LITA preconferences at ALA Annual Conference

CHICAGO - The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) is offering three full-day preconferences, to be held from 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Friday, June 22 at the ALA Annual Conference in Anaheim, Calif.:

Web Content Strategy for Libraries

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

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

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 in 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 unconference-style event, beginning with a series of lightning talks from librarians and technologists involved in a variety of linked data efforts. Group work will follow that will allow participants to engage in discussion and begin to design Linked Data systems. Please visit the LITA website for a list of confirmed speakers: http://www.ala.org/lita/conferences/annual/2012

Building Digital Collections Using Islandora

Speaker: Kirsta Stapelfeldt, University of Prince Edward Island; Mark Leggott, 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.

Visit the LITA website for more information on registration and other LITA events at ALA Annual Conference: http://www.ala.org/lita/conferences/annual/2012

Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) members are information technology professionals dedicated to educating, serving, and reaching out to the entire library and information community. LITA is a division of the American Library Association.