Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Bibliography: Dynamic Web Conferencing and Presentation Skills For Effective Meetings, Trainings, and Learning Sessions

My colleague, Paul Signorelli, shared this bibliography with me.  The introduction states:
Web conferencing increasingly is becoming part of our communication toolbox through a variety of free and paid services as we use it to conduct meetings and provide workplace leaning and performance opportunities with colleagues near and far. While not completely replacing our face-to-face workplace encounters, the use of web conferencing tools is proving effective in overcoming many of the constraints we face in terms of travel costs, time, and producing positive, long-term results. What is often lacking, however, is an understanding of the presentation skills which take full advantage of the possibilities offered through
web-conferencing.

The following resource list is intended help those new to web-conferencing familiarize themselves with its possibilities while calling attention to basic and innovative elements of contemporary presentation styles.
If you're teaching online, in any form, this bibliography may have resources that could be useful to you.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Presentations from LC Designing Storage Architectures 2014 Meeting

On September 22-23, 2014 the Library of Congress hosted its annual invitational meeting on Designing Storage Architectures(DSA)  for Digital Collections in Washington, DC.  According to the web site:
The DSA meeting brings together technical and industry experts; LC IT and subject matter experts; government specialists with an interest in preservation; decision-makers from a wide range of organizations with digital preservation requirements; and recognized authorities and practitioners of digital preservation.
Presentations from that meeting are now available at http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/storage14.html.  I'm impressed with the breadth of organizations which did presentations, including Amazon, National Library of New Zealand, Facebook, and NARA.

Monday, October 20, 2014

Version 2.0 of the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF)

This announcement came to me in mid-September.  My apologies in not posting it sooner.  The event mentioned below is being held today (Oct. 20).


The International Image Interoperability Framework community (http://iiif.io/) is pleased to announce the release of the second major version of its specifications intended to provide a shared layer for dynamic interactions with images and the structure of the collections and objects of which they are part. These APIs are used in production systems to enable cross-institutional integration of content, via mix and match of best of class front end applications and servers.

This release adds additional functionality derived from real world use cases needed by partners within the community, and reflects more than a year of experience with the previous versions and significant input from across the cultural heritage community. It also formalizes many of the aspects that were implicit in the initial versions and makes puts into place a manageable framework for sustainable future development.
Detailed change notes are available.

The specifications are available at:
Accompanying the release of the specifications is a suite of community infrastructure tools, including reference implementations of all versions of the Image API, collections of valid and intentionally invalid example Presentation API resource descriptions, plus validators for both APIs. Production ready software is available for the full Image API stack, with server implementations in both Loris [1] and IIP Server [2], and rich client support in the popular Open Seadragon [3].

There will be a rollout and dissemination event on October 20th, 2014 at the British Library to celebrate this release and engage with the wider community. Further details at http://iiif.io/event/2014/london.html, all are welcome but (free) registration is required.

Feedback, comments and questions are welcomed on the discussion list at iiif-discuss@googlegroups.com

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Wayback Wednesday: Tips to help you as you attend conferences (including a new handout)

Among my blog posts are posts that contains tips and other information related to attending conferences.  Those posts include:
Last week, I spoke at a session for the SU iSchool MSLIS students, who are interested in attending conferences. The New York Library Association Annual Conference is coming up soon (November) and so this was a good time to talk about conferences in general and NYLA specifically. For the session, I developed the handout below, which incorporates advice from several different people. I know that there is much more that could have been said, but I didn't want to totally overwhelm them.  If you find this handout useful, please use it!

Thursday, October 02, 2014

The stratosphere in the library profession & a call for a change

Galaxies 'Coming of Age' in Cosmic Blobs (NASA, Chandra, 6/24/09)Since May of this year, there has been a conversation about how members of our profession conduct themselves at conferences.  The conversation has swirled, coalesced, and then swirled again...and its not yet done.  Rather than point you towards the conversation, which might give a splintered point of view, I want to put forth a call for a change in how the stratosphere - those held in super high regard - in our profession is created and what their obligations are.

First, who is in the library profession's stratosphere?  This is an ill defined group and likely we won't agree on who is in it.  However, to me, it includes:
  • Movers and Shakers
  • Emerging Leaders
  • Those that regularly give keynotes at large library conference
  • Those in library and library association leadership positions
  • Those to whom much has been given (e.g., phenomenal institution or community support)
  • Anyone else who has been put on a pedestal

Yes, it is a big group. Potentially some don't stay in the stratosphere forever.

Second, while this is what I deem the stratosphere to be in our profession, how should the stratosphere really be created? It needs to be less about a small group moving others into the stratosphere...and less about people self-nominating themselves...and more building consensus about who really is doing phenomenal work.  I know...this is not and would not be easy, but it should allow us to acknowledge the real movers and shakers in our industry.

Finally, no matter how it is created, I think those in the stratosphere need to live up to a higher calling.  As the saying goes:
To those whom much is given, much is expected. - John F. Kennedy
 If you are in the stratosphere, here are my expectations of you:
  • You didn't rise into the stratosphere on your own.  You had help.  Now turn around and help someone else in the profession.  That help could be in providing introductions, in including that person in conversations, in helping that person get a job or a conference gig, or something else.
  • When you look to "lift others up" into the stratosphere, don't just help those that look like you, who went to the same university as you, or who work with you.   We are a diverse profession, yet the stratosphere isn't as diverse as it should be.  Help to change that.
  • Listen more than you talk.  Yes, we want to hear what you have to say, but we also want you to hear what we have to say.  As a member of the stratosphere, you are in a position to create change, and we have information and opinions that you need to hear...that we want you to hear.
  • Abide by the codes of conduct that are being adopted by associations and conferences.  Even if the association you're in or the conference you're attending doesn't have a code of conduct, abide by those codes that others are adopting.  The codes are there to protect everyone, including you.  And if for no other reason, do this because it will help you to continue to set a good example.
  • Recognize that you represent all of us, not only to members of our profession, but also to those unfamiliar with our profession.  If people begin to talk about your actions more than about what you say, you are hurting the profession.
  • If you hear yourself saying that you don't care what other people think about you - and you say it a lot - stop and listen. You're ignoring feedback that you need to hear and likely act on.  
I'll stop there, although I'm sure there is more that I could say.  I do know that more will be said by others, because this is a topic that is not going away soon.