Category: September

Forum Planning Committee – September 2020 Report


The group met 11+ times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Accessibility/Streaming SubCommittee (last 6 months):
* Met on February 12, 2020 and April 13, 2020
* We can make a call for volunteers for shepherding sessions as a way to get people involved to meet promotion/tenure requirements (badges in ALA Connect?)
* ADAhospitality.org is a great resource to rely upon to ensure Forum is accessible to attendees
*Forum is transitioning to a Virtual Conference
*Project management will be important for tasks that need to get done (we can use tools like, Trello)
**Each subcommittee will have distinct roles for completing these tasks
**Berika will set up a Trello Board for the entire Forum Planning committee.
*Accessibility will always remain a top consideration:
**Presenters will need to be trained on accessibility to describe visuals for those who are visually impaired and captioning (or ASL live translation) will also be needed
**There also needs to be support for call-in users and those with low vision impairment
**Carli Spina is still slated to give a webinar to accepted speakers on accessibility; she will be updated on Forum and followed up with
** We need to first address the overall structure of streaming and offering a Virtual Forum with these considerations
**We need to enforce standards for accessibility for everyone involved
*LITA Office will be handling logistics (incl. streaming with the Platform selected), this subcommittee is to focus solely on accessibility of events)
* Carli Spina released a pre-recorded webinar for accepted Forum session speakers on "Accessibility for Presenters"
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
Programming Subcommittee (last 6 months):
* Met on March 10, 2020; June 2, 2020; July 7, 2020, July 29, 2020
* Call for proposals extended 3 times from original March 30th date (April 8, May 22, and June 12)
* Registration will open soon, waiting on ALA to finish the registration form
* We can use FormStack (or alternative) to evaluate each session proposal
* To reduce bias in evaluation of submissions, identifying information will be removed (Name, Title, Institution) but Institution Type will be present (Academic, Public, School, Special, etc.)
* Total of 80 session proposals and a handful of preconference proposals were received
* *Preconference proposals were emailed about possible consideration in becoming a webinar/web course for LITA, ALCTS, and LLAMA respectively
**Session are still in the process of being selected
**All proposals will know their status by the end of August 2020
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Third Activity
Sponsorship Subcommittee (last 6 months):
* March 5, 2020; June 11, 2020
* After obtaining feedback about sponsorship opportunities for mid-size and smaller companies, we are revising our Sponsorship Propectus and making current sponsor, a top tier sponsor
* On 4/6/20, sponsorship activities were suspended until further guidance is received regarding the COVID-19 public health crisis about Forum Planning (SEE email dated 4/13 on COVID-19 Update.)
*Meeting resumed in June
*Updated emails informing potential sponsors of Core Virtual Forum went out in July 2020
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Fourth Activity
UX/Sustainability Subcommittee (Last 6 months):
* Met on March 6, 2020; May 01, 2020; June 5, 2020; July 10, 2020
* Discussed recruiting additional local arrangements subcommittee members/volunteers for the local arrangement subcommittee by reaching regional listservs (when we thought Forum was going to be in-person)
* Had questions for the LITA Office which has since been addressed:
* On 4/6/20, UX/Sustainability and Local Arrangements activities were suspended until further guidance is received regarding the COVID-19 public health crisis about Forum Planning (SEE email dated 4/13 on COVID-19 Update).
* Resumed meetings on 05/01/20
*Met with Emerging Leaders for their project on sustainability for future in-person Forums
*Discussed ideas for structured socialization:
**Virtual Lounge Zoom room
**Collaboration Room
**Schedule breaks (chair yoga, magic show)
**Evening Social Events (game night, happy hour, escape room, netflix party)
*Establishing a sense of place for attendees
**The goal here is to create an environment and experience so that attendees feel like they have a connection to their fellow attendees and eliminate the sense of being with 100 strangers on the internet and replace it with a sense of being among colleagues.
*Create a map of virtual "rooms" or spaces where different activities/conversations are taking place so that people have a visual diagram of what's going on and available to them.
**Assign attendees to a "table" that will then determine their breakout room
**Send an optional swag-bag to attendees with a handful of items that may be useful during the conference to first 100-200 registrants.
*Session moderation and speaker preparation
**Speaker preparation
***Work with Programming subcommittee to provide recommendations for incorporating interactive elements into the presentation (see the SUNYLA best practices doc for some recommendations)
***Work with Programming/speakers to hold a test practice session to ensure all presenters are acclimated to the tools.
***Session moderations – This topic actually didn't come up in the meeting, but I thought of it later. Is it the UX subcommittee or the programming subcommittee that will be responsible for coordinating session "hosts". We do this for the in person conference and I think it will be just as useful, if not more useful to have in the virtual forum.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Fifth Activity
Web/PR Subcommittee (Last 6 months):
* Met on March 10, 2020; June 01, 2020
*Official Hashtag: #CoreForum2020
*Sent out Targeted communications to LITA, ALCTS, and LLAMA respectively about tracks that might be of interest to membership for Call for Proposals
*We can work on a promotional video to promote Forum
**YouTube offers royalty free audio and library clips where no attributions are needed
*Language for updating the website with a COVID-19 contingency planning update (SEE COVID-19 Update email sent to Forum Planning Members, sent out, 4/13) – website will be updated to announce that Forum will go virtual
*Discuss a weekly PR calendar
**Every other Monday Berika will send out a draft in a Google Doc for promoting Forum
**Friday that same week is deadline for Web/PR Subcommittee to provide edits/feedback on that draft
**Following Monday final draft will be sent to Chrishelle (LITA), Brooke (ALCTS), and Fred (LLAMA) for distribution.
*Volunteer to work on various portions of the Forum website
**Statement of Appropriate Conduct Page – G.
**Planning Committee Page – K.
**Keynotes (will be published this week) — Berika will work with Web/PR Subcommittee on crafting an announcement
**All other pages (forthcoming based on speaker selections from programming and content/work from other subcommittees)
*Will work on article promoting Forum for ALCTS
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
* After LITA Office confirms contract with Learning Times, working with them to set Forum schedule with accessibility and UX considerations
* Wait on ALA office to release registration
* Complete accepting sessions for Forum and send all proposals a response
* Complete planning of social events surrounding Forum
*Follow up with potential sponsors again

Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
All non-accepted proposals will and those that indicated interest for publication will be placed in touch with the appropriate Core Committee for webinars/web course/web series and publications.

Additional comments or concerns:
For Core Forum going forward (after 2020):
Appointments committee must establish a Forum Planning leadership team consisting of 2-3 overall chairs, AND a chair for each Forum subcommittee (Accessibility, Programming, Sponsorship, UX/Sustainability, Web/PR) to reduce stress/burn out on one person. This must happen upfront, before the committee is established.

Submitted by Berika Williams on 08/04/2020

Instructional Technologies Interest Group – September 2020 Report

Recent Activities

First Activity
Mainly monitoring CORE website changes, ALA Connect posts and the head's up email.

We usually have a business meeting or pitch a program at ALA Annual which was not an option. I tweeted and posted to ALA Connect the official news about CORE so people who followed based on sessions or using connect would be aware. No replies to CORE announcement.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
I reviewed the listserv for engagement in the last year – mostly just calls for participation in conference or ad for vendor products. While the over 400 members is one thing, there has not been any "discussion" here this year. (Activity is filling out this report with detail : )
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
My Chair position expired in July but i can assist in August with feedback or transition. I will post again to LITA Connect this month based on CORE's decision on this, other interest groups. There have not been any inquiries or requests on ALA Connect LITAITIG site, or the LITA ITIG listserv.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Not really – every one is adjusting and doing what they can under difficult circumstances. If I had been contacted before the Aug 4th date I might have been able to provide more targeted feedback based on where CORE might be leaning with IGS as the current chair, and encouraged members. However, that may not be decided yes due to more pressing matters (Like the need to stay safe!) so I provided extra feedback on in the comments section.

Additional comments or concerns:
I have not been contacted about this IG specifically, but unless you find more board members it's time to sunset, or merge some of these themes to a committee (Or IGs if those continue in CORE). This could be groups using technology for educational purposes (very broad) or topics of privacy — which was the theme of last year's program. The emphasis tends to be on committee work, as it may be so perhaps that would be a better option than the IG if they want to do programming. The programs were a was a lot of work, but I'm happy with the outcome of two well attended sessions with this IG.

In terms of membership and roles – sunseting or merging topics with another group will not affect anyone else. This is so importatnt terms of conference funding or committee commitments (sometimes needed for travel justifications in academic at least). It's just been me for this IG officially (although Bree Kirsch helped last two years as a speaker!) No one is listed on the 2020 site for . Here is the 2019 site: http://www.ala.org/lita/about/igs/insttech/lit-igit?year=2019

Communtity – ALA Connect:
https://connect.ala.org/communities/community-home?communitykey=1b472812-3dbf-46b1-bc91-e0bfe96c6bff&tab=groupdetails

Now you have 3 divisions of CORE, and expert in marketing, it's a great time to see what works best for the CORE membership, not only attend but serve in roles. Special thanks to Jenny for all her support from day 1! Hope you are doing well. Thanks.

Submitted by Lilly Ramin on 08/03/2020

ITAL Editorial Board – September 2020 Report


The group met 2-3 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Published the March and June quarterly issue of ITAL, the latter despite the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Reviewed Editorial Board membership and vacancies; we had only one current member who opted out of a second term, so decided with the Core vote on the horizon not to advertise for new ITAL editorial board members pending the outcome. We are comfortable with the moving forward with the remaining editorial board for the coming year as things become clear about journals under Core.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
Continued our work to understand the scope of topics that we publish in relation to short and long-term popularity (downloads and citations). Originally intended to more clearly define ITAL's niche in the library literature, this research and eventual reporting will be significant in understanding overlaps and distinctions between ITAL, LL&M, and LRTS.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Fourth Activity
The routine work of reviewing incoming submissions for broad fit with ITAL's scope, peer review of submissions, and generating journal content continues.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
The September 2020 issue's peer-reviewed content has been copyedited and will soon be sent to ALA Publication Services for proofreading. Columns receive only copy editing and are not due until late August. We have accepted 5 of 7 articles for the December issue and will soon begin populating March 2021.

I expect the ITAL Editorial Board will be deeply engaging with the recommendations of the Core Publications Working Group as we move to transition into one unified publication strategy.

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

Submitted by Ken Varnum on 07/27/2020

Membership Development Committee – September 2019 Report


The group met 0 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Separate phone meetings were held with the past-chair and Vice Chair for planning purposes. Current committee membership were messaged requesting a response to a Doodle poll for establishing a consistent monthly meeting date/time. Committee working documents were updated. The committee's first zoom meeting will be in October. LITA staff were contacted to confirm our committee's "happy hour budget" for the year, and an initial list of locations has been suggested for Philadelphia.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Second Activity
After follow up with LITA staff and the past chair I will be reaching out to the new leadership of CAM to gauge the level of involvement they desire for moderating LITAchat in the upcoming year.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
The MDC's immediate work will be: (1) planning for happy hour in Philadelphia, (2) establishing a topics roster for the 2019-2020 LITAchat series, and (3) confirming if and planning the 101 Open House recording for Midwinter.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
It would have been nice to receive a confirmed committee roster and budget for the year.

Submitted by Leland Deeds on 10/03/2019

Instructional Technologies Interest Group – September 2019 Report

Recent Activities

First Activity
Coordinated speaker content, included LITA info shared by rep, marketed session on social media, and facilitated a a session at ALA Annual https://www.eventscribe.com/2019/ALA-Annual/fsPopup.asp?Mode=presInfo&PresentationID=496275
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Second Activity
Reviewed feedback from LITA and provided comments. Posted pictures and thread of tweet with people who used comment or hashtag for program in ALA Connect Community site for Instructional Technologies IG :
https://connect.ala.org/lita/communities/community-home?communitykey=1b472812-3dbf-46b1-bc91-e0bfe96c6bff&tab=groupdetails
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

Third Activity
posted welcome message to Chrishelle Thomas (LITA's new Membership and Marketing Manager). Excited to have an opportunity to seek marketing help with fellow IGs.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Last two years I did a program with this interest group instead of a business meeting. I decided not submit a program this year. Started discussions with frequent collaborator on other ideas (meetups, meetings, etc)

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Thank you for asking. I did have some feedback relating to the program session.

