaborative and often multidisciplinary research. This revolution will not be confined to the physical sciences but will also transform large parts of the humanities and social sciences as more and more of their primary research data is now being born digital.   This new paradigm of data-intensive scientific discovery will have profound implications for how researchers ‘publish’ their results and for scholarly communication in general.  Indeed, the skills needed for manipulating, visualizing, managing, and, finally, conserving and archiving scientific data are very different.  The details both of what will need to be preserved and how this will be accomplished to create an academically valid record of research for the future are only now beginning to emerge. What is clear, however, is that research libraries have the opportunity to play a leading role in this ongoing revolution in digital scholarship.  Institutional repositories for both text and data are certain to play an important role in this new world and specialists in semantics, curation and archiving will need to work with the different research communities to fulfill their needs.  This talk will illustrate the far-reaching changes that this new paradigm will have on scientific discovery and what it means to you in supporting this advancement of research.

Clifford Lynch will discuss the long-term implications of this profound shift. Including, the need to create societal-level provisions to archive the evidence to support future scholarship, particularly in the humanistic, cultural, and social science spheres. There are also some very specific challenges and opportunities in scientific arenas such as medicine and public health, where new balances between personal and public records will need to be negotiated. Libraries are going to need to take leadership both as operational stewards of much of the broad social record and as advocates in the development of new policies and new social consensus about what constitutes the collective intellectual and social record that will support ongoing scholarship.


LITA Happy Hour/LHT 30th Anniversary Reception

Hearthstone Lounge at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel

5:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Please join the LITA Membership Development Committee and members from around the country for networking, good cheer, and great fun! In honor of Library Hi Tech (Emerald Group Publishing) 30th anniversary, enjoy an ice cold drink and slice of LHT’s birthday cake with the editorial team; Emerald Group Publishing has been the sponsor of the LITA/Library Hi Tech Award for Outstanding Communication for Continuing Education in Library and Information Science since 1993. Expect lively conversation and excellent drinks; cash bar.