Citation
Blake, M. (2002), "Internet Librarian International 2002", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 19 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2002.23919fac.001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Limited
Internet Librarian International 2002
Monica Blake
The fourth annual Internet Librarian International conference and exhibition was held in London on 18-20 March 2002.
The opening keynote session was devoted to ""The future we want: information technology and the information society"". The speakers were Chris Yapp, former ICL Fellow Specializing in Lifelong Learning and Information Society, and Director of the Internet Society of England, and Tim Owen, Head of External Relations at the UK's Library Association.
Chris Yapp spoke of the rapid changes taking place in society, and the consequent uncertainty. Individual lifestyles were changing, work was being restructured and there were changes in commerce, education and entertainment. To illustrate the pitfalls of prediction, Yapp told how during the 1920s it was forecast that there would never be more than one million motor cars because it would be impossible to train that many chauffeurs. It was not a good time to be in charge of anything, he declared, except a think tank.
Both Yapp and Owen stated that the ""I"" of IT was becoming bigger. Yapp emphasized the need to ask what kind of society we want using technology rather than what sort of society will result from IT. We should put people first, technology second.
Owen was speaking at an exciting time in the history of library and information services (LIS) in the United Kingdom shortly before the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists were due to unify as CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Owen stressed the unification aspect – it will not be just a yoking together. (CILIP was formed on 1 April 2002; see item in the New & Noteworthy section.)
Although disintermediation is currently of concern among some LIS professionals, Owen was upbeat about new opportunities arising. Picking up on Yapp's account of motor cars, he pointed out that while there may not be that many chauffeurs there is a huge demand for driving instructors.
The meeting was organized in three tracks: digital reality; Webwizards' symposium; and communities.
Digital reality
The digital reality track focused on the strategies that Internet librarians and systems professionals use to navigate and succeed in the digital world. Speakers looked at virtual, or collaborative digital, reference services; building national libraries, digital communities and research services; digitizing collections; dealing with images as well as text; and finding tools which enable people to navigate the Web.
The first day of this stream looked at strategies for success in the digital world. Sessions covered how to deal with both technological and organizational changes; reaching remote clients using virtual reference services; building cultural heritage communities with partnerships of museums, archives and libraries; and building digital communities in academic and public libraries as well as associations and societies.
Fred Guy, Director of Information and Communications Technology at the National Library of Scotland (NLS), discussed the major challenges faced by the NLS in fulfilling its key functions of acquisition, retention, preservation and access as traditional forms of publication are paralleled by publication in electronic form. He looked not only at the development of technical solutions, but also at organizational changes, including the changed political context resulting from the Scotland Act of 1998.
On the second day, speakers considered detailed specific aspects of digitizing collections and dealing with electronic resources. Looking at the practicalities of setting up a digitization centre, Cokie Anderson of Oklahoma State University discussed equipment, staffing and expertise requirements as well as ways to find funding and getting collections online. Other contributions covered the integration of text and image, creating a digital version of newspaper articles, the networked delivery of moving image material for teaching and learning, e-books in Denmark, digital libraries and digital archiving.
The final day of the digital reality track was concerned with navigating the Net. Sessions provided updates on search engines, tips for searching, strategies for keeping up with frequent changes, using metadata and the open archives initiative, and using discovery tools with full-text electronic sources. Peter Scott from the University of Saskatchewan spoke on Weblogs (or blogs – Web pages containing brief, chronologically arranged items of information) and blogging. He pointed out the usefulness of blogs in creating instant content on the Web and suggested ways of using them to navigate the Net.
Webwizards' symposium
The Webwizards' symposium covered key Web design and development strategies and techniques, taking an in-depth look at usability testing and studies. It provided suggestions on writing for the Web, gave examples of how to improve a Web site, and looked at new Web tools.
The focus here was on library Web sites, with an emphasis on how libraries can build better sites. Creators of library Web sites considered such issues as usability testing, benchmarking of sites, navigation elements and accessibility. A session on accessibility for users with disabilities discussed Bobby, which is free software that can quickly check for compliance with the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative standards, and the MIRACLE Group's development of a worldwide online catalogue of Braille music, which allows registered users to download digital Braille music files and print these out locally.
Web practitioners shared their experiences about tools for managing Web sites as well as the strategies they used for streamlining Web practices. They discussed such new devices as e-book readers, PDAs, digital TVs and information kiosks, and their implications for improving the accessibility of library services. There was considerable interest in wireless techniques.
A presentation on the European Union-funded project Renardus addressed some of the technical, metadata and organizational issues facing collaborative subject gateways, and described some of the tools and systems developed to support information and other professionals in bringing them to fruition. Drawing on illustrations and shared experiences from Renardus partner gateways, it also focused on end users' and intermediaries' perspectives, including interface design and usability issues.
Communities
The ""communities"" track highlighted collaboration and teamwork. It included talks on using intranets to share information and services; how to streamline and ensure effectiveness for the infrastructure necessary for communicating, sharing and building communities; how to utilise knowledge management strategies and techniques to enhance these communities; and how e-learning helps to share knowledge in these communities.
The first day focused on intranets. Martin White of Intranet Focus looked at ways of ensuring that corporate intranets are useful and usable. He pointed out that, as intranets grow in size and complexity, it is important to check that the content continues to meet the needs of the organization, and also that the information architecture and design reflect current best practice in usability. Discussing knowledge retrieval in intranets, consultant Tom Reamy stressed the need to add categorization to text collections. He reported on taxonomies and auto-categorization technology.
Knowledge management was the focus for Day 2 of the communities track. With information and knowledge sharing being vital for building communities, speakers looked at practical tools such as knowledge maps, natural language processing, and auto-categorization techniques. Christian Hasiewicz of the Bertelsmann Foundation described new ways of transferring knowledge to the library community, and Ramana Rao from Inxight Software looked at emerging technologies in content management.
The third day covered e-learning – also known as Internet-enabled learning. The emphasis was on how libraries can receive benefits from the promise of e-learning: rich learning experiences, a networked community of learners, faster learning at reduced costs, increased access to learning and the ability to transfer knowledge across organizations and generations. Sessions covered online learning courseware, Web portals for e-learning, and distance education for librarians.
Exhibition
During the first two days of the meeting, a small number of exhibitors presented their products and services. This area seemed very low key in comparison with the buzz from the London Book Fair, which was sharing the building. However, many visitors to the exhibition were enticed by a free programme of talks. The free presentations included: the invisible Web, auto-categorization, blogging, tips for teaching others about the Net, tips for building Web sites, tricks for extreme searchers, online trends, and next generation library users.
Monica Blake(monicablake@britishlibrary.net) is an independent information consultant with a background in publishing, teaching and translation. She is based in London, where she specializes in research and editing. She is a Co-editor of Library Hi Tech News.