Marketing on social media and web pages ? At least retweets from speakers who are promoting their LITA sessions on their own? (Example: Bree, Bobbi and I did this for our session)

Although our session was LITA sponsored we were not included in either the Interest Group Discussion Sessions for ALA Annual 2019 http://www.ala.org/lita/conferences/annual/2019/igsessions

or General ALA LITA highlights pages:
http://www.ala.org/lita/lita-highlights-2019-ala-annual-conference

The session was on a Monday at the same time as George Takai but we still had a pretty great turn out.

Maybe some extra pre conference tips for IGs/presenters (like what technology you have to bring for session/who to contact for technology issues/role of LITA IG person at session) and people working with IGs/presenters (sending communication early enough for presentation edits) might be helpful.

All that said, I am grateful we had this opportunity and session accepted by ALA and LITA.

Additional comments or concerns:
Thank you, especially Jenny Levine, for support.

Submitted by Lilly Ramin on 10/01/2019

Program Planning Committee – September 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The working list of email distribution and discussion lists was updated and revised to facilitate posting of the LITA Call for Program Proposals for Annual 2020. Members of the committee posted the call to many of the email and discussion lists to help spread the word during the month of August.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
Committee meeting was held online August 26 via Zoom. Mark Beatty informed the committee of his impending retirement and briefed us on the process for reviewing program and pre-conference proposals. Next steps were discussed and John Hernandez asked members to continue to post the call for proposals. See minutes at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U0T4SN0dweNQA0S4ZCtWze-CyaQeRFlt1XllqJ2eUUY/edit?usp=sharing
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Review of program proposals received.
Updating documentation for future committee work.

Submitted by John Hernandez on 10/01/2019

Diversity and Inclusion Committee – September 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
Submit a proposal for ALA Annual 2020.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Advocacy and Information Policy

Second Activity
Assign new facilitator for the LITA Conference Buddy Program.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Third Activity
Introduce new members and share 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 on the joint proposal with the Assessment and Research Committee regarding LITA job descriptions. Also, if our ALA Annual proposal is accepted, we will send out the call for presentations.

Submitted by Jharina Pascual on 10/01/2019

Assessment and Research Committee – September 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
We have been working on updating the LITA Jobs dataset so that we can analyze it for a presentation at Midwinter. Chair also met with Jharina Pascual (Chair of LITA Diversity & Inclusion Committee) to start the conversation around collaborations for the same presentation.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We're going to continue working on the jobs dataset until we have enough data to analyze, then start putting together our collaborative presentation with the Diversity & Inclusion Committee for Midwinter.

Submitted by Laura Costello on 10/01/2019

Publications Committee – September 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
A sub-committee was formed to develop recommendations for work the Publications committee should work on this year, including subjects, resources, and finding potential authors for books and journal articles. The timeline is to have recommendations for an October meeting and ideas will be assigned to other committee members at that time.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Following-up on recommendations from the sub-committee described above.
Documenting responsibilities and goals of the committee.
Deciding on and documenting editorial practices and policies.
Deciding what, if anything, the committee will do about PR, including calls for proposals for monographs and publicizing new journal issues/articles.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Better communication between this committee and the LITA staff would be welcome. We’ve been told by LITA staff that we are responsible for promoting publications when promotions does not appear to be in the committee charge and the job description revision for the ITAL editor was not brought to the committee for consideration despite this appearing to be a committee responsibility in the LITA Manual.

Submitted by Julie Housknecht on 09/30/2019

Publications Committee – September 2019 Report


The group met 1 time this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
A sub-committee was formed to develop recommendations for work the Publications committee should work on this year, including subjects, resources, and finding potential authors for books and journal articles. The timeline is to have recommendations for an October meeting and ideas will be assigned to other committee members at that time.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Following-up on recommendations from the sub-committee described above.
Documenting responsibilities and goals of the committee.
Deciding on and documenting editorial practices and policies.
Deciding what, if anything, the committee will do about PR, including calls for proposals for monographs and publicizing new journal issues/articles.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
Better communication between this committee and the LITA staff would be welcome. We’ve been told by LITA staff that we are responsible for promoting publications when promotions does not appear to be in the committee charge and the job description revision for the ITAL editor was not brought to the committee for consideration despite this appearing to be a committee responsibility in the LITA Manual.

Submitted by Julie Housknecht on 09/30/2019