Event ALCTS Midwinter Symposium: Living Digital: the Role of the Library and the Future of Information

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) announces a symposium which will be held prior to ALA Midwinter 2010: “Living Digital: The Future of Information and the Role of the Library.”  The event will be held on Thursday, January 14 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Four distinguished speakers from both inside and outside of librarianship will address issues that are expected to include recruiting students into information-related professions, information seeking behaviors of those living in the digital age, emerging initiatives related to information access, partnering with others in the information arena, intellectual property issues, and techniques institutions may employ in adapting to new information ecologies. In addition to plenary presentations, panel speakers and breakout sessions which incorporate scenario building will help attendees learn how to facilitate the delivery of information and understand their role in an environment of constantly evolving genres and increasing quantities of information.       

Plenary speakers [titles/abstracts of talks will be available soon]:

Margaret Ashida, Project Director, Empire State STEM Education Initiative, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY

Kevin Guthrie - President of Ithaka, formerly president of JSTOR

John Palfrey, Henry N. Ess III Professor of Law and Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School and co-author of “Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of Digital Natives”

John Wilkin – Associate University Librarian for Library Information Technology at the University of Michigan and Executive Director of HathiTrust

The symposium will include participative small group brainstorming sessions which will enable attendees to exchange ideas with each other and with the panelists and speakers. The four scenarios that will be discussed are:

Determining collections for a paperless library (academic/public libraries)

• Designing an information commons for a generation of digital natives (academic/public libraries)
• Incorporating gaming into library services (academic/public libraries)
• Delivering information to consumers in a virtual environment

Panelists who will speak about and react to the brainstorming sessions are:

Tom Corbett -- Executive Director, Fisher-Watkins Library, The Cushing Academy (a private school for grades 9-12)

Jenny Levine – Internet Development Specialist and Strategy Guide, ALA, owner of The Shifted Librarian blog, and former public librarian

Ann Wolpert – Director of Libraries, MIT

John Yemma – Editor, The Christian Science Monitor

Registration information for “Living Digital” can be found at: http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/alcts/confevents/upcoming/ala/living.cfm

Please consider joining ALCTS for what promises to be an informative event!