LITA Forum, Day 2

General Session Michael Porter, WebJunction "Hi-Fi-Sci-Fi Library: Technology, Convergence, Content, Community, Ubiquity, and Library." There's a decent chance you've seen the "Hi-Fi-Sci-Fi Library" video that Porter and David Lee King of Topeka and Shawnee County (Kans.) Public Library made in August. If not, or if you just want the catchy hook again, see it here. The ideas in today's keynote were the inspiration for that internet hit. (The presentation might even be considered the inspiration for the song, even though the song predates the speech; that's a complicated tale that Porter explains better than I could.) Using examples from television and movies, Porter spoke on the relationship of science fiction to the actual future, and particularly the actual future of libraries. "[The makers] are making entertainment, but they're thinking about what things might look like in the future," he noted. One example Porter offered of science fiction technology that has largely become real is Star Trek's Personal Access Display Device. These were scaled-down, portable versions of the ship's computer in the show; in life, handheld devices now perform many of the same functions as desktop computers. (And with downloadable skins, many can even look exactly like their Star Trek counterparts.) Also from Star Trek—specifically, Star Trek IV, in a scene where Spock meditates by subjecting himself to a battery of intellectual tests—was the idea of a computer input that changes form with the task. While not yet in wide use, Porter observed that "keyboards" that are actually just laser projections on a flat surface already exist. Some sci-fi prognostications were more amusing, like The Time Machine's artificial intelligence librarian who was capable of and perfectly willing to roll his eyes while conducting reference interviews. Others were bleak, as in I, Robot, for example, one character scoffed that another's father "wanted to ban the internet to keep the libraries open." Porter observed, however, that the universally accessible computer system in Star Trek had the official name "Library Computer Access and Retrieval System." "The people they hired to make the decisions about what technology will look like are brilliant," he said. "It's no accident that they believe that there will still be libraries." Concurrent Session 3 Five Minute Madness This session consisted of five-minute presentations of projects too new to have had time to develop a full concurrent session presentation. Presenters included Krista Wilde of Los Alamos National Laboratory Research Library, who detailed a new search and discovery tool for the library's digital collection; Derek Rodriguez of Triangle Research Libraries Network, who spoke about the Endeca Project that helps connect records for member libraries; Emily Rimland of Penn State, who described the creation of a handheld devices group at her library to implement and evaluate devices for use in roving reference, library instruction, and other functions; and Keith Weimer of the University of Virginia, discussing the library's new service that allows patrons to send reference queries by text message. Concurrent Session 4 "Building Your Own Collaborative Web Applications with Drupal" Weiling Liu, University of Louisville. Liu shared her experiences using the open-source content management system Drupal to build several applications, including a news and event management system for the University of Louisville Libraries, and an online conference proposal form for the 2008 Kentucky Library Association/Kentucky School Media Association/Southeastern Library Association/Association of Research Libraries National Diversity in Libraries Joint Conference. "Drupal is an application that is so flexible that to achieve one goal, there are many ways," Liu said. For the news site, goals included decentralized content management, because each of the university's six libraries have their own news and events to add, as well as the ability to display different types of news differently. The conference proposal site needed to centralize proposals, include notification when submissions are entered, and have a mechanism to evaluate proposals. Liu discussed how available add-on modules for Drupal helped her build sites that met these goals. Concurrent Session 5 "Building a Web-Based Laboratory for Library Users." Jason J. Battles, University of Alabama, and Joseph (Jody) D. Combs, Vanderbilt University The web-based laboratories that Combs and Battles discussed are based on Google Labs—a place to share and get feedback on new projects that are being built or considered. "The library labs are a part of a broader effort to address the needs and expectations of library users," Battles said. They and a team of four created Test Pilot at Vanderbilt when both were working there. Features tested there include Ex Libris's Primo search and discovery tool, the LibX toolbar, site redesign options, and library blogs. Combs said Test Pilot helped the library to introduce new services as they became available, rather than waiting for them to be 100% ready and then waiting for the beginning of a semester. It also generated valuable feedback—182 comments on Primo, for example. In addition, "It occurred to me that this is not just a way to release and get feedback on a service," Combs said. "It also functions as a kind of marketing." When Battles moved to the University of Alabama, he adapted Test Pilot's open-source code and installed UA's Web Laboratory in November 2007. Adapting it took less than a day, and it incorporated improvements such as AJAX functionality to make commenting seamless. Quotable "Looking at you guys, I know that's not true."—Michael Porter, commenting on the Sony Reader's "Sexier than a librarian" ad. "Futurama thinks Dewey's gonna be around in a thousand years. I'm just saying."—Porter, on the LibraryThing group started to build an open-source alternative to the classification system. A Librarian's Ingenuity After the sessions today was an open gaming night. While cards weren't among the games 'officially' provided, a game of blackjack did break out pretty early on. The stakes? Grapes.