My involvement with the American Library Association’s Video Round Table will be keeping me busy for the foreseeable future. As I mentioned last week, the program I helped put together as the chair of the Program Committee is coming up in a couple of weeks at ALA’s annual conference.

I also have volunteered to serve for another 2 years on the Notable Videos for Adults Committee and the films we will be reviewing are starting to come in. I really enjoyed being on the committee the past two years even though it’s a big time commitment. For the past two years, I have blogged about most of the movies I viewed (2009 and 2010). I debated whether or not I wanted to blog about the films again this year. My hesitation stems from the fact that I have never been able to keep up with posts for all the movies I watch. But looking back at the posts, I realize that they have been helpful to me at least when the time comes to deliberate about the films and help select a list. And just because I haven’t been able to keep up with the posts in the past doesn’t mean I won’t be able to this year, right?

And, finally, I have been elected as the incoming Vice Chair/Chair Elect for the Video Round Table with my tenure as Vice Chair beginning on July 1. I look forward to serving in this capacity as I have found my involvement with the Round Table these past few years very rewarding and really enjoy working with the other members.

I am pleased to announced that the Video Round Table Program for the ALA Annual Conference is all set:

Video Makes the Library Star: Library-Created Visual Media

Sunday, June 27

10:30 am – 12 noon

Mayflower Renaissance – Colonial Room

1127 Connecticut Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC

The program will feature creators of library-related visual media. Librarians who have used their videos for promotion or instruction will share their experiences and discuss things to consider before launching a video production project.

The speakers include:

• Dee Vazquez, Community Engagement and Outreach Officer for the Pikes Peak Library District

• Matt Harp, Digital Library Production Manager, and Mimmo Bonanni, Digital Projects Librarian from Arizona State University Libraries.

• Michael Porter, librarian, presenter, author, practical technology fan, and PEZ collector.

I am quite thrilled with the speakers we have been able to schedule. The work they’ve done on creating their videos is quite impressive and I am looking forward to hearing about their experiences with creating these videos.

I feel very fortune to have had the opportunity to chair the VRT Program Committee and thank the other members:

Steve Brantley, Reference Librarian and Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago
Tracy Montri, AV Department Manager at Toledo-Lucas County Public Library
Juliana Nykolaiszyn, Visiting Assistant Professor at Oklahoma Oral History Research Program
Danette Pachtner, Film & Video Librarian at Lilly Library, Duke University

Here is my part of the presentation I did with Michael Sauers, Christa Burns, Jason A. Clark, R. Toby Greenwalt, Matt Benzing, and Jason Griffey on Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at Internet Librarian.

I am on the 2010 Program Committee for ALA’s Video Round Table. We are basing the program around libraries who make their own movies and are looking for excellent examples of library produced videos. We are in the early stages of looking for examples and are, for now, casting a wide net, so it doesn’t matter if the movie is for promotion or instruction or fun.

If you know of any outstanding videos made by libraries, you can post a link in the comments or email me at thomasipri [at] gmail [dot] com.

Thanks!

As I have done the past two years, I have set-up a wiki for the National Media Market: http://nmm2009.wikispaces.com/

I am using Wikispaces for the first time. I decided to give it a try because it has an area for discussion boards, which the previous site did not.

If you purchase media for your library, I highly recommend NMM. It’s a great way to find out what new films are available, to meet and speak with the vendors, and to talk with colleagues. Because it is a small, specialized event, you really get to know people who have similar interests. Although I have attended only two markets in the past, I have already made some wonderful friends and valuable library contacts.

The Market also features a discussion group on the Sunday prior to the official start. The discussion this year will focus on fair use, DMCA and related issues.

At ALA in Chicago, the Video Round Table held it’s annual program, which focused on celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Notable Videos for Adults Committee. As part of the program, Nora Dimmock of the River Campus Libraries at the University of Rochester created an introductory video.

I haven’t even taken a look at the listings yet for the ALA Annual Conference and my schedule is already pretty full. Most of what has claimed my time so far have been meetings and events for my work on the Video Round Table and for the ACRL Media Discussion Group.

Thursday, July 9

• Arrive in Chicago around 7pm.

