A member of the advisory committee for ALA's Policy Revolution! will facilitate a discussion about trends and challenges identified in research by the ALA Office of Information Technology Policy. These trends and their implications are guiding the formation of a national public policy agenda that will guide focused and energetic outreach to key decision makers and influencers.
Is your organization facing a collection of aging a/v formats that you wish to digitize for preservation or access, and you’re not sure how to proceed? UWM Archives A/V Project Archivist Charlies Hosale and WHS Audio Archivist Dana Gerber-Margie share their respective experiences with vendor based and in-house digitization of audio and visual materials such as VHS, 35mm film, audiocassettes, and vinyl. Dana will discuss the innovative in-house digitization initiatives at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Charles will present UWM’s quality control workflow for A/V materials that utilizes open source programs, such as Sonic Visualizer, QCTools, MediaInfo, and Fixity to ensure the fidelity of digitized records. Attendees will leave with an introduction to current A/V digitization and quality control topics and techniques, practical understanding of and exposure to relevant software and resources, an implementable A/V digitization workflow designed for use in small and middle-sized cultural heritage institutions, and the feeling that they too can tackle A/V materials without being format and digitization experts.
This presentation will look at the history of interactive learning and gaming in libraries and educational settings. Everyone wants to be able to offer their patrons the best resources for learning and entertainment. In a time of limited budgets, it will ask the question: when is the right time to consider investing in tech heavy programming considering such factors as cost, educational value and the fleeting popularity of technology over time?
In the presentation, we use the example of Second Life and Minecraft to advocate for an examination of the professional literature before investing heavily in a currently popular learning tool or game that may or may not be the right fit given your intended use and desired outcomes.
Join our esteemed panel for a fast-paced hour of presentations and Q&A about technology developments that will impact the library world. Panelists will share their thoughts about top new technologies poised to change how libraries work and interact with those they serve. The presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion between panelists and audience members.
Many challenges arise when managing a library's social media presence, though the biggest is often generating engaging and interesting content. At Lawrence University's Mudd Library, we've begun the shift from trying to create content our target audience wants, to asking them to generate it for us. We’ll share how we have been able to work with other campus departments, students, alumni, and faculty to provide concrete examples of what the library can do for our patrons- and how we have been using social media to share these stories. Attendees will be highly encouraged to share their own social media stories.
We are often swimming in data we collect about our patrons and their usage of our library resources, but how can we make sense of those numbers in a way that will help us improve or adjust our services? In this presentation, you'll learn about a statistics dashboard created by the Indianhead Federated Library System for member libraries to see and interpret data collected from a variety of sources in order to get a fuller picture of library resource usage. This dashboard incorporates ILS data, e-materials information, and wireless and computer usage into visual data display to help libraries further understand how their resources are being used by their communities.
LibGuides is an amazing tool to provide, present, and promote library research resources to your community. But it can also present other various tools outside of traditional bibliographic instruction. See how Carthage College has leveraged LibGuides to promote resources and tools for statistics, language learning, preparation for grad school exams and more. We have implemented this in our academic library, but we think our uses will inspire libraries of many types to use this powerful tool in new and creative ways.
In the past decade, the United States Department of Agriculture has been focusing on issues surrounding food deserts—defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without ready access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. Food deserts are identified by using census data and GIS mapping tools. Those living in a food desert tend to be low-income or elderly. This lack of access to quality food results in a poor diet and in higher food expense as the residents tend to rely more on fast food restaurants or convenience stores.
Building on the concept of the food desert, we began to wonder if there might also be a literacy desert—an area that has a high-probability of having a large number of children at risk of not becoming proficient readers. If we could identify areas of a community that were most likely in need, we could develop programs, outreach efforts and services to help address this need.
Our findings were clear—literacy deserts are real, and in some cases, growing.
Matt Mulder, Chief Community Engagement Strategist at Demco, will identify and define literacy deserts in Brown County and several other Wisconsin communities and discuss how the concept can also be applied for other core service areas. Kimberly Young, Brown County Library Deputy Director will discuss the implications for her library system, and how they plan to lead their community out of the desert.
