LITA / Library Hi Tech Award Committee

LITA / Library Hi Tech Award Committee – May 2020 Report

The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Posted a call for nominations for the LITA/Library-Hi Tech award (December, January)
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
Scored applicants and selected an award recipient (February)
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Nothing. Our group's work is completed, and I believe Emerald does not plan to sponsor this award going forward.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
I was new to this committee, so I would have appreciated some contact and guidance between agreeing to be chair and when the work needed to begin. I was unclear about what needed to happen, so we got a late start. That said, all worked out well in the end.

Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
I'd love to see the award continue, even if Emerald will no longer sponsor. We need ways to recognize those who make a significant impact.

Submitted by Janet Crum on 07/29/2020

LITA / Library Hi Tech Award Committee – December 2019 Report

The group met 0 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Sent call for nominations to lita-l and other email lists.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
Chair contacted committee members to provide timeline and solicit input into process
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We will review nominations after the revised deadline of 1/17 and forward our recommended candidate to our board representative by March 1.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Yes. I received no communication after agreeing to chair the group until late October and no guidance on how to proceed until I asked. It would be helpful for new chairs who are also new to a particular committee to receive an orientation early on.

Submitted by Janet Crum on 12/23/2019

LITA / Library Hi Tech Award Committee – May 2019 Report

The group met 0 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
In March and April we drafted and, with the LITA Director, finalized the award press release.

Work was coordinated by email with no formal meeting.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
In April, as part of the regular committee renewal process, we reviewed the charge for the Committee and confirmed that the Committee should continue.

Work was coordinated by email with no formal meeting.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
In April the Chair of the Committee drafted the citation to appear on the award.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
This concludes the work of our committee for this year

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
A better sense of continuity with previous years of the award committee. We have tried to record our process transparently, should it be useful for future reference.

Submitted by Tod Olson on 05/24/2019

LITA / Library Hi Tech Award Committee – February 2019 Report

The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Agreed on the factors we would use to help compare award nominees. Listed these factors in spreadsheet as a record of our process.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
Rated the nominees on each criteria, again leaving a record of our process.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
Made final selection, informed by our ratings and communicated decision to LITA Director and provided information for the press release.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Nothing. The award has been offered and accepted, the very little work remaining is for the Chair.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Some historical understanding of how past iterations of this award committee did it’s work, and some guidance on whether there is a need to be consistent with or improve upon past process. There was the schedule, which was necessary. But we didn’t have a sense of how many or what quality of nominees we should shoot for, or if there was an expectation about the decision making process itself.

On a practical note, we learned that email from Connect is sometimes flagged as spam or otherwise obscured by mail clients. A heads up on email problems we should watch for would would have saved some annoyance.

Additional comments or concerns:
Just a general question about how much continuity of process is wanted from year-to-year. We tried to leave a good trail in Connect if next year’s committee wants to look at our process.

Submitted by Tod Olson on 03/29/2019

LITA / Hi Tech Award Committee – December 2018 Report

The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Met to discuss what to do about the lack of nominations for the award. Our goal was to have multiple solid nominations so that the committee has an actual decision to make. We determined to (1) increase the reminders about the announcement, (2) reach out to individuals who were involved enough in the community to make thoughtful nominations, and (3) extend the deadline until mid-January, so it’s not lost in the holidays.
We then decided to meet next in mid-January to determine how to proceed, on the assumption that we would have received some solid nominations.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We will make explicit factors that we will consider in selecting an award recipient. We will also leave some record of our process, so that future committees will have a little more of a documented process and more explicit framework for selecting a recipient.

Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
We have given Jenny some suggestions for things to be included in next year’s announcement, based on questions from nominators and committee members.

Additional comments or concerns:
My main concern has been how to provide some sense of continuity for subsequent years. The other concern is that a Dec. 31 close of nominations seems pre-ordained to come into conflict with the holidays and other end-of-year activities. So it would be good to consider changing that, or perhaps better to raise that up-front with next year’s committee and let then decide how to deal with the timing.

Submitted by Tod Olson on 01/19/2019