Dec
ALCTS, a division of ALA, is hosting a series of ongoing electronic discussions of interest to the library community. You’re invited to join in. There’s no cost and you don’t even need to be an ALA member. And, the February 2009 topic includes federated search.
ALCTS is the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services. The ALCTS About page describes the organization:
Comprised of nearly 5,000 members from across the United States and 42 countries from around the globe, ALCTS is the premier resource for information specialists in collection development, preservation, and technical services. We are the leader in the development of principles, standards, and best practices for creating, collecting, organizing, delivering, and preserving information resources in all forms.
ALCTS’ press release announcing the forums explains their purpose:
These three-day moderated electronic discussion forums provide an opportunity for librarians to discuss matters of interest through the ALCTS e-forum discussion list. Registration is necessary to participate.
A new discussion forum starts roughly once a month.
Here’s the description for a February 2009 forum that may be of interest to readers of this blog:
“Breaking down the silos: planning for discovery in Library 2.0”, a post-Midwinter Symposium discussion moderated by Dina Giambi, University of Delaware.
Libraries today face many choices when trying to optimize resource discovery for their patrons. Much of our information resides in separate silos, yet patrons want an integrated, intuitive and interactive discovery experience. How can libraries evaluate the options: next generation catalog interfaces, federated search engines, link resolvers? How do they choose which will be the best fit?
Registration is painless; it only took my a couple of minutes to sign up:
To register go to: http://lists.ala.org/sympa, click on ALCTS (spelled out) under the ALA Division heading, then choose [email protected]. A login and password are required to register. Instructions for obtaining a login and password may be found on the list homepage. Participation is open to anyone.
Three upcoming forums have been announced:
- Jan. 14-16, 2009: “Library budgets and impact on support for staff development and professional travel” moderated by Pamela Bluh, University of Maryland
- Feb. 10-12, 2009: “Disaster Preparedness” moderated by Walter Cybulski, National Library of Medicine, and Nancy Kraft, University of Iowa
- Feb. 2009: “Breaking down the silos: planning for discovery in Library 2.0”, a post-Midwinter Symposium discussion moderated by Dina Giambi, University of Delaware
Suggestions for future topics are welcome:
Contact Dina Giambi, [email protected], if you would like to moderate a discussion.
I hope you’ll all join in the Library 2.0 discussion. I plan to.
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Tags: ALA, federated search
