Category: December

LITA / ALCTS Metadata Standards Committee – December 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Impact and Assessment for Fields in Metadata Standards

During this reporting period, work has been done to investigate and/or develop a system of analysis or best practice for asking and answering the above questions. A useful framework should analyze how a typical metadata standard contributes to the success of specific stakeholders and functions (users, content management systems, preservation, administration, etc.) It should also be bold enough to discuss level of utility.

It would be important to not only propose a system for analyzing this, but to also test it out across multiple standards to determine the efficacy of the system and its potential uses/misuses for metadata. It would also be vital to gather data across multiple institutions and database types using the same standards to see how specific stakeholders/functions change the value of fields.

During this reporting period, a literature review was completed and the group has been meeting to draft an analysis framework
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
During the next three months, the group will be working on a draft of the project executive summary and work out a timeline to have a working draft out for community comment.

Submitted by Darnelle Melvin on 01/17/2020

Diversity and Inclusion Committee – December 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Buddy Program emailing has been passed on to another member for facilitation. We currently do not have any volunteers yet but we will try to send another call.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
Collaboration with LITA Research and Assessment Committee re job descriptions. We have a document in progress that will lead to some slide re: good job descriptions and a checklist for writing inclusive announcements.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy, Education and Professional Development

Third Activity
Standardizing LITA Calls for Proposal. Indefinite due date. We have another shared document with notes, examples of past calls for proposal and criteria for selection. We will produce a checklist.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
The standardizing for calls for proposal. Emerging plans for the combined LLAMA, ALCTS, LITA division. Bystander training.

Submitted by Jharina Pascual on 01/13/2020

LITA Committee Recognizing Excellence in Children’s and Young Adult Science Fiction – December 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Final list selections completed for the three Notables Lists
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Annotations written for the lists
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Third Activity
So much reading!
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Reaching out to publishers to make sure contact are still correct, orienting new committee members, beginning 2020 pub year reading and evaluation, update website with 2020 lists and place them in Cognotes during Midwinter.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
It would be great if we had a replacement for Mark Beatty so we had someone to bounce ideas and questions off of without having to bother Jenny all the time.

Additional comments or concerns:
Because we are on a different timeline than the rest of LITA committees (Feb – Jan), often our processes fall through the cracks (committee appointments process especially)

Submitted by Dena Heilik on 01/09/2020

Assessment and Research Committee – December 2020 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Continuing work on our presentation for Midwinter focusing on the 2015-2019 LITA job board postings. Emailed with Diversity & Inclusion Committee chair regarding same.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Finishing up job postings and developing new projects.

Submitted by Laura Costello on 01/09/2020

Membership Development Committee – December 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
During this period how MDC and CAM will cooperate on future LITAchat events was clarified, whether the committee should target information regarding the proposed CORE division was discussed, and the task of relaunching this initiative within the committee was taken by the Vice Chair.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
Planning for a shared networking opportunity at Midwinter, the "happy hour," between LITA, ACRL and LLAMA is almost concluded. This has been led by the chair with significant aid by our newest member, Pauline Stacchini.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Third Activity
The chair and vice chair attended a joint committee meeting led by Chrishelle Thomas focused on two initiatives, a marketing campaign focused on members' "LITA Journey" and efforts to boost LITA's "content pipeline."
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Our minimal goals are: 1) finalize contract with site for Midwinter happy hour, 2) begin scouting sites for Annual's happy hour, 3) relaunch LITAchat; and 4) begin internal discussions regarding the next leadership transition and identifying a potential next vice chair.

Submitted by Leland Deeds on 01/07/2020

Communications and Marketing Committee – December 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Working with Chrishelle to update and improve our Twitter engagement.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
Working with Chrishelle on some member engagement projects for Spring 2020 – such as helping supply questions and responses for new member discussions.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Third Activity
Revise and update CAM documentation.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We will be working with Chrishelle on identified projects to improve member engagement as well as focusing on improving our social media engagement.

Submitted by Cameron Cook on 01/03/2020

Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award Committee – December 2020 Report


The group met 0 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The committee put out the call for nominations for the Hugh C. Atkinson Memorial Award in October, with reminder emails in November and December. The committee consists of representatives from LITA (myself; I am also chair this year), ALCTS, LLAMA, and ACRL.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
Following the nominations deadline of December 6, 2019, our ALA liaison recommended that we extend the deadline to January 9, 2020. The committee agreed to extend the deadline and re-posted the call for nominations with the new deadline.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We will send a final call for nominations the first week of January. The committee will convene virtually in January to make a decision about the selection of the award winner, no later than ALA Midwinter. If a winner is selected, the committee will craft an announcement. The award will be presented at the LITA awards ceremony at ALA Annual.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Additional word-of-mouth regarding the call for nominations, as well as any submission of nominations themselves.

Please describe anything you need to bring to the LITA Board for discussion or action at their next meeting:

Submitted by Holly Tomren on 01/03/2020

Instructional Technologies Interest Group – December 2020 Report

Recent Activities

First Activity
Brainstorming other ways to be involved and collaborate with groups for IGs who do not have an ALA program at Annual. then contacted IG rep for some clarification on best ways to do this within the new structure of LITA (or across divisions if applicable).
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Reviewing any suggestions for applicable to IGs (non-committees/sponsored programs).

Submitted by Lilly Ramin on 01/01/2020

Joint Working Group on eBooks and Digital Content in Libraries – December 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
We held a virtual meeting (the group's initial meeting) in November so that we could introduce ourselves, meet the group's chairs, and discuss what the focus of the working group would be. The group decided our focus would be to address Macmillian's decision to restrict new ebook sales to libraries.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
The group will meet in person at ALA Midwinter in Philadelphia this January. At that time, specific duties will be given to group members in preparation for our next meeting.

Submitted by John Klima on 12/31/2019

Financial Advisory Committee – December 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The Financial Advisory Committee met online as a group on October 23. The committee reviewed the LITA budget information from the previous and current fiscal years, discussed budget shortfalls and projections and developed a general assessment of the association's fiscal health, which chairperson Michael Rodriguez delivered as an oral report to the Board of Directors on October 24. We agreed to meet next in January 2020, or whenever the preliminary FY21 LITA budget is distributed to the FAC.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
The Financial Advisory Committee will hold its second meeting in winter 2020 to review the current year's LITA budget and discuss the next fiscal year's budget, once information is distributed to us.

Submitted by Michael Rodriguez on 12/29/2019