Representatives from many of ALA’s 18 round tables, mostly incoming chairs, met Friday morning to discuss the future of round tables and of the Round Table Coordinating Assembly (RTCA) itself. The Map and Geography Round Table (MAGERT), shortly to become the Map and Geospatial Information Round Table (MAGIRT), was particularly well-represented.
Over the past two years e-books have become an important—but controversial —part of library services.
“The Future Is Now! E-books and Their Increasing Impact on Library Services,” to be held on Saturday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. in MCC-392 will focus on the increasing significance of e-books and their impact on libraries.
Public libraries will confront formidable challenges in the coming years. The digital transformation of all media affects our resources, services, staff, and programs, while changes in users and their needs, the growth of competitive internet services, and financial stringencies add complexity.
Libraries of all types have literacy, its promotion, and its advancement at the core of their mission. As information resources are found increasingly online, literacy has expanded beyond print to encompass information literacy, media literacy, and most recently, digital literacy. How are libraries responding to the “new” literacy?
The two-day preconference on RDA concluded yesterday. The first day featured four presentations covering key areas of difference between RDA and AACR2 and best practices for the RDA Toolkit. One point of emphasis was the key role of workflows in maximizing the potential of the RDA Toolkit.
Friday’s ALA Unconference presented a unique and rewarding opportunity for librarians to share experiences. Free of agendas, the group dictates the flow of conversation. The morning’s group consisted of divergent perspectives, leading toward a wide scope of discussion topics.
Libraries are playing an important role in the economic recovery by providing job readiness training, job-hunting and resume-writing support, and workshops for entrepreneurs.
Presenters can upload their materials directly to their sessions in the Conference Scheduler by attaching the files to a “comment” on the session record itself. When they do this, the files will be listed as part of the session record automatically. These files will become the permanent archive for the 2011 Annual Conference.
.JPG "ALA Unconference Flipchart")
