Category: Education and Professional Development

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


The group met 4-6 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
As a committee, we have met six times since Midwinter — April 9, April 30, May 21, June 18, July 9, and August 6 via Zoom, and are in touch in between via Connect and Slack. Independently, we are making our way through both publisher submissions (with 150 evaluations submitted as of August 7) and other titles we have identified as potential for the three lists that make up the Notables.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development

Second Activity
Tis group has been very conscientious in attending online meetings, especially considering we have a wide range of time zones, from Maritime Canada to Pacific island.s. Past-chair and current administrative assistant Dena Heilik is in touch with publishers to solicit submissions, and we have designated Jodi Purcell as chair-elect.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
We are moving to the stage of finalizing the lists, and will be reading intensively over the next few months as well as creating the annotations for the website. We will notify publishers after the Youth Media Award announcements.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
WE are very grateful for the Zoom platform availability, it has been indispensible.

Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
Since we were not able to conduct an author program at Annual, we are hoping that we can showcase the list in the future via a virtual event.

Additional comments or concerns:
Thank you for all of the communications regarding the transition to CORE.

Submitted by Wendy Stephens on 08/07/2020

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

Membership Development Committee – May 2020 Report


The group met 4-6 times this quarter.

Recent Activities

First Activity
The committee coordinated a joint LITA/LLAMA/ALCTS "happy hour" during Midwinter at Roy Pitz Barrel House, led by Pauline Stacchini. The event was well attended, attendees represented a mix of divisions, and received positive feedback.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

Second Activity
The committee's Vice Chair, Anne Pepitone, led a series of LITAchat events beginning in April that covered both lighter-hearted topics, such as favorite zoom backgrounds, more serious topics, such as self care and morale management during alternate operations, and professional development topics, such as tools that aid productivity working from home. Anne's ability to make these social media enabled discussions interactive, fun but also earnest in their tone made them a success.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Education and Professional Development, Member Engagement

Third Activity
The committee hosted a virtual "happy hour" event for LITA/ALCTS/LLAMA divisions in June, alongside ALA's virtual annual conference. The event was held using Zoom and was co-hosted by Anne Pepitone and Ida Joiner, and featured comments by outgoing division presidents, games and a general social/networking time.
Meets LITA’s strategic goals for Member Engagement, Organizational Stability and Sustainability

What will your group be working on for the next three months?
Under the leadership of Anne Pepitone, the committee will take part in transitional exercises as the divisions comprising the future Core work to align themselves toward a unified, reoriented structure and mission.

Is there anything LITA could have provided during this time that would have helped your group with its work?
This was a difficult, transitional year characterized primarily by uncertainty of the future. As such the committee, with no differing guidance, focused on the already established annual events and items left to it, such as LITAchat and the happy hour events.

Please provide suggestions for future education topics, initiatives, publications, resources, or other activities that could be developed based on your group’s work.
Establishing, during this transitional phase, a series of outreach "touch points" with membership will be vital as Core collectively defines itself to its members. Within LITA this falls across both the MDC and Communications committees. In Core it will be important that whomever owns this responsibility that individual members are communicated with frequently to facilitate a new, group sense of community as Core, not as refugees of LITA.

Submitted by Leland Deeds on 08/02/2020

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

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

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