LITA offers two new Regional Institutes

Contact: Mary Taylor


312-280-4267


mtaylor@ala.org

For Immediate Release


June 2002

LITA offers two new Regional Institutes

The Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) is pleased to announce the availability of two new Regional Institutes. LITA Regional Institutes are one-day workshops on technology-related topics. Taught by experts and presented throughout the country, they reach beyond ALA Conference locations to bring you high quality continuing education. Due to speakers' time constraints and the desire to make the institutes available to the highest number of geographic locations, scheduling may be limited. For further information, please see
our Web site.

  • eBooks: After Hype and Death, What Really Works


    Mark Beatty, presenter

Many highly publicized eBook ventures have ridden the wave of public acclaim and commercial endeavor from the heights to the pits. Meanwhile there is a base group of eBook services that are slowly, successfully and increasingly producing good useable products, products that libraries can make available to the benefit of their patrons.

The institute includes a "state of the business" overview of eBooks. Particular emphasis is first and foremost on library usability of eBooks: what librarians can actually use and do with eBooks, what they can expect to happen, and not happen in the near future, including practical applications and many "buyer beware" warnings. A look at business models for eBook providers considers indicators of the viability of that provider both in the open market place and for libraries specifically. Beatty introduces, discusses and presents live demonstrations of each of the eBook market segments. Plenty of time for questions is included and dialogue is encouraged.

  • XML and Libraries


     Ron Gilmour, presenter

The institute covers the structure and utility of Extensible Markup Language (XML) with an emphasis on the relevance of XML to libraries. Discussion includes the role XML plays in diverse applications such as web design, content management, and descriptive metadata.

LITA is a division of the American Library Association.