The following Illinois librarians will be presenting at this year’s LITA (Library Technology Association) Forum, which will be held in Minneapolis from Thursday, November 12, to Sunday, November 15. The conference is intended for all librarians, regardless of library type or position level, who have an interest in applying technology to libraries. Non-librarians, including vendors, marketing professionals, and human-resources managers, also participate. Topics cover everything from online privacy and institutional repositories, to video games and drones.
Note: For presentations or poster sessions that include a non-Illinois presenter, the name of just the Illinois presenter is included.
Saturday, November 14
Concurrent Session 6, 1:15-2:00 PM
“Round Hole, Square Pegs: A Brief History of a Metadata Mapping Tool”
Nicollet D3
Kate Flynn–Portal Manager, Chicago Collections Consortium
Overview: The Metadata Hopper Tool is an open-source program designed to standardize metadata and interfaces across different libraries. This presentation will discuss the development and implementation of the resource.
Concurrent Session 7, 2:15-3:00 PM
“Data Science Tools in the Library: Innovative Family History Research”
Nicollet D3
Sarah Park–Technology and Engineering Librarian, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Lora Smallman–Humanities Librarian, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Overview: What challenges come with digitizing 22,000 primary sources on 18th-century naturalization? Find out how data-science tools, including data-mining and visualization, can help make such a large collection easily accessible to users.
Concurrent Session 8, 3:30-4:15 PM
“Building the Library of the Future: The Innovation Engine”
Lakeshore A
Michelle Frisque–Chief of Technology, Content and Innovation, Chicago Public Library
Overview: As the challenges facing librarians become increasingly varied and complex, the tools and techniques used to address them will need to change, also. The Chicago Public Library has fostered creativity and innovation through its IDEO Design Thinking Toolkit for Librarians.
Poster Session, 4:30-5:30 PM
“Constellation: The Story of a Collaborative Institutional Repository”
Nicollet Promenade
Aimee Walker–former Coordinator of User Experience, North Central College
Amy Weidner–Digital Resources Librarian, Benedictine University
Overview: What challenges face an institutional repository put together by a consortium of small liberal-arts universities and colleges? Find out the best approaches for handling everything from physically moving the location of the repository and participating in joint governance, to expanding and promoting it through fundraising and marketing.
Sunday, November 15
Concurrent Session 9, 9:00-9:45 AM
“Innovating with Cloud-Based Technologies”
Lakeshore C
Michelle Frisque–Chief of Technology, Content and Innovation, Chicago Public Library
Overview: In recent years, the Chicago Public Library has undertaken a major technology initiative that has involved meeting users’ changing needs by bringing in creative technologies. Learn what steps CPL took to move internal applications to the cloud, including balancing the need to add services with maintaining the privacy of patrons.
Click here for a full list of presentations and poster sessions, including more-detailed overviews of content and biographies of the presenters.