|
|||||||
| ALA | |||||||
| Search ALA | |||||||
| Contact ALA | |||||||
| Login | |||||||
 Library & Information Technology Association |
||
|
Home
 About LITA The Organization, Policies and Procedures Board of Directors 2005 amp #8211 2006 Report to ALA Executive Board amp ALA Cou
Report to ALA Executive Board & ALA Council Patrick J. Mullin LITA’s Mission The Library & Information Technology Association educates, serves and reaches out to its members, other ALA members and divisions, and the entire library and information community through its publications, programs and other activities designed to promote, develop, and aid in the implementation of library and information technology. LITA Executive Committee members participated with ALA and the other divisions’ officers in the preparation of the ALAhead 2010 Strategic Plan these past two years. LITA Board members gladly discussed with LITA members and other ALA members the need for an ALA dues increase. We are heartened that the ALA membership agreed with the need to bolster ALA’s infrastructure. We especially hope that the dues increase will translate into better technology that will allow our division and the other divisions to better deliver core services so central to our mission. The Year in Review The 2005–2006 year was filled with a wide range of educational opportunities. LITA offers these opportunities in the form of conference programs and discussions, pre-conferences and workshops, regional institutes, and the National Forum. The topics are timely and the quality is high. LITA is reviewing other delivery mechanisms for these various opportunities and that will be a focus in the coming year. The LITA blog debuted at the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago and has been a great success both in terms of providing more current information to members and in involving new LITA members with the Association. The LITA blog continues to be very active throughout the year and we have heard great feedback from members about how much they appreciate the effort of all the volunteer bloggers. Four new LITA Interest Groups were created this past year. The BIGWIG Interest Group will discuss and promote blogs, wikis, and other new interactive media. The Electronic Resources Management Interest Group’s purpose is to promote and enable the exchange of information and discussion among librarians, publishers, electronic resource management system vendors and related service organizations concerning issues related to the management of electronic resources. The RFID Technology Interest Group will provide a forum for librarians to learn from each other and discuss the critical issues of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The Topic Maps Interest Group will discuss and disseminate information about Topic Maps to the library community. In the 2005–2006 year, three Regional Institutes were offered on the following topics: XML and Libraries and Institutional Repositories. These regional educational opportunities are being offered less frequently as travel funds decline and other technology organizations provide more desktop opportunities. LITA’s Regional Institutes Committee and their current speakers are reviewing other delivery mechanisms for the content. The 2005 LITA National Forum, The Ubiquitous Web: Personalization, Portability, and Online Collaboration, was held in San Jose, California, September 29–October 2, 2005. This four-day educational event included pre-conferences, general sessions, and concurrent sessions. We offered three excellent pre-conferences: Open Source Communication and Collaboration Tools, Building Digital Library Collections with the Greenstone Librarian Interface, and Moving Image Collections. We presented four engaging keynote sessions: Googlezon, Episode VI: Return of the Librarians with Roy Tennant; Blogging Outloud: Shifts in Public Voice with danah boyd; Bibliographic Control and the Web: an Oxymoron? with Michael Gorman; and Information and the Quality of Life: Environmentalism for the Information Age with David Levy. The audio of all four keynote presentations is available on the LITA Forum website to provide programming to members who are not able to attend the Forum. There were twenty-eight different programs and nine poster sessions in six concurrent sessions. Some of the topics discussed were: application of JPEG2000 in archives & libraries, NCIP Plus 2, multimedia streaming, federated search, and project management. Other topics included XML, RSS, 3D visualization, and downloadable books, audio, and video. Presentation materials are posted on the Forum website. LITA hosted two highly successful workshops at ALA Midwinter: User Centered Design: Design Process and User Centered Design: Usability. This year’s Town Meeting in San Antonio was a facilitated discussion on the first of LITA’s Strategic Plan’s objectives, “to educate.” Aaron Cohen Associates graciously offered their services to LITA to facilitate the Town Meeting. Aaron and Alex Cohen gathered input from LITA members about their visions for putting the objective's strategies into action. The LITA blog was used to gather input from LITA members prior to the conference and to follow-up the discussion after the conference. The perspective of members unable to attend conferences is critical to the success of this key strategic initiative. LITA is offering wonderful educational opportunities at the ALA 2006 Annual Conference in New Orleans. We will offer an excellent pre-conference: Contracting for Content in a Digital World. We have over a dozen programs with a diverse range of subjects such as: open source e-reserve software, computer certifications, RFID, the future of search, core technology competencies, ebooks, authority control, blogging, and podcasting. “Sunday afternoon with LITA” in New Orleans will again feature the always