HomeAmerican Libraries panel pits tech writers and exhibitors

Contact: Leonard Kniffel

Editor in Chief

American Libraries

312-280-4215

For Immediate Release

June 7, 2007

American Libraries panel pits tech writers and exhibitors

CHICAGO - American Libraries “Technically Speaking” columnist Andrew Pace and Smart Libraries Newsletter writer Marshall Breeding will moderate a first-ever panel discussion with leading technologists from seven major library vendors. Titled “Speaking Technically: A Conversation about Cutting‑Edge Library Automation and Technology,” the session will take place on the LIVE! @ your library Reading Stage in the exhibit hall on Sunday, June 24, from10:30 a.m. to noon.

Scheduled to appear are: Oren Beit‑Arie, Ex Libris; Berit Nelson, SirsiDynix; Jabe Bloom, TLC; Robin Murray, OCLC; Taco Ekkel, Medialab; Betsy Graham, Innovative Interfaces; and Rob Styles, Talis.

“This will not be an opportunity for vendor‑bashing,” said Pace, “but it will be an opportunity to ask some hard questions about developments in library technology. We’ve asked the CEOs to stay in their suites and send their best and brightest technologists to the exhibit floor for this panel.”

Watch the conversation unfold as Breeding and Pace ask this cutting‑edge group of technologists to look into the future of library automation and technology from the vendor perspective.

Pace is head of information technology at North Carolina State. Breeding is director of innovative technologies and research at Vanderbilt University Library. The program is cosponsored by American Libraries and ALA’s Exhibits Round Table to celebrate the magazine’s 100th anniversary.