All Sessions

Linked Data and Semantic Web applications hold potential for expressing bibliographic data in ways more flexible, powerful, and openly sharable than MARC. While RDF provides the underlying data model, RDFS, OWL, and SKOS provide the basis for creating vocabularies and "ontologies," machine-actionable models that bring structure to RDF. This workshop provides a beginner's level introduction for non-IT librarians to these behind-the-scenes models. It focuses primarily on ontologies as models of the entities in a knowledge domain and the relationships among those entities. It includes examples from cultural heritage metadata communities as well as some hands-on exercises. The workshop will be useful for those who want to have an understanding of RDF and ontology modeling concepts and terminology so as to better understand and participate in current discussions on Linked Data and Semantic Web for cultural heritage metadata.

Steven Miller is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee School of Information Studies. He teaches MLIS courses on information organization, metadata, information architecture, RDF and ontologies. Steven worked as a professional cataloger and head of a cataloging department for many years before moving into teaching full time. He has been active in various professional organizations, including ALCTS and has given numerous presentations and workshops on cataloging, metadata, RDA, and other related topics. He is the author of the book Metadata for Digital Collections, published by Neal-Schuman in May 2011. His professional webpage is https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/mll/www/index.html.

This preconference will explore the new wave of creative spaces appearing in public libraries and explain why libraries have an essential role to play in digital media creation. Learn insights on how to sell the concept of a Digital Media Lab to library administration, set up a space that fits any budget, and offer programs and services that maintain public interest over time. Digital Media Labs are specialized spaces devoted to the creation of multimedia content. Offering a range of tools for video, audio and graphic design, these spaces position libraries as incubators for creativity and archives for content.

An unconference is a participant-guided experience that harnesses the unstructured conversations people usually have between conference sessions into the conference itself. Unlike most conferences where talking heads and group leaders decide what is important, unconferences are organized by the crowd. Unconferences are about sharing the knowledge and passion we have for our profession and taking what we learn into the world to make a difference. Everyone has something to share. Everyone has something to learn. We can all change the world.

Patron discovery already takes place at any time and anywhere. New models are evolving. Delivery is also changing rapidly. Libraries are filling millions of requests through multiple channels, e.g. physical delivery, online delivery, and patron selected downloads. Patron-driven collection development is growing in popularity. Vendors are reacting and changing too. Trends and technologies in areas from discovery to delivery and a vision for the future will be discussed. The day will end with small group discussions among participants and presenters.

This event is made possible with sponsorship support from OCLC and Relais.

A separate ticket is required in order to attend this event. Register now at http://ala13.ala.org/register-now. Tickets will not be available at the door.

REGISTRATION ENDS JUNE 21!

Rates: ALA Member , $199. ASCLA Member: $169. Retired or Student Member: $149. Non-Member, $219.

Join OCLC member leaders and staff for updates on OCLC products and services, a Regional Council business meeting and the next keynote address in our “Collective Insight—Driven by Shared Data” series. This session will focus on the opportunity to examine shared data in new ways that help us make better decisions, learn about the information ecosystem and impact how we live.  Libraries can play a compelling role in helping our communities make sense of that information in useful and innovative ways.

NISO/BISG 6th Annual Forum: The Changing Standards Landscape

If you’re new to RUSA or are a longtime member looking for opportunities to connect with members and ways to get involved, make sure to put RUSA 101 on your calendar! Spend an hour with us on Friday from 3-4p.m. before heading off to the opening of the exhibit floor.

Using a free augmented reality application, University of Houston-Downtown librarians have been working to create an engaging and memorable library orientation activity for students that will launch in Fall 2013. Come join us in this fun session to see how augmented reality is being used “in the wild” and brainstorm with us about ways this emerging technology could be used in libraries.

The GIS Discussion Group begins at 8:30 am and focuses on topics related to geographic information systems (GIS). In addition to discussion topics brought forward by session attendees, there will also be a focused topic discussion on education for geospatial librarians.

This is a co-sponsored meeting with GODORT.

More than 100 libraries worldwide are "live" with OCLC WorldShare Management Services, a library services platform introduced in 2011 and built on WorldCat cooperative data. Join OCLC's Andrew K. Pace who will present revolutionary results from these libraries and a preview of what's coming next. Also, WMS community members will share the impact of WMS on their library's users and staff.

Members of the Planning Committee of RUSA MARS will gather to discuss current and future tasks for the committee. Those who may be interested in learning about the activities of the Planning committee are encouraged to attend.

