NETSL Spring Conference Program 2012
iLIBRARY : DIGITAL FUTURES FOR LIBRARIES

Thursday, May 3, 2012
Hogan Campus Center, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, MA

Registration closes Monday April 23. Space is limited for this exciting program. Please note that only advanced registrations will be accepted this year.

Online Registration:
http://nelib.org/nelaevents/calendar?eventId=423577&EventViewMode=EventDetails

Mail-In Registration Form:
http://nelib.org/Resources/Documents/NETSL/NETSL2012_ConferenceRegistrationMailin.pdf

NO WALK-IN REGISTRATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

The full program is can be viewed at: http://nelib.org/netsl/2012conference

Keynote presentations:

BIG DATA: BIG DEAL?  NEW CHALLENGES FOR SCHOLARS AND LIBRARIANS BY JOHN UNSWORTH,
Vice Provost for Library & Technology Services and  Chief Information Officer at Brandeis University.

Unsworth will review some recent efforts to make large amounts of textual data available for computational research in the humanities. Examples will touch on challenges in licensing and copyright, problems and gaps in the data itself, sample research projects that use this kind or resource, current efforts to provide a virtual research environment in which to work with such materials, and sample research results that will help suggest why it might be worth meeting the challenges posed by big data in the humanities. It will become clear that there are important and in some ways novel roles for librarians at every stage of the process.

RACHEL FRICK apologizes for having to cancel her keynote address.

Panel Discussions:

TRANSFORMING TECHNICAL SERVICES IN THE iLIBRARY:  Alicia Morris, Head of Technical Services at Tufts University's Tisch Library; Roger Brisson,Head of Metadata & Cataloging at Boston University's Mugar Memorial Library; and Tom Blake, Digital Projects Manager at Boston Public Library.

Technical services staff today need an expanded set of competencies and skills to respond to swiftly changing demands and priorities. Three panelists from academic and public libraries will discuss their practical experience, challenges and strategies in supporting the new digital environment, retraining and motivating staff, changing workflows, and transforming their part of the organization.

ILS IN THE CLOUD: PROMISE OR PERIL?: Bob Gerrity, Associate University Librarian for Systems & Information Technology, Boston College Libraries and Martha Rice Sanders, Knowledge Management Librarian, HELIN Consortium.

Cloud computing is a major trend in higher education and now also a significant option for the next generation of  library management platforms. This session will cover the general benefits, pitfalls, realities and trade-offs involved when considering a move to library cloud computing.

Breakout Sessions:

DIGITAL REPOSITORY SERVICES WITH FEDORA: Greg Colati, Director, University Archives & Special Collections, Thomas J. Dodd Research Center, University of Connecticut and Patrick Yott, Director, Library Technology Services, Northeastern University.

Northeastern University and the University of Connecticut have begun developing digital repositories based upon the Fedora (www.duraspace.org) repository framework. In this session the leaders of these two projects will discuss their goals and decision making process, as well as the implications and opportunities these projects will have on technical services librarians in their institutions.

DATAVERSE AND DATA MANAGEMENT PLANS: Mercè Crosas, Director of Product Development, Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS), Harvard University.

This talk will show how institutions can use the Dataverse Network software to provide a data repository for research data sets, with data citation support, re-formatting, metadata standards, versioning, good archival practices and more. In this way, the Dataverse enables a solution fully compliant with data management plans requirements.

THAT'S WHY I CHOSE OVERDRIVE: Todd Gilman, Librarian for Literature in English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics, Yale University Library and Mary Danko, Director, Hartland Public Library & President of the Board, Green Mountain Library Consortium.

OverDrive is, "a leading full-service digital distributor of eBooks, audiobooks, and other digital content." OverDrive makes available more than 500,000 digital titles and has become popular for use by libraries. This session will present a view of OverDrive from both an academic and a public library perspective.

WE ARE ALL SYSTEMS LIBRARIANS: PUTTING TECHNICAL SERVICES SKILLS TO WORK IN SYSTEMS:  Janice Christopher, Systems Librarian, University of Connecticut Libraries.

How can Technical Services librarians use our traditional competencies to benefit our systems (and, by extension, our systems staff)? What new competencies can help us use our tools in these new roles and at peak performance? How can Technical Services librarians and systems staff build and maintain good relationships, with the goal of improving both user experience and staff modules? Can we re-vision ourselves as systems librarians? In this session, opportunities abound – persistence and openness can help us navigate the realities and pitfalls.

Presentation of the 2012 NETSL Award for Excellence in Technical Services will be made at the luncheon.

Questions, suggestions, or other feedback? Contact Helen Linda, NETSL President, celestihel@gmail.com<mailto:celestihel@gmail.com>.

_______________________________________________________________________

Marsha Starr Paiste
Catalog Librarian
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155
(617) 627-2280

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