Everyone, including librarians, dreams of the killer app that will work perfectly, intuitively, and do just what you want it to do, no more nor less. Sadly, many third-party applications fail to meet the ideal, some more so than others. How many times have you thought, "what if I build it myself?" This presentation, aimed primarily at library IT directors and project managers, will attempt to cover the some of the answers to that question.
Among the points that will be addressed:
During the course of the presentation, we will draw on lessons learned and experience developing and maintaining Forward, the UW Madison General Library System public OPAC, developed in-house by the GLS's software development department.
Quality graphic and web design are crucial to promoting, branding, and raising awareness of your library and its valuable services, but it’s an expensive skill to hire out. Many libraries are taking on these challenges themselves, and assisted with a variety of free or cheap online design tools, are creating websites, logos, banners, and other graphic elements for their print or online resources. This session will help those involved in creating and maintaining these to understand the principles of making appealing and effective visual materials for their libraries and services.
From the site: Every day we work tirelessly to bring you the best in homestyle BBQ cuisine. Relax in our spacious dining facilities and take in the mouthwatering aromas floating in from the kitchen. Explore our extensive list of forty craft beers—all on tap. Enjoy the sights of Madison’s downtown from our rooftop patio. And don’t forget to try out some of the best BBQ in Madison.
From WiLS Staff (Lisa): My friends rave about the BBQ here, but the Mac & Cheese/pasta options on the back of the menu are amazing too! I definitely recommend the Chipotle Mac & Cheese (if you’re not a fan of BBQ, ask for it without the pulled pork). I always enjoy drinking a beer from the rooftop with a view of the Capitol!
From the site: “In 1969, Jeff Stanley opened an eclectic gift shop in Des Moines, Iowa. He called it Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry. After only a few years in operation his interest turned from jewelry and clothing to hamburgers. In 1975 Stanley moved to Madison and open the first Dotty Dumpling’s Dowry”….and the rest is history!
From WiLS Staff (Stef): Can’t beat Dotty’s for burgers, fries, and shakes. They have unique and delicious combinations of toppings (My fav is the “alumni” -- cheddar and their own homemade steak sauce) and veggie, chicken, and turkey burgers for the non-beef eaters.
From the site: Located on the rooftop of the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Fresco is a modern dining space boasting panoramic views of the city. Enjoy exceptional views of Madison while sipping cocktails and enjoying artfully prepared food.
From WiLS staff (Andi): The view is amazing and the food is fantastic. Pricier (and the inside space is a little echo-y) but worth it! And, if you get there by 5:00, the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, upon which this restaurant sits, is worth a visit.
From WiLS Staff (Bruce): Full pies or by the slice, you’ll find some creative toppings offered here. Their Mac and Cheese pizza is a favorite.
From WiLS Staff (Sara): Guaranteed to please the palates of vegetarians and carnivores, Kabul is a Madison institution not to be missed My favorite comfort food is Kabul’s hummus with a side of Mashawa (Afghani-style soup made with chick peas, kidney beans, split peas and meats, served with a dollop of yogurt mint sauce).
From the site: Established in 1968, Porta Bella is known for its pasta, homemade Italian dinners, pizzas, steaks and seafood. Recipes that came from Madison's Italian Greenbush are still offered today in addition to new regional Italian dishes found during our travels to Italy.
From WiLS Staff (Emily): Old-school Italian red sauce joint with a great wine bar in the basement. Really good thin-crust pizza -- the vegetarian pizza, with pesto instead of tomato sauce, is my favorite.
From WiLS Staff (Bruce): If you like sushi, you can’t go wrong coming here. They also have some very creative fusion dishes.
From the site: What about your first fish fry? We think of ours often. Imagine sitting around a northwoods campfire roasting marshmallows with friends. We completely understand. We all make our homes here, and we grew up on the traditions of Friday fish fry, Saturday prime rib, and Sunday wood-fired chicken. We invite you to stop into our home-away-from-home and sample our selection of Wisconsin beers, wines, spirits, and specialty drinks. And of course to try our namesake: the classic, hand-muddled Old Fashioned.
From WiLS Staff (All): This instantly became a go-to downtown restaurant after it opened. It’s the perfect mix of casual and quality.
