Recently in LITA Category
On of my favorite conferences is coming up. LITA Forum will be in Salt Lake City this year and the theme is "Open & Mobile." Save the dates--October 2-4, 2009. There are some great concurrent sessions planned--mobile technologies, open data, open source software, lightening talks, and some really great looking poster sessions. Lest I forget three fantastic keynoters:
- Joan Lippicott (Day 1)
- David Weinberger (Day 2)
- Liz Lawley (Day 3)
I love the programming at the Forum, because it is literally the only conference I go to where I am torn between which session to attend. This headache for conference organizers (just too much good stuff!) should be joy for conference attendees with shrinking professional development budgets or concerns about getting the most for their money. I should mention that I have never witnessed such a hard-working and dedicated group of volunteers as the ones who put this Forum together. They are to be congratulated.
But I have thus far neglected the best part about LITA Forum--the people. If you want to socialize, network, chat with vendors and sponsors in a relaxed atmosphere, or make that connection that will spark an idea or solidify a fleeting thought, then LITA Forum is the place to be. LITA is fun and inclusive. LITA is valuable. These are tough financial times for travel and professional development. Librarians, IT professionals, and support staff need to choose wisely from an array of conference offerings. If I had to narrow my choices down to one conference per year or pay for extra professional development out of my own pocket, you'd find me at the Forum.
Did that sound too much like a commercial? If not, then let me add that you should ACT NOW! and save $50 off of registration. I'm already registered, are you?
Seriously, this year's Forum is shaping up to be fantastic. I'll be in Salt Lake City the first weekend in October and I hope to see lots of people there.
I'm used to wearing many hats at ALA Conference. In fact, it was the number of hats and the frequency with which I changed them that led to name of my blog. When I joined OCLC 18 months ago, I shed one of those hats--American Libraries columnist. Nevertheless, the other two hats--OCLC and LITA--seem to have gotten much bigger (please no snide comments about the size of my head). This Annual Conference in July is gearing up to be one of my busiest ever.
Rather than bore you with the details of that busy-ness, I thought I would share what I hope will be the two highlights for me--one for each hat.
LITA President's Program: Make Stories, Tell Stories, Keep Stories
Intercontinental, Grand Ballroom
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
In 2007, Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, and Geert van den Boogaard took off from DOK Delft Public Library to embark on a North American tour of libraries en route to the Internet Librarian Conference. Their popular video tour captured the passion and enthusiasm of the people working on library innovation in the States, a theme that they have recently repeated in Australia. Now it's time to tell their story. Come learn about innovations from our library colleagues in the Netherlands and join Erik Boekesteijn (DOK Delft Public Library), Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian), and Michael Stephens (Tame the Web) as they discuss the current state and future of library innovation and the opportunities to learn from the vast network of international stories about library innovation.
Speakers: Erik Boekesteijn, Jaap van de Geer, Geert van den Boogaard, Jenny Levine, and Michael Stephens
This is just part of the "Afternoon with LITA" that starts with Top Technology Trends and has LITA Awards sandwiched in the middle. I hope to see many people there all afternoon. I'm especially pleased that my President's Program speakers will be able to sign their book at the program and then will be following me as I sprint with them to the OCLC Blog Salon.
My second plug is for a presentation on the work I have been doing at OCLC. There's still plenty of room for folks to attend the presentation on Web-scale Management Services. I will be sharing general information about OCLC's strategic direction, as well as details on the components under development, timelines for availability, and information about the Library Advisory Council and pilot sites.
Register here for the event on Monday, July 13, 10:30-12:00 in the Northwest I room at the Chicago Hilton.
I think Chicago is one of the best places to have ALA and I'm looking forward to holding onto whichever hat I'm wearing.
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