Shift Happens: LITA Faces Change at National Forum

New media, integration, and professional risk lead topics

By Jay Datema -- Library Journal, 12/15/2006

Preservation, gaming, and integrating Library 2.0 into a Web 2.0 world dominated the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) National Forum in Nashville, October 26–29. With 378 registered attendees representing 43 states and several nations, attendance held steady with previous years. Free wireless still is absent at tech cons, though laptops were plentiful, and the LITA blog faithfully chronicled sessions for absentees.

The forum opened with a fascinating talk from Country Music Hall of Fame archivists titled “Saving America's Treasures.” Using Nashville's Bridge Media Solutions as a tech partner, the museum migrated unique content from the Grand Ole Opry, including its first-known radio session from October 14, 1939, as well as uncovering Hank Williams demos on acetate and glass. The migration project uses open source software and will generate MARC records destined for OCLC.

Indiana University's Thom Gillespie described his shift from library and information science professor to launching a new telecommunications department program. The MIME program for art, music, and new media has propelled students into positions at Lucas Arts, Microsoft, and gaming companies. Gillespie said the program has practical value. “Eye candy was good, but it's about usability,” and he posed a provocative question: “What would happen if your library had a discussion of the game of the month?”

Integration into user environments fueled much discussion. Peter Webster of St. Mary's University, Halifax, NS, spoke about how embedded toolbars are enabling libraries to offer access to services as simply as the Google toolbar.

Annette Bailey, Virginia Tech's digital services librarian, announced that the LibX project has received two years' Institute of Museum and Library Services funding to expand its research toolbar into Internet Explorer as well as Firefox and will let librarians build their own test editions of toolbars online.

The University of Rochester, NY, has received funding for an open source catalog to be called the eXtensible Catalog (xC). Using an export of three million records from their Voyager catalog, David Lindahl and Jeff Susczynski described how their team employed User Centered Design to conduct field interviews with users—sometimes in dorm rooms. They have prototyped four different versions of the catalog, and CUPID 4 includes integration of several APIs, including Google, Amazon, Technorati, and other partners.

Stephen Abram, VP innovation, chief strategist, SirsiDynix and incoming SLA president, delivered the closing keynote, “Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 in Our Future.” Abram and SirsiDynix have conducted research on 15,000 users, which highlighted the need for community, learning, and interaction. He asked the audience, “Are you working in your comfort zone or my end user's comfort zone?” In a somewhat controversial set of statements, Abram compared open source software to being “free like kittens” and challenged librarians about the “My OPAC sucks” meme that's been popular this year. “Do your users want an OPAC, or do they want information?”

Stating that libraries need to compete in an era when education is moving toward the distance-learning model, Abram asked, “How much are we doing to serve the user when 60 to 80 percent of users are virtual?” Asserting that librarians help people improve the quality of their questions, Abram said that major upcoming challenges include 50 million digitized books available online in the next five years. “What is at risk is not the book. It's us: librarians.”