Job Descriptions in Technical Services Discussion

With the economy starting to show signs of life once again, budgets should unfreeze and possibly show modest growth. Hiring freezes are beginning to disappear and people are becoming more willing to change jobs or move. This will hopefully lead to open positions in the library and in technical services. How do we tailor job descriptions and job announcements for today’s library needs and to find the best new hires possible?

Part of All Committee meeting

Get the most recent and up-to-date info on the Edge Initiative. This session will include an update on the progress of the Initiative, an overview of the Edge resources and tools, and an update on the Edge launch. For more information about this public Edge session, please contact Alison Saffold at asaffold@urbanlibraries.org or visit www.libraryedge.org.

From pencils, to clickers, to software with immediate reporting, librarians and public service staff members have emphasized the importance of reference and research assistance. In this era of automated tracking and statistics, however, we often deal with different types of systems recording similar types of interactions. There may be one system for local/campus email reference and another for in-person interactions with patrons. At this discussion group, thought-provoking questions on these and related topics will inspire a useful discourse on how to effectively merge and/or manage these efforts and correlate them to student and library success.

As the Web has enabled ubiquitous and instantaneous discovery of information, library users expect to find material online. Libraries must aggregate their data to be more relevant on the Web; it’s not enough to have collections accessible only through an online catalog, but we need to weave library data throughout the Web. Ted Fons, OCLC Executive Director, Data Services, will demonstrate why we must use the latest ideas and technologies to make our shared library data consumable by Web services (including linked data and graph theory) and rethink the model of shared cataloging—to move away from record management to the management of entities that can be recognized and consumed on the Web.

Meeting of the ANSS Sociology Discussion Group. Invited speakers TBD.

Library instruction is a crucial part of the mission of the University of Missouri St. Louis (UMSL) Libraries. Instruction is offered in many ways including reference desk interactions, individual research consultations, and library instruction sessions. To assess instruction efforts, the UMSL Libraries created an assessment instrument based on the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Information Literacy Standards. This assessment is administered to students before and after library instruction sessions to determine their information literacy levels and the effectiveness of the sessions. A satisfaction survey is also distributed to students who participate in research consultations and instruction sessions. In 2012, the UMSL Libraries implemented Summon, a single search discovery tool that allows users to search across the library catalog, online journal, magazine, and newspaper sources, and institutional repositories. Summon has significantly changed the Libraries’ instruction and assessment practices. A single search tool reduces the need to teach patrons to access several different databases, catalogs, and collections to find information. However, patrons must be able to understand the relevancy of and the difference between results displayed in Summon (i.e. scholarly books and journals as well as magazines and newspapers). This poster session will use a display board to provide visual examples of how instruction practices and assessments changed after the implementation of Summon. Charts and graphs will be used to compare research consultation satisfaction survey results before and after Summon. Handouts will also be also provided that summarize this information.

In January 2012, Kent State University Libraries implemented a 6-month pilot project for a Demand Driven Acquisitions (DDA) ebook purchasing model that uses a combination of the acquisition services provided by our primary book jobber (YBP) and the access services provided by an Ebook distributer (eBrary). Using the book jobber mediated DDA model provided the library with selected discovery records that closely matched specifications of the library’s print approval plan. The initial record load for DDA eligible records consisted of about 22,000 ebook records. New discovery records were added to the catalog each week as new eBrary ebooks became available.

This presentation will report our assessment of this new acquisition model as compared to that of print books in terms of budget, costs, workflow, subjects, publishers, and publication dates. Because DDA empowers library users to choose which ebooks are actually purchased based on actual use, our assessment also compares ebook usage from a DDA discovery pool with print book circulation of an equivalent amount of latest acquisitions. The results of this study will help answer some of the key questions about this new acquisition model: (1) Does DDA align the library’s collection with current user requirements? (2) Does DDA lead to more active use of library book collection? (3) Is DDA cost-effective as an acquisition model? (4) What issues are associated with DDA and how may these issues be addressed?

Reference interactions – in-person or virtual intermediation involving a librarian and an information seeker aimed at resolving an information need – are an established form of reference service provision in library practice. Recently, reference librarians in a variety of settings have started expanding reference work beyond answering questions. This session will feature examples of creativity in proactive reference service provision, identified from an environmental scan, that will inspire reference innovation and highlight opportunity areas for transforming reference service. Rethinking reference services is essential for librarians to stay relevant in society, given today’s information seekers’ proclivity for self-help and an emergence of dynamic digital tools for information seeking.