Interest Group Discussion Sessions for ALA Midwinter 2018

2018 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver

LITA Meetings and Interest Group discussion sessions descriptions listed by day, time, alphabetical by name, and multi-division meetings.

Saturday, February 10

Linked Library Data Interest Group (ALCTS LITA)
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 705/707
8:30 am - 10:00 am
Session Name: "I Know Very Well How I Got My Name": Linked Data Authority Projects

Please join us for three exciting presentations on linked data name authority projects. After our speaker presentations, the group will have an opportunity for questions and discussion.


1. What works and what doesn’t? Name Reconciliation Work and Management of Digitized Special Collections
As libraries transform and publish their data as linked open data, they face a number of challenges. Included among these challenges are two key questions: How can we recognize and reconcile named entities already described in established linked open data sources, and how can we best manage unique names often found in local special collections’ data, but not found elsewhere? Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Linked Open Data (LOD) for Digitized Special Collections project at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library has provided an opportunity to address these two questions through lessons learned from three of the University Library’s digitized special collections, two image-based theater collections, and a TEI-encoded text collection. This presentation illustrates how the project has combined manual and automatic reconciliation processes to improve the matching results, and an approach to creating and publishing local name authority files in an LOD format.

Speaker:
Myung-Ja (“MJ”) K. Han is a Metadata Librarian and Associate Professor of Library Administration at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on interoperability of metadata, metadata modeling, bibliographic control in the digital library environment, and the use of Linked Open Data in library service architectures and implementations.

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2. Western Name Authority File: Linking People and Corporate Bodies
The Western Name Authority File (WNAF) project was funded by an IMLS planning grant in early 2016 to explore and pilot a system for developing a collaborative, regional authority file for personal names and corporate bodies from digital collection metadata. We presented the background and issues to be explored at the Linked Library Data Interest Group at ALA Annual 2016, and now as we near the end of the two year grant, we will provide an update on the data model we've chosen for our vocabulary, what we've done to collect and reconcile names from a variety of partner institutions, and the emerging vocabulary workflows that we're in the process of developing in order to make the WNAF available as linked open data.

Speakers:
Anna Neatrour is the Digital Initiatives Librarian at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library. She previously was a metadata librarian at the Marriott Library and at the Mountain West Digital Library. She received her MLIS from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Jeremy Myntti is Head of Digital Library Services at the University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library. This position allows him the opportunity to work closely with faculty and staff who are digitizing, creating metadata, and digitally preserving library and partner content. He received his MLIS from the University of Alabama.

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3. Introducing Cedar: A Linked Data Authority Service at the University of Houston Libraries
In 2016, as part of the development of a new digital access and preservation ecosystem, the University of Houston Libraries established Cedar, a local linked data thesaurus. Using SKOS, Cedar includes terms for subjects, individual and organization names, place names, and time periods found in the Libraries’ digital library and electronic theses and dissertations (ETD) collection from the UH institutional repository. While Cedar includes terms from national authority files, it also accommodates locally created terms with emphasis on personal, organization, and place names. Over the last two years, the metadata unit has deployed the software and developed strategies and workflows for term entry and use in our digital production workflows. Additionally, we collaborated with our cataloging unit to leverage this system to perform authority control in traditional MARC cataloging for ETDs in a more efficient way. This presentation will outline the development of the tool focusing on the thesaurus design, the workflow of creating local authority records, the use of the application, as well as lessons learned and future directions.

Speakers:
Xiping Liu is a Resource Description Librarian at the University of Houston M.D. Anderson Library. She is responsible for original cataloging library materials in all formats. She received her MLIS from Rutgers University.
Anne Washington is the Metadata Librarian at the University of Houston M.D. Anderson Library. She is responsible for managing metadata creation and maintenance for the University of Houston Digital Library. She received her MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Andrew Weidner is the Metadata Services Coordinator at the University of Houston M.D. Anderson Library where he oversees digitization and metadata for digital collections. He received his MLIS from the University of North Texas.

Library Consortia Automated Systems Interest Group
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 605/607
10:30 am - 11:30 am
As part of  the LITA All Committees and Interest Groups Meeting

This group offers a free form discussion of activities and issues related to shared ILS systems and other cooperative IT-based services.  If you are struggling with an issue, this is a great place to ask how other systems, regardless of ILS platform, deal with it.  If you’re doing something wonderful, come share your ideas.

LITA E-rate and CIPA Interest Group
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 605/607
10:30 am - 11:30 am
As part of  the LITA All Committees and Interest Groups Meeting

Join the LITA E-rate and CIPA Interest Group to discuss options for filtering.

