SLA 2014 Annual Conference & INFO-EXPO

This session will look at case studies from media organizations and other institutions that have digitized newspapers and local history records not just for access preservation, but also to drive website traffic and maximize revenues. Participants will see how blog posts, partnerships and other promotions can highlight historical digital content and new revenue streams can be developed from related projects including e-books, commemorative pages and photo sales.

Many aspects of our lives are now impacted by ‘big data’, and what and how we eat is no exception. From precision data collection in agricultural fields to enhance crop yield, to data mining of consumer behavior data to enhance sales, the food on our tables has likely been flavored in some way by big data. This session will bring to light some of the fascinating practices in data mining as they relate to the food we eat. Whether you are there as an information professional in a corporate library interested in learning more about this increasingly important marketing practice, as an academic librarian hoping to better understand the role of big data in research, or simply as a consumer wondering about the food you buy and eat, this session will have something for everyone.

Program Take-Aways

1. Participants will learn about how data mining techniques are applied in the agriculture and food industries.






2. Participants will apply big data concepts to their own areas of industry or research and consider how libraries can support these efforts. 

Information overload is not a new problem. However, many organizations are taking a new approach to managing this challenge. Enterprise content management (ECM) tools offer organizations the advantage of integrating websites, repositories, collaboration sites, blogs, wikis, and other information formats. Maximizing the effectiveness of ECM tools, however, requires the use of metadata and taxonomies to focus in on the needed information. In this session, ECM managers share strategies to increase the effectiveness of ECM tools as knowledge management platforms.

Why should we care about copyright of state government information? Isn’t it all in the public domain? It’s public information just like federal government information, right? WRONG!

The ability of states to assert copyright over their publications still exists to this day. The consequences of this significantly impacts and impedes knowledge institutions' ability to digitize historic state publications, capture and archive born digital publications, and freely disseminate them to the public via library catalogs or digital repositories.

Bernadette Bartlett, Library of Michigan, and Kris Kasianovitz, Stanford University, have embarked on a project to demonstrate the constraints that copyright law places upon citizens, researchers, academic institutions and digital repositories, like HathiTrust, to release scanned post-1923 state government publications into the public domain as well as chart a paths forward to bring about change to this little discussed but major issue. Join us for a lively discussion of our project and find out how you can help!

Program Take-Aways

1. Participants are aware of the problems libraries face as stewards of state government information collections, especially when they want to reformat from print to digital or capture born digital materials.


2. Participants are introduced to the Free State Government Information project in order to generate support and grassroots connections that will result in fruitful policy clarification or change."

Academic institutions are increasingly focusing on fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. In reference to their recent White Paper, Entrepreneurship Education Comes of Age on Campus, the Kauffman Foundation notes, "Entrepreneurship, one of the fastest-growing subjects in today's undergraduate curricula, has moved from the margins of higher education to the mainstream." Libraries are well placed to support the incubation of ideas and creativity, both of which are integral to innovation and start-up culture, by opening up their spaces and expanding their services, and in fact, many already are. The speakers will discuss the shift in pedagogy taking place on campuses and the librarians on the panel will share how their libraries partnered with other stakeholder groups as well as, in some cases, outside corporate partners to support academic and community entrepreneurs. Examples include the University of Maryland's Innovation Office Hours at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Library and library-led business start-up incubators.

Program Take-Aways:

1. Participants will learn how they can work collaboratively with campus administrators/other departments to leverage library’s resources to support entrepreneurship/innovation.


2. Participants will gain an understanding of best practices for evolving academic librarianship to include working with academic/community entrepreneurs. 


3. Participants will learn about new commitment to innovation/entrepreneurship that many academic institutions are demonstrating & some of the new approaches to learning.

This wildly popular session that explores new and under-utilized Websites returns for another year. Fast-paced and fun, if offers a glimpse of what you may be missing on the Web.

Program Take-Aways

1. Attendees can expect to learn about new and useful websites covering news, reference, travel, social networks, and much more, to help them in their professional and personal lives

This 90-minute session will explore the structural and human resource changes needed to build an organizational culture where people are encouraged and motivated to share information and knowledge. By the end of the session, participants will be able to determine where their organization lies on the collaboration continuum, identify ways that they can shift their organization to be more adept at sharing knowledge and understand how they can be more effective at initiating and championing the shift.

Program Take-Aways

1. Determine where their organization lies on the collaboration continuum




2. Identify ways that they can shift their organization to be more adept at sharing knowledge




3. Understand how they can be more effective at initiating and championing the shift