All Sessions

“The library is all about books.” “Libraries can’t charge for services.” The customers don’t want to learn.” “We must have databases!” When we have a mental model of something, it shapes our behavior and limits our creativity in finding solutions. With all the changes in the library world, innovative, out of the box thinking is required. Come do some mental model busting and experience how shifting your thinking can open a new world of possibilities for you and your library.

An informal meeting to share information regarding print archive projects

A pre-conference session for academic assessment librarians and senior management. Presented by Joe Matthews, noted library consultant, library assessment guru, co-author of the award winning book "Listening to the Customer", as well as "The Customer-Focused Library: Reinventing the Public Library from the Outside-In".
Sponsored by Counting Opinions.

Meeting of the ALCTS Transforming Collections TG

EBSCO-sponsored awards to recognize contributions of community college librarians. Pre-registration is required for dinner. Social hour begins @ 6:00. Tickets and registration to be handled through ACRL.

Discovery systems are powerful tools to help users find information resources across the breadth of the library's online holdings. Many of these tools offer APIs for libraries to build their own user interfaces to the search index, allowing a library to keep site visitors within the library until the time they access the full text of a resource. What are the pros and cons of keeping discovery local? This talk will explore the user interaction, interface design, and user expectations of such homegrown interfaces.

Libraries are usually organized for patrons who know what they want-the layout, guiding and catalogue all support the focused user. Research in the UK has demonstrated that many library patrons do not have specific authors and titles in mind; they are looking to be tempted while browsing. Rachel Van Riel will explore the implications of this research for managing library spaces, book collections and displays. She will show how to create an 'Impulse' area near the front door of the library can have a dramatic effect on both circulation and patron satisfaction.

What if you could customize your library system, the same way you do your Facebook page or iPhone—and then share it? The OCLC WorldShare Platform lets you share apps, ideas and creativity with the entire library community and beyond. Hear from a panel of app-makers about their innovations and how you can use them.

Librarians and journalists can work together more effectively to contribute and create value added content to our community. Both thrive on the same mission of providing information to the masses, as well as preserving the history of their communities. This can be done by showing our communities how to make and preserve their own news, build and create community histories and provide access to information in a timely fashion without compromising integrity and validity of the content important to communities at hand.

Speakers:
- Amy Buckland, eScholarship, ePublishing & Digitization Coordinator (McGill University)
- Marsha Iverson, Public Relations Specialist (King County Library System)

The linked data movement is an effort to develop best practices for publishing and connecting structured data on the Web. This panel will examine efforts to create an environment in which all cultural heritage institutions can more easily contribute to the open Web.

The greatest challenge for discovery systems is providing users with the most relevant search results out of the immense landscape of content. Similar to human interaction between two parties, where people adjust in tone, language, and subject matter, discovery systems need to “understand” the user’s context as well as the materials’ scholarly value. The session will describe Ex Libris Primo’s approach to relevance ranking. In addition to employing traditional information-retrieval methods that have been adapted to scholarly data, ScholarRank takes into account the intrinsic academic value of materials along with information about the user and the user’s research needs.

Meeting of the Catalog Form and Function Interest Group

Did you attend this Interest Group meeting? Take our post-conference survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/alctsevents2012

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go farther, go together." This African proverb exemplifies the power of working together as a community.

Learn how consortia are experimenting with new forms of collaboration to improve their services, demonstrate their value, and increase the visibility of their members. And learn ways to creatively think about new types of partnerships that can take us from “institution-scale” to “Webscale." Participants will have the opportunity to share examples of successful, new collaborative projects or services they have formed, and how these new relationships have served to strengthen their interactions with their communities, libraries and library users.

Novelty and innovation are needed to respond to today's challenges. Libraries and librarians are hungry for new and creative approaches to asking questions and finding answers.

Cooperation among school and public libraries has been reported in the literature as early as 1876. Professional discussions, research and writing regarding collaborative partnerships fall into two approaches: cooperation and Joint use. This program address the extent to which this library service model transforms education into a community-wide literacy program, shaping and defining the democratization of societies and moving communities along the path to sustainability. Attendees will learn of current research findings that this library service model contributes to community literacy, lifelong learning and a sense of community at a cost savings.

Cooperative and consortial resource sharing is blurring the lines between Circulation, Access Services, and Interlibrary Loan as libraries find new ways to share collections and create efficiencies. This session will look at the future of consortia: shared e-book collections, floating collections, cloud-based integrated library systems, and the need to be increasingly flexible and collaborative to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future.

As the concept of library as “community living room” or “learning commons” has firmly taken hold, the definition of Library has expanded in the public’s mind. Library buildings are increasingly housing many amenities that on the surface appear unrelated to traditional libraries. Join us in a discussion about these spaces, why they are intrinsically related to library missions today, and how libraries are incorporating them into their facilities.

To provide an opportunity for directors of college libraries to exchange views on issues facing college libraries.

Business meeting to discuss issues of mutual interest to museums, archives and libraries, set strategy to address those concerns, and plan 2013 annual conference programs.

Join the ALA Public Programs Office and the National Endowment for the Humanities for an advance screening of "Islamic Arts," which is set for broadcast on PBS stations in July 2012. A scholar-led film discussion will follow the screening, with information about how to receive a free copy of the film with public performance rights for your library. "Islamic Art" is being offered to libraries as part of the NEH's "Bridging Cultures Bookshelf on Muslim Journeys" grant initiative.

Narrated by Academy Award winning performer Susan Sarandon, this dazzling documentary reveals the variety and diversity of Islamic art. It provides a window into Islamic culture and brings broad insights to the enduring themes that have propelled human history and fueled the rise of world civilization over the centuries. Join us for an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history, exploring the stories behind many great masterworks of Islamic Art and Architecture.

Speakers: Karen Kenton, Senior Program Officer, Division of Public Programs, National Endowment for the Humanities; Daniel Tutt, Outreach Director, Unity Productions Foundation; Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, National Project Scholar, Reed College; Lainie Castle, Project Director, ALA Public Programs Office

Preview: http://www.islamicart.tv/

See also: www.ala.org/programming/muslimjourneys