Friday, July 10

• 8:00 – 5:00 Uncommonly Sustainable: The New Information Commons at Loyola University Chicago
• 5:30 – 6:30 LITA Happy Hour
• 7:30 Video Round Table Dinner

Saturday, July 11

• 11:00 – 1:00 Staffing the VRT Booth (#3034) at the ALA Membership Pavilion. Come Visit!
• 1:30 – 3:00 10 Years of Notable Videos
• 10:00pm Some ALA Something or Other

Sunday, July 12

• 1:30 – 3:30 ACRL Media Discussion Group (aka, the Tom and Amanda show)
  • Brother Can You Spare a DVD
• 6:30 – 9:30 VRT Gala

Monday, July 13

• 8:00 – 11:00 VRT Executive Meeting
• 1:30 – 3:30 Notable Videos For Adults Committee.

I guess I’ll check the schedule and fill in the gaps when I get there or just follow the cool people around.

The ACRL Media Discussion Group is pleased to announce its session for the ALA Annual Conference in Chicago:

Brother Can You Spare a DVD: Media Collections and Budget Cuts.

Join us to brainstorm ways to cope with the changing economy.
Sunday, July 12, 2009, 1:30pm-3:30pm
Location Sheraton Chicago, Ohio Room
301 E. North Water St.

Amanda Hornby, of the University of Washington Libraries, and I have been co-chairs of this group for the past year but our appointment is just about over. We are looking for volunteers for the next co-chairs of the group. If you are interested, you can contact me or Amanda and we will give you more details. You need to be a member of ALA and ACRL and need to commit to attending both ALA Annual and Mid-Winter.

I recently received the good news that 2 of my proposals for Internet Librarian have been accepted, so I’ll be heading back to Monterey in October for my 3rd IL.

I presented once before at Internet Librarian and twice for its east coast counterpart, Computers in Libraries but these upcoming presentations will be different because I have only presented solo at these conferences before. The two proposals that were accepted were ones that I submitted with someone else. The conference planners grouped us together with other speakers, most of whom I know. I am rather excited to be presenting with these colleagues and am looking forward to meeting the couple of people who I haven’t met before.

Bobbi Newman, of Librarian by Day fame, and I sent in a proposal about cloud computing. We have been added to a session with Rachel Vacek, Web Services Coordinator, University of Houston and Anna Creech, Electronic Resources Librarian, University of Richmond. We are slated for Monday, October 26th at 3:15pm.  The session is Collaborating in the Clouds: Selecting Tools:

Do you collaborate on documents within committees that are made up of members scattered around the world or your institution? Are you looking for alternatives to mail discussion groups that will push your content out to committees and beyond? And, most importantly, are you interested in tools that manage documents which can easily be transferred as staff and committee rosters change? The first presentation discusses the pros and cons of some of the best online and open source tools for simultaneous creation, sharing, and management of content. Newman covers a variety of cloud productivity tools including word processing, spread sheets, wikis, presentation, calendars, task managers and other free applications. Ipri discusses how the move away from desktop applications is influencing academic libraries. Many libraries are investing time and money in restructuring their public areas into collaborative learning spaces. Will the move to cloud computing assist or undermine these efforts?

Jason Griffey, of Pattern Recognition, and I submitted a proposal about using mobile devices in libraries. We will be presenting in a double session with R. Toby Greenwalt, Adult Services Librarian, Skokie Public Library; Jason Clark, Digital Initiatives Librarian, Montana State University (MSU); Matt Benzing, Information Technology Librarian, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Michael Sauers & Christa Burns, Nebraska Library Commission. We are slated for 10:30 – 12:15 on Tuesday, October 27th. The session is Dreaming, Designing & Using Mobile Library Platforms:

Ipri & Griffey start this double session by explaining why you can’t just replicate your existing web site for mobile users – needs and technologies are different in the mobile world. They discuss how libraries must rethink their services and go with completely new models in light of ubiquitous computing and connectivity. Greenwalt discusses the specific Skokie Public Library’s “going mobile” LSTA grant project to develop a suite of mobile tools, including a mobile website, catalog, text messaging alerts, and mobile reference service. Clark talks about delivering video and images through optimized web sites that work with the next generation of smartphones and mobile devices (iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry Storm, Palm Pre, Google Android). He discusses challenges and advantages of developing mobile sites, the debate between native smartphone apps versus mobile web apps, best practices for mobile web design, and the lessons learned in development processes. Benzing discusses creating alternative versions of a website for mobile users, utilizing needs information of users from surveys, focus groups, and usability testing. The last segment of the session looks at mobile reference, where Sauers and Burns look at the basics of using the Internet on regular cell phones as well as smartphones.