Blogging Section of SLA-IT

Social media meetup at #sla2010

Join the Communications & Social Media section, as well as the Webmaster section on Monday, June 14th, around 5:30pm at Felipe's Taqueria in the French Quarter.
There is no reservation for the group - but I'm sure you'll be able to find us (we'll be the boisterous group talking about social media and libraryland).
Follow the SLA IT Twitter feed for updates.

SLA 2010 Virtual Conference

Not able to go to New Orleans in June?  You can still participate in SLA 2010's two general sessions and ten spotlight sessions in real time.  The registration fee for the Virtual Conference is only $200, and if you register by June 4 using the special promotional code you will save $50 on the registration fee. Learn more about the virtual conference sessions and get the promotional code.

As a former division chair, I heard from so many members that we needed to offer more virtual programming.  This is a great opportunity to participate in the Annual Conference without traveling.  In addition to the Virtual Conference, you can follow #sla2010 on Twitter.  "See" you there!

Reminder: Extended Deadline for the 2010 Grieg Aspnes Outstanding Member Award - Call for nominations

Here's a reminder for the nominations for the 2010 Outstanding Grieg Aspnes Outstanding Member Award. Our deadline has been extended till May 7, 2010.

For details, please read here.

Twitter's Entire Archive Headed to the Library of Congress

The Library of Congress announced it this morning: they are acquiring all the public Twitter archives. More details to follow.

Way to celebrate Library Week! 

The 2010 Grieg Aspnes Outstanding Member Award - Call for nominations

WHAT:
The IT Division of SLA is now accepting nominations/applications for the Grieg Aspnes Outstanding Member Award.

The IT Executive Board would like to recognize a member's outstanding efforts on behalf of the IT Division. Do you know someone whose contributions to the Division should be recognized?

HOW:
Please send brief nomination describing recent Division-related activities and person(s) with any supporting documentation, such as the nominee's vitae that are most helpful and appreciated. Self-nominations are also welcomed.

Email to Kan Kin, Membership/Awards Chair, at it.awards.sla@gmail.com

Please include "SLA IT Outstanding Member Award" in the subject field. We will announce the award winner at our annual business meeting at the Annual Conference in New Orleans.

WHEN:
The deadline for submissions is April 30, 2010.

Please note that current IT board members are not eligible for this award. See the Division's Web site for a list of current members: http://units.sla.org/division/dite/officers_new.html.

We are looking forward to your nominations!

Mobile Multitouch UIs and the Library

The latest gadget people are frothing over/poo-pooing is Apple's iPad, a 9.7" screen tablet device which is not available for purchase yet. Regardless of what you think of that specific tablet, a number of vendors are coming out with multi-touch tablet devices and Windows 7 does support multi-touch.

The D.C Public Library has already developed a free iPhone app in early 2009 which lets users search their catalog, and they've made the code available for other libraries to use, so libraries do have some experience dealing with multi-touch interface on a smaller screen. But a larger screen means more real estate for gestures as opposed to controls taking up space - what will this mean for developing mobile apps for the library? And a low-cost device might be an easier pitch than something like a Microsoft Surface - even though libraries are doing cool things with those as well.

Seth Godin & the future of the library

Seth Godin discusses libraries in a recent post. I'm still sorting out my response (initially it was a lot of OH COME ON NOW - I seem to be calming down) but thought I'd bring both Seth's post, and a great response written by SLA member Sarah Glassmeyer to your attention.

Here's a sneak peek:

Seth: "Once again, the net turns things upside down. The information is free now. No need to pool tax money to buy reference books."
Sarah: "Ha. Haha. HAHAHAHAHA.  Oh, man, I can’t wait to tell our aquisitions department to tell West to take their bills and STUFF THEM because INFORMATION IS FREE NOW."

What is your response to Seth's post?

[cross-posted with the Academic division blog to encourage more discussion.]

SLA IT: Joe Ann Clifton Student Award 2010

Submissions are now being accepted for the Joe Ann Clifton Student Award 2010 from the IT Division of SLA. This award is intended to promote participation in the SLA Annual Conference by an exceptional library science student. The recipient of this award will receive:

* Student membership in SLA for one (1) year.
* Reimbursement for expenses to attend the SLA Annual Conference not to exceed $1,500  
* Recognition and presentation of the winning paper at the Annual Business Meeting of the IT Division.

The winner must be present to accept the award at the IT Business Meeting. The winning paper will be published in b/ITe, the official Division newsletter.

Deadline January 29, 2010.  Learn more (http://sla-divisions.typepad.com/itdivision/2010/01/2010-joe-ann-clifton-student-award-submissions-it-division.html).

SLA Twitter Accounts

Somehow I missed the announcement nearly a year ago that SLA had a Twitter directory on the SLA Wiki.  Only members can access the pages, but they list both individual SLA members and their twitter IDs and twitter IDs for groups/divisions/sections/etc within SLA.

You can see the lists here: http://wiki.sla.org/display/SLAINNO/Twitter+Directory (if you have an SLA login and password).

A Day in the Life of ... the Internet!

This diagram has been circulating around the web - and puts some numbers to the actions occurring on the Internet daily.

Created by OnlineEducation.net