Category: May

LITA / ALCTS Metadata Standards Committee – May 2019 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Continued work on the Assessment for Fields in Metadata Standards project. The committee has formed a subgroup representing both ALCTS and LITA members to populate the framework definition table. The sub-committee has met once during this reporting period.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy, Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
The committee, working with previous committee members, harvested the content of Metaware.Buzz before the site was shuttered. The content is currently stored in the Metadata Standards Committee Google drive. We are exploring options within the ALA framework for making the information available again.
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 to transition the Metadata Standards Assessment framework to the next set of committee members to continue the work. We're exploring options for outgoing members to continue to work on the project through assigned sub-group work. We will be meeting at the ALA Annual conference to discuss next steps..

Submitted by Michael Bolam on 05/24/2019

Authority Control Interest Group (ALCTS/LITA) – May 2019 Report

Recent Activities

First Activity
Planning the program for ALA annual. The primary focus : In 2018, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) replaced its ILS with OCLC’s WorldShare Management System (WMS). As a part of the transition, LAC split its single, bilingual authority file Canadiana Authorities into separate English and French language files and joined NACO in order to manage its English-language authority records. This panel will discuss this national library’s history of bilingual cataloguing, the reason for the changes, and the attempt to ensure that the two files “talk” to each other.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
preparation for the 2020 ALA Midwinter conference.


The incoming chair is Lisa Robinson

Submitted by Martha Rice Sanders and Lisa Robinson on 05/23/2019

Heads of Library Technology Interest Group – February 2019 Report

Recent Activities

First Activity
I’ve request our meeting at Annual to be Saturday afternoon. This is the program that is planned.

Discovery Layer Decisions and Configurations: A Panel Discussion

Decisions abound when implementing a discovery layer. Does the library use one discovery layer to access all their materials? Or select multiple products? Or create different instances of the same product? For the different products/instances, which parts of the collection are targeted? This session will be a panel discussion between four libraries on how they reached their decisions, how they implemented them, and how they assessed their impact.

Allen Jones, The New School
Michael Paulmeno, Skidmore College
Cynthia R. Schwarz, Temple University
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Programs for Midwinter and Annual

The incoming chair is Kelly Kobiela

Submitted by Ray Schwartz and Kelly Kobiela on 03/31/2019

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

Intellectual Freedom Committee – February 2019 Report


The group met 4+ times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Intellectual Freedom manual updates – We have been working on updating the interpretations to the Library Bill of Rights for the Intellectual freedom manual.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy, Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
Interpretations working groups – I am the chair of the Access to Digital Information, Resources, and Networks interpretation working group which has met twice. I am also on the working groups for the Privacy interpretation and the minors and internet activity. The work on these interpretations will continue through spring and will be presented to Council at Annual. I am also signed up to work on several FAQ’s related to the interpretations.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy, Education and Professional Development

Third Activity
IFC meeting – I attended the Intellectual Freedom Committee meeting in Chicago March 22-24. During this meeting, we reviewed all the comments from the working groups for the interpretations, and FAQ documents in preparation for widespread ALA review and a council vote at Annual.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Over the next three months, work will continue on several of the interpretations, and FAQ documents in preparation for the annual conference. I am leading several of the working groups, and I am a member of several others that all have planned online meetings during the next few months.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
No.

What support would be needed to make that member engagement happen?
{Not sure at this time.}

Submitted by Matt Beckstrom on 03/29/2019