LITA Committees

Volunteer for a LITA committee to put your skills and knowledge to work making a difference for libraries.

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* Appointments Committee
Assists the LITA President-Elect in finding the best possible LITA members to appoint to LITA’s standing committees and task forces, as well as representatives to other ALA committees.
 
* Assessment and Research Committee
Serves as the research arm for LITA and communicates information and analyses to the Board, the membership, and the general public. ARC also provides consulting on data collection and assessment to other LITA committees and task forces. Such services may include help with survey design, choices related to assessment instruments, selection of metrics, etc.

* Board of Directors
Provides a forum for discussion of a variety of issues related to authority control for online catalogs and for international sharing of authority of data.

* Bylaws and Organization Committee
Maintains the bylaws of the division and advises the LITA Board regarding structural and organizational concerns in the division. 

* Communications and Marketing Committee
Develops and implements LITA’s strategic communications and marketing plan to promote LITA’s mission, vision, values, and important news around membership, publications, education, volunteering, events, and more. The committee is also responsible for establishing best practices for style and content that is used in all communication formats and will work closely with the LITA Staff and Web Coordinating Committee.

* Diversity and Inclusion Committee
Establishes and maintains diversity as a fundamental principle of LITA; articulates the desired facets of diversity within LITA; proposes appropriate goals for diversity in LITA membership, participation, and programming and metrics for measuring success; advises and coordinates with other LITA committees, task forces, and the governing board on strategies to meet diversity goals; coordinates with other groups within ALA on diversity issues in the library workplace; and reports annually to the governing board on the committee's progress.

* Education Committee
Encourages education programs (including academic continuing education and staff development programs) relating to library and information technology by identifying topics where there is a need for education and bringing to the attention of LITA committees and interest groups, and the library and information technology education community in general, the need for programs related to such topics.

* Financial Advisory Committee
Advises the LITA Board on all fiscal matters of the division; advises the LITA Executive Director in preparation of an annual budget based on priorities established by the Board; reviews and advises units requesting LITA funds; reviews for the LITA Board Division activities, within the framework of the strategic plan, for fiscal implications; and reviews for the LITA Board, on a regular basis, the dues structure to prepare and submit to the LITA Board periodic analysis of the finances of the division.

* Forum Planning Committee (2020)
Works with the LITA office to plan, organize, and produce an annual event that highlights current and emerging technologies in libraries and provides a venue for people involved or interested in library technology to discuss issues.

* Fundraising Committee
Creates fundraising strategy for LITA; plans and implements fundraising campaigns; and supervises sponsorship efforts for LITA-associated events such as LITA Forum or preconferences.

* Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award Committee
Honors the life and accomplishments of Hugh C. Atkinson by soliciting nominations and recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of an academic librarian who has worked in the areas of library automation or library management and has made contributions (including risk taking) toward the improvement of library services or to library development or research.

* ITAL Editorial Board
Serves in an advisory capacity to the editor on the contents of the journal issues; forms the core of referees, reviewing manuscripts submitted for possible publication.

* LITA / ALCTS Metadata Standards Committee
Plays a leadership role in developing and maintaining guidelines and principles for evaluating, adopting, and applying metadata standards; focuses on the intersection between standards for resource description, access, and management, their implementation in encoding schemas and information systems, and formats for metadata serialization and exchange; to assist the ALA community in making informed and user-focused decisions relating to metadata, the Committee reviews and evaluates metadata standards relevant to cultural heritage institutions, engages in outreach and education on metadata issues, and maintains liaison relationships with concerned units within ALA and with relevant outside agencies.

* LITA / Christian Larew Memorial Scholarship Committee
Solicits nominations and selects a qualified student to be the recipient of this scholarship to pursue a master's level ALA accredited degree with an emphasis in library and information technology.

* LITA / Ex Libris Student Writing Award Committee
Solicits nominations and selects the best unpublished manuscript submitted by a student author or authors in the area of libraries and information technology; to recognize superior student writing and enhance the professional development of the winner

* LITA / Library Hi Tech Award Committee
Solicits nominations and selects an individual or institution for a single seminal work or a body of work. Taking place within (or continuing into) the five years preceding the award, the work shows outstanding achievement in communicating to educate practitioners.

* LITA/OCLC Frederick G. Kilgour Award Committee
Solicits nominations and selects an individual whose work brings to attention research that shows promise of having a positive and substantive impact on any aspect of the publication, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information technologies, or the processes by which information and data is manipulated and managed.

* LITA Blog Subcommittee
A volunteer community of bloggers recruited from the LITA membership to report on LITA and ALA programs, and on library conferences and news of interest to the LITA community.

* LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction
Solicits submissions, selects, annotates, and presents for publication annually, the list of notable children's science fiction books published in the preceding year.

* LITA Leaders
A communication group for current committee and interest group chairs, LITA representatives, editors, and LITA Board members.

* Membership Development Committee
Promotes membership development in LITA by planning programs and activities that attract and inform new members, promoting the active participation of current members, and engaging members both physically and digitally to improve the membership experience; addresses the concerns of members, proposes solutions to membership issues, and takes action when possible; advises the LITA Board of Directors on policies relating to membership and dues.

* Nominating Committee
Presents at least two candidates for each office to be filled at the next election; selects the candidates in such a manner as to assure as broad a representation as possible of different types and sizes of libraries, types of service, and geographic distribution of membership.

* Program Planning Committee
Recommends to the Board of Directors action to be taken on programs proposed by LITA interest groups and committees for ALA Annual Conferences.
 
* Publications Committee
Represents the broad publishing interest and concerns of all committees and interest groups of the division; proposes and recommends division-wide publication policies to the LITA Board; and advises and guides the editorial practices and operational details of the division's publications.
 
* Top Technology Trends Committee
Organizes the Top Technology Trends events held at ALA conferences, selects participants to name the trends, manages online discussions and meetings, finalizes results, and helps with follow-up activities.
 
* Web Coordinating Committee
Coordinates the updating and posting of material to the LITA website, handles routine maintenance tasks such as link checking, and makes policy recommendations to the Board on issues such as page appearance, standards and technologies used on the site.