SLA Information Technology Division Blog

Official Proceedings of the New Skills for a Digital Era Colloquium

Quoting Jeanne Kramer-Smyth from SpellBound Blog:

From May 31st through June 2nd of 2006, The National Archives, the Arizona State Library and Archives, and the Society of American Archivists hosted a colloquium to consider the question “What are the practical, technical skills that all library and records professionals must have to work with e-books, electronic records, and other digital materials?”. The website for the New Skills for a Digital Era colloquium already includes links to the eleven case studies considered over the course of the three days of discussion as well as a list of additional suggested readings. As mentioned over on The Ten Thousand Year Blog, the pre-print of the proceedings has been available since August, 2007.As announced in SAA’s online newsletter, the Official Proceedings of the New Skills for a Digital Era Colloquium, edited by Richard Pearce-Moses and Susan E. Davis, is now available for free download. Published under Creative Commons Attribution, this document is 143 pages long and includes all the original case studies.

While this is geared towards archivists, there is likely something in this document for librarians who are dealing with electronic records, institutions repositories and digital archives.

The Life Cycle of a Blog Post

Wired Magazine has an interesting article on the life cycle of a blog post.  From conceiving the thought of the post to reader consumption, the site's map does an excellent job of explaining how one blog post can affect the online community.

SLA Board of Directors Candidates Announced

The candidates for SLA Board of Directors have just been announced.  I'm so pleased to report that not one, but two current IT Division Board members are running for SLA Board of Directors:

Holly Chong-Williams, a past chair and 2008 IT Program Planner, is running for Division Cabinet Chair-Elect. 

Michael Kim, IT Secretary, is running for one of the Director positions.

The complete list of candidates:

For President-elect:

• Janice C. Anderson, Access Sciences Corporation, Houston, Texas
• Anne Caputo, Dow Jones & Company, Washington, D.C.

For Chapter Cabinet Chair-elect:

• Cynthia Barrancotto, Bracewell & Giuliani LLP, Houston, Texas
• Ruth Wolfish, IEEE, Piscataway, New Jersey

For Division Cabinet Chair-elect:

• Holly Chong-Williams, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, Virginia
• Ann Sweeney, European Union - European Commission Delegation, Washington, D.C.

For Director (Two to be elected):

• Jessica Baumgart, Renesys, Manchester, New Hampshire
• Michael Kim, University of Miami Library, Coral Gables, Florida
• Daniel Lee, Navigator Ltd, Toronto, Ontario
• Nettie Seaberry, National Minority Supplier Development Council, New York City

Congratulations to all the candidates!

Presentations from the Leadership Summit

Presentations from the Leadership Summit are online here.  In an effort to be more green, we are going to see more SLA conference presentations available online rather than being handed paper during a session.  Hopefully, at the Annual Conference, the presentations will be online prior to a session, so people can download, follow along, and make notes.

An information professional is not necessarily a librarian

That thought (above) occurred to me at the Leadership Summit during Andy Hines' presentation.  We in SLA general describe ourselves as librarians, yet we belong to a broader group of knowledge workers called information professionals.  Interestingly, we're seeing our members branch out of libraries and work for other types of organizations including software companies -- and not as librarians, but as information professionals.  Some of our members work in technology positions within libraries, where they are information technology professionals.  In addition, we have other knowledge workers who are developing skills and performing tasks similar to those that have been associated historically with libraries and librarians.

I've written this much and am not sure how to end this blog post...so perhaps I'll just say that this is all food for thought....and your thoughts are welcome!

SLA members received discounted registration fee for Information Today conferences

In case you didn't see the email:

SLA has partnered with Information Today to offer members exclusive discounts on two upcoming conferences: Computers in Libraries, 7-9 April in Arlington, Virginia, and Buying & Selling eContent, 13-15 April in Scottsdale, Arizona.

SLA members will receive more than half off the regular price for Computers in Libraries. When you register here, you will pay the reduced rate of US$ 219 for the full, three-day conference. The conference theme, Innovative Change: Integrating High Tech With High Touch , focuses on how libraries excel when they focus as much on client needs as on innovations in technology.

As a Learning Partner for Information Today's ninth annual Buying & Selling eContent conference, SLA has negotiated an exclusive member discount of US$ 600 off the standard registration rate. When you register as an SLA member, you will pay only US$ 995.

Have you checked out Click U recently?

At the Leadership Summit, we were reminded of the resources available to SLA members.  Most of us had not noticed the breadth of content available.  Yes, we see the emails, but did we really read them? 

One resource that has much more in it than I knew was Click U. Click U offers live interactive sessions as well as session replays (in case you couldn't attend when they are live).  In addition, there are Click U sessions (workshops) at the annual conference.

Here are some of the upcoming Click U events:

• 20 February 2008, Introduction to Institutional Data Repositories
• 5 March 2008, Creating Indexes on Web Sites and Intranets
• 9 April 2008, Electronic Collection Development Part 1: E-library Collection Planning
• 23 April 2008, Electronic Collection Development Part 2: E-library Collection Strategies, Organization, and Maintenance
• 21 May 2008, Social Networking Tools Inside the Organization

Every month, there is a course of the month that is offered for free.  Until March 14, the course is Providing Effective Feedback.  The two courses that will be offered after that are:

• Presentation Skills
• Managing a Virtual Office

So schedule time to check out Click U and take a course.  Remember...it is one of your member benefits.

Web 3.0: What Is It About?

The ReadWriteWeb blog takes another look at Web 3.0.  The underlying theme of the site's posts attempting to define the term seems to be that Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web are joined at the hip.  RWW held a contest last April asking its readers to define Web 3.0.  One of the winning definitions included an entry from Robert O'Brien who defined Web 3.0 as a "decentralized asynchronous me".

What are your thoughts on Web 3.0?  Is it a buzz word or a valid concept?  Do you think that web versions are here to stay?

 

Event: Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education, and Museums, Mar. 7 - 8, 2008

According to the web site:

The Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums Conference will be held in Second Life at the New Media Consortium Conference Center (NMC) on March 8, 2008. Registration is 8000 lindens (equivalent of $30 USD) payable in lindens to avatar Valencia Lane in Second Life.

The purpose of this conference is to provide a gathering place for librarians, information professionals, educators, museologists, and others to learn about and discuss the educational, informational, and cultural opportunities of virtual worlds.

If you check the call for proposals, you will see that the conference actually starts on Mar. 7 (Friday) in the evening and lasts until Saturday evening.  The event times have been schedule to make sessions available to as many people as possible around the world. 

If you are interested in presenting at the conference, proposals are due soon (Feb. 11).  If you would like to attend, check the web site for details.  In addition, you may want to add the group "Virtual Worlds: Libraries, Education and Museums" to your Facebook account.  Some information and content will be shared with that group.

If you do attend, please consider writing a summary that can be posted in an IT Division blog or in our newsletter (B/ITe).