HomeALCTS Announces Midwinter Symposium on Risk and Entrepreneurshi

Contact: Charles Wilt
Executive Director, ALCTS
312-280-5030
 cwilt@ala.org

For Immediate Release,
October 30, 2007

ALCTS announces Midwinter Symposium on risk and entrepreneurship in libraries

The Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) is pleased to announce that registration is now open for “Risk and Entrepreneurship in Libraries: Seizing Opportunities for Change,” an ALCTS Midwinter Symposium to be held Friday, Jan. 11, in Philadelphia, just prior to ALA's Midwinter Meeting.

Every library is facing challenges in adapting to the rapidly evolving information environment. In most cases, the process of change involves a willingness to take risks but may also offer opportunities for entrepreneurship. The ALCTS Midwinter symposium will examine the concept of risk taking and entrepreneurship in libraries in general, with a special emphasis on collections and technical services. Speakers from different types of libraries will describe how they have implemented innovative changes and managed their risks. ALCTS invites you to hear our speakers and to take inspiration back to your home library!

Confirmed speakers include Marshall Keys (MDA Consulting, former executive director of NELINET and an adjunct faculty member at Simmons' Graduate School of Library and Information Science, where he teaches a course on information entrepreneurship); Rivkah Sass (Director, Omaha Public Library and Library Journal's 2006 Librarian of the Year); Mike Carroll (Villanova University School of Law and an authority on Creative Commons licenses); Regina Reynolds (head of the U.S. ISSN Center at the Library of Congress and a respected authority on contemporary cataloging issues); and Scottie Cochrane (director of the Denison College Library, which has created a single collection-services unit with its sister institution, Kenyon College).

Registration is through the ALA Midwinter registration form available on the ALA web site at http://www.ala.org/ala/eventsandconferencesb/midwinter/2008/registration.htm.

Advance Registration (by November 30th) is $199 for ALCTS members, $249 for ALA members, $299 for non-members and $99 for students and retirees.

For more information, visit the ALCTS web site at http://www.ala.org/alcts .

ALCTS is a division of the American Library Association.