popular Top Technology Trends program, the LITA Awards Reception, and the LITA President’s program on Internet Culture: What Do We Need to Know about User Behavior? Cathy De Rosa, Vice President, Marketing & Library Services, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and John B. Horrigan, Associate Director for Research, Pew Internet & American Life Project, will discuss their research and the implications of that research for library services. During the awards reception, LITA will honor its four award and three scholarship winners. The 2006 LITA National Forum will convene in Nashville, Tennessee October 26–29, 2006, at the Downtown Sheraton hotel. The Forum theme is: NetVille in Nashville: Web Services As Library Services. The agenda includes two pre-conferences: an open source installfest and a program on developing best project management practices for IT projects. Thirty-three programs and fourteen poster sessions have been selected by the Program Planning Committee and are listed on the Forum’s website. Three keynote sessions offer a diverse array of subjects: Save America’s Treasures at the Country Music Hall of Fame; Libraries and Public Interest Entertainment; and Web 2.0 and the Library 2.0 in Our Future. In response to membership concerns, the LITA leadership continues to expand and improve communication from the organization to its members and among members. The LITA Office routinely provides updates on LITA activities which are posted to the LITA-L listserv. Meeting reports from Committees and Interest Groups have increased significantly and are posted directly to the LITA web site upon submission. The LITA blog has proven to be an effective and popular tool to keep members informed and involved in LITA. Many thanks are due to all those involved in organizing contributors and posting to the blog. In the area of LITA publications we are pleased to report that our new Information Technology and Libraries (ITAL) editor, John Webb, has significantly increased the number of submissions for our peer-reviewed journal. In 2006, the LITA Board has allocated additional funds to increase the page count for the current volume. The Board approved in January a new policy to provide open access to ITAL content six-months after publication. Scanning of older issues of ITAL is now underway. LITA is proud that Technology Electronic Reviews (TER) continues as an electronic publication. A new editor, Martin Kalfatovec, was selected this spring and will begin his duties this summer. Following discussions with Rick Weingarten, former LITA president Tom Wilson now serves as LITA’s first liaison to the ALA Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) Advisory Committee. Last summer, as a result of the LITA strategic planning process and to support our objectives, the LITA Board created the position of LITA Standards Coordinator. Following an interview process in San Antonio, Diane I. Hillmann agreed to serve in this role during the initial term following the Annual Conference in New Orleans. LITA’s financial situation is a primary responsibility for the LITA Board. We introduced a slight increase in our dues in 2004/2005. It had been ten years since the last increase in dues, and, as we all recognized, costs have risen throughout this decade. We appreciate the members who have renewed their LITA membership. We believe that this increase was essential to continue our organizational financial health. While LITA has suffered a net loss in membership, I am pleased to report that it has been less than what we budgeted for. The Membership Development Committee and the LITA office staff have initiated a membership recruitment and retention plan and we expect to build our membership, though we are not sure what the net effect of the ALA dues increase and other division increases will be. In light of this situation, LITA continues to seek regular sources of additional revenue in order to meet its mission and the desires of its membership. LITA remains especially grateful for the active support of the many vendor sponsors and others. This financial backing for awards and scholarships, the Forum, and various receptions, meals and services ensures that LITA can focus on its mission of educating, serving, and reaching out. The LITA Board created a Sponsorships Task Force earlier this year to develop a deliberate process for building and maintaining long-term vendor sponsorship for LITA events, awards, and scholarships. Forty years: 1966–2006 Finally, 2006 marks LITA’s fortieth anniversary. 2006 is a year for LITA to celebrate our history, our many accomplishments, and our future. Our celebrations began in San Antonio at Midwinter with a presentation and slide show at the LITA Town Meeting and the availability of 40th anniversary glow badges. The mailing of the June issue of Information Technology & Libraries will include a commemorative keepsake. The Awards Reception in New Orleans will also serve as an anniversary party with a special cake and a champagne toast. We will also honor LITA past presidents at a breakfast on June 26th. Finally, our celebrations will conclude in Nashville at the LITA National Forum with special tokens for all who attend. Forty years is truly a remarkable accomplishment for a technology-based organization. On July 14, 1966 (Bastille Day!), following ALA Council approval the previous January, the Information Science and Automation Division (now LITA) held its organizational meeting in New York during the ALA Annual Conference. We all benefit from the work of those who have gone before us. We are called to advance the profession in our day, facing our challenges and moving forward to help achieve the shared vision of effectively using technology in libraries to the benefit of our users. LITA Board of Directors Patrick J. Mullin, President LITA Staff Mary Taylor, Executive Director |
||