Brett Butler Award Winner Presenting Keynote at LITA Camp

Contact: Melissa Prentice


LITA


312-280-4268


mprentice@ala.org

NEWS


For Immediate Release


April 7, 2009

John Blyberg, 2009 recipient of the LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award, will present one of the keynote sessions at LITACamp, “The Everywhere Library: Creating, Communicating, Integrating,” May 7-8 in Dublin, Ohio. Blyberg received the award for his development of the Social OPAC application suite (http://thesocialopac.net), also known as SOPAC (for Social Online Public Access Catalog). SOPAC is a suite of open source software (OSS) tools that brings the power of social computing and Web 2.0 to the library catalog.Â

Join your library colleagues along with Blyberg and fellow keynoter Joan Frye Williams at LITACamp, LITA’s first-ever unconference. Participants determine the topic and format of the sessions on site, sign up for time slots and pitch session ideas to all. This format encourages collaboration, interaction, discussion and real-time innovation. You get to be both a participant and a presenter, discussing and learning about topics you really care about.

Registration is limited to 150. Visit the LITA web site for registration and housing information:
www.lita.org/ala/mgrps/divs/lita/litaevents/litacamp/index.cfm Visit the LITACamp wiki <litacamp.pbwiki.com> and LITACamp blog <litacamp.blogspot.com> for the most up-to-date information on the camp. Registration includes Thursday lunch, continental breakfasts, parking and wifi at the conference center. Registration will be accepted online and onsite; deadline to receive LITA housing rate is April 10.

LITACamp will be ideal for anyone interested in using technology to improve services and access for patrons. Librarians, information technologists, students and trustees from the user-centered information community are all encouraged to attend this unconference focused on timely discussions of current library issues as determined by the participants themselves.

The LITA/Brett Butler Entrepreneurship Award recognizes exemplary entrepreneurship by providing an innovative product or service designed to meet the needs of the library world. Sponsored by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, and the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA). 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.