LITA Drupal4Lib Interest Group
The Curtis, Patty-Cake Room
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Join us for presentations on experiences using Drupal, a lively discussion of Drupal in libraries, and to network with other library professionals using Drupal at all skill levels

Universal Accessibility Interest Group (ACRL ASCLA LITA)
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 708
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Joint ACRL/ASCLA/LITA working group. Members work together on project related to making all kinds of libraries and library services accessible for users with disabilities.

MARC Formats Transition Interest Group (ALCTS LITA)
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 303
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm

The MARC Formats Transition IG will be hosting a managed discussion on Linked Data Tools and Local Practices. The following speakers have agreed to come share what they are doing at their institutions:
Barbara Bushman, National Library of Medicine
Jodi Williamschen & Sally McCallum, Network Development & MARC Standards Office, Library of Congress
Brian Rennick, Brigham Young University

LITA Women in Information Technology Interest Group
The Curtis, Dodgeball Room
4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

This will be a business meeting to discuss topics for 2018 Annual and general meeting to discuss topics of interest to the group.

Sunday, February 11

LITA Maker Technology Interest Group
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 302
10:30 am - 11:30 am

Come meet your fellow makers, share information and resources and help us set the direction of the group at an informal membership meeting and information share.

Electronic Resources Management Interest Group (LITA ALCTS)
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 303
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

Please join the LITA/ALCTS Electronic Resources Management Interest Group for our ALA Midwinter panel on “Vendor Relationships: Build, Negotiate, Transform.” This panel will feature presentations followed by discussion, questions from the moderator (interest group chair Michael Rodriguez), and audience Q&A. 

Program Description
 
Libraries and vendors are all too often trapped in the paradigm of simply exchanging content and services for dollars. Moving away from this legacy approach, our panel will ask: How can vendors and libraries build strategic partnerships? How can we collaborate to create better resources and services and to transform the scholarly communication ecosystem? What can impede these partnerships? What are some best practices for libraries to negotiate and advocate effectively and ethically with vendors? Are positive working relationships always necessary or feasible? What roles can library consortia play in this ecosystem? And ultimately, how can we as libraries collectively build, negotiate, sustain, leverage, and transform our vendor relationships?
 
Speakers
  • Jason Chabak, Director of Institutional Sales & Business Development at ReadCube
  • Lindsay Cronk, Head of Collection Strategies at the University of Rochester
  • Allen Jones, Director for Digital Library and Technical Services at the New School
  • Christine Stamison, Director of the NorthEast Research Libraries Consortium
  • Kimberly Steinle, Library Relations and Sales Manager at Duke University Press

LITA Patron Privacy and Open Source Systems Interest Group Joint Meeting
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 712
1:00 pm - 2:30 pm

This is a joint meeting with the LITA Patron Privacy Interest Group and the LITA Open Source Systems Interest Group.

Authority Control Interest Group (ALCTS LITA)
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 203/205
2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
The joint LITA/ALCTS Authority Control Interest Group provides a forum for discussion of a variety of issues related to authority control for online cataloging and international sharing of authority data. This meetings speakers and topics are:

Nancy Lorimer, Stanford University 
Nancy will speak about work of the PCC Task Group on URIs in MARC. 
 
Amber Billey, Bard College 
Nancy Sack, University of Hawaii at Manoa 
Amber Billey and Nancy Sack will discuss the background of and the Report of the PCC Ad Hoc Task Group on Gender in Name Authority Records. 
 
Violet Fox 
The Gestalt of Authority Work: Making Sense of Identity Management 
As authority work moves further from the core idea of formulating unique headings for use in bibliographic-central catalogs, we lack an organizing principle which defines the rationale behind our policies and procedures. The extent of our technological capabilities are defining the scope of our records without a manifest understanding of why we are creating those records. This presentation will explore examples of the ethical challenges that face us in identity management, and suggest ways the library community can move forward with clarity. 
 
Authority Control Interest Group
Beth Shoemaker, Emory University 
Violet Fox 
Roman Panchyshyn, Kent State University 
Susan C. Wynne, University of Iowa 
 
Join the members of the Authority Control Interest Group and organizers of the CaMMS Forum for a brainstorming session on ethical issues in authority control. Bring your ideas, comments, concerns.

Monday, February 12

LITA Town Meeting
Colorado Convention Center, Rm 201
8:30 am - 10:00 am

Join your fellow LITA members for breakfast and a discussion about LITA's strategic path. We will focus on how LITA's goals--collaboration and networking; education and sharing of expertise; advocacy; and infrastructure--help our organization serve you and the broader library community. This Town Meeting will help us turn those goals into plans that will guide LITA going forward.