Speakers' Presentations from RUSA President's Program 2007

Presentations
from two all four speakers are available!

The first
from Genevieve Bell (Director, User Experience), who is an anthropologist with
Intel, concerns the nature and meaning of libraries with an emphasis on their
significance even as the size of personal digital collections keep growing.

The second
is from Lee Rainie (Director, Pew Internet & American Life Project) whose
research examines how the internet affects families, communities, health care,
education, civic and political life, and work places. His presentation concerns
public policy issues including what kind of internet we develop, the role of
information policy and how our identities are shaped by the internet.

The third
is from Allen Renear (Professor of Library and Information Science at
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) whose provocative contention is
that researchers increasingly use various indexes, bibliographic databases, and
other tools not to find articles, but to avoid reading.

The fourth
is from Wendy Schultz (
Director of Infinite Futures and
Executive Board Member of the Association of Professional Futurists) who argues
for a holistic approach to environmental scanning that encompasses education,
technologies and societal changes
.

Podcasts of the Program are also available.

Enjoy!

Digitization Projects for Local History (RUSA-HS)

The Local History Committee of RUSA's History Section has recently discussed creating a list of digitization projects with content for local history. Librarians could add to the list, refer patrons to the list, and help our committee keep the list current.

All History is Local in a Digital World. Our program at ALA Annual in 2007 launched the content for this blog. Join us in the discussion and development of listing the digital projects.

The program on Sunday, June 24, 2007 had three presentations. Susan L. Malbin, Senior Program Officer, Office of Library Services, Institute of Museum & Library Services was our moderator. The presentations featured:

Nancy Allen (nancy.allen@du.edu), Dean & Director, Penrose Library University of Denver. Her topic was a “Collaborative Digitization Program.” See http://www.cdpheritage.org

Judy Graves (jgrav@loc.gov), Digital Projects Coordinator, Library of Congress. Her topic was “The American Memory and the National Digital Newspaper Project.” See http://memory.loc.gov

Erich Kesse (kesse@ufl.edu), Director of the Digital Library Center, University of Florida. His topic was “Using the Map Interface as a Visual Layer for Research in Local History.” See http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc