Core Imagineering Interest Group

Imagineering Interest Group Meeting ALA Annual 2012

-          History:

• 22-23 years old
• Program planning can be completed via e-mail.
• One year we had a second program that was successful. With the decrease in programs offered at ALA conferences, we will not be getting a second program.
• Cara has networks built with the vendors.
• We average 400-500 attendees for our program a year. We had 700-800 in attendance at the ALA 2012 Program.
• Tor and Baen help us out with the programs.

-          LITA requested more communication and transparency from us.

-          Options for readers advisory since we won’t get a second program:

• Webinar
• Something for the virtual conference
• A blog through ALA Connect with weekly postings- could possibly double post with Tor
  • Might follow the Yalsa model
  • Could include fan reviews
  • Cover all speculative fiction
  • Create annotated lists based from Yalsa lists and awards (Hugo, Nebula, etc.) and possibly National Teachers of English lists
  • Guest posts from authors
  • Possibility of posts from kids of authors (John Scalzi’s daughter)
  • Promote genre magazines, such as Locus
  • Imagination based programming needs to be a major element of an online resource. Something quick for the non-expert who wants to run a program at their library.
  • Read-a-likes but unconventional
  • Skype is a possible method of content delivery with Tor authors
• Could do a website instead. Aaron Jamieson has web expertise and would be willing to help us create a website, but we would need a domain name and server space.
• Could possibly do something at another conference, such as World Con or Dragon Con
• Should try to get a children’s author for our program in the future.

-          Other ideas:

• Interactive fiction- choose your own adventure virtual story
• Gaming and anime are entries for young people into science fiction/fantasy
• Our program proposal is due August 1.
• Suggested title: Science Fiction and Fantasy: Power of the Word, Connecting Past, Present, and Future
• Goal of having a strong virtual presence.

Bree did a great job of including all my notes in the later part of her post, so I have nothing to add at this point.

Re:

• Could do a website instead. Aaron Jamieson has web expertise and would be willing to help us create a website, but we would need a domain name and server space.

Build sustainability in at the front, it would be better ((imho) for us (and LITA/ALA)) long-term if we stick with ALA-hosted webservices (but not the Dreamhost services) - everything (afaik) is now Drupal-based and if we want our own domainname, we (better if ALA is the tech contact for updating DNS/webforwarding, for example) can point it at an existing (or newly developed/broken out) location in the ALA web sphere.

All that said, Iig has been a mainstay for LITA programming for longer than I've been a member... 

The "Second  Program" problem might be solvable, but it will take major negotiations (or, better, imho, a cutting-edge (for ALA/LITA) online delivery mechanism)