Editorial

Citation

Gelfand, J. and Brown, M. (2007), "Editorial", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 24 No. 8. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2007.23924haa.001

Editorial

The academic year should be well underway by the time this issue is released. The last quarter has been the intensive library conference period and this issue brings you recaps about a lot of conference themes and content. It is impossible to attend or even to have a pulse about what is taking place around the globe at all the professional meetings. One thing is abundantly clear, conferencing is an expensive and time-consuming habit for those of us with "day jobs", but an activity we must engage in to stay current and abreast of developments in our quickly changing field. It is easier in recent years as technology allows us to be the "fly on the wall" and capture conferences almost in real time, via podcasts, webinars, conference calls, virtual conferencing and communities and similar professional activities that take place online. I am sure that few of us will say it is the same thing, but it is a worthy substitute when the alternative is not to know about it.

Our enthusiasm for bringing you conference reports got out of hand as we received additional thoughtful reports after we posted earlier submissions. No two reports are alike and the different viewpoints are important and I encourage you to give this additional coverage your time and attention. We have a light and almost whimsical sense of the Technology Showcase hosted by the University of Arizona and a second report from the IATUL meeting held at the beginning of June in Stockholm. Attendees at that conference are loyal and try to attend annually and find that it brings together a ripe group of colleagues and speakers who share a great sense commitment to science librarianship.

The Special Libraries Association hosts an annual event called "Gadgets Worth Exploring" which is basically a roll call of 60 gadgets introduced in 60 min. You do the math and wonder if you can remember the first ten at that pace. The American Library Association took place in Washington, DC and drew the largest registration in recent years. All the elements were in orbit because I have never been to a meeting that people really liked so much. In a future issue we will capture a pre-conference Julia attended to celebrate ALCTS, the Division that serves Technical Services and Collections, its 50th anniversary. We do have coverage of some of LITA's events, including a lively panel session entitled "The Ultimate Debate: Do Libraries Innovate?" and Top Tech Trends update, and our contributing editor, Aimee Fifarek explores how the conference treated all the 2.0 content, directions and changes. Stephen Abram, who possesses the title, Vice-President of Innovation at Sirsi/Dynix and incoming president of SLA and out signing his latest compilation titled, Out Front with Stephen Abram was busy indeed, speaking, explaining and listening to what is going on in the field.

The American Association of Engineering Education took all the engineering librarians to Hawaii for their annual conference this year. Reports from Honolulu indicate that this group also is composed of loyalists who go to sessions and you will read about them. A new set of coverage for LHTN is the meetings on Games and Gaming. Within a couple of weeks of each other, there were two and we bring you reports on each – one at the University of Wisconsin on "Games, Learning & Society" (GLS) and the second hosted by ALA and Tech Source on "Games, Learning and Libraries" (GLL). This activity is surely developing fast in libraries, in both public and academic and it is with great enthusiasm. Virtual reality is part of the landscape and the range of games is diverse from board games, physical activity to online and computer games. Tell us what you think and if your library is engaged or not and what you are doing.

Our library like many others is analyzing how we will incorporate the best of Library 2.0 and have hosted a series on a number of topics that explores different aspects from social networking, Second Life, creating new services and all over the map. One of those sessions morphed into an article for LHTN on "Libraries Get Personal" and we hope you like it. You can imagine the intensity of the live discussion. Another contribution on Library Tool Bars is an indication of more customization to come.

So, here is a nutshell on what you can click through. We just received our readership data and they are all so interesting to see what readers really like – what articles are still heavily downloaded after three months, and other trends. That helps us solicit new content that you hopefully will find productive and useful for your work. We would love to hear from you with a personal message indicating your favorite read.

With best wishes,

Julia Gelfand(jgelfand@uci.edu)Mitchell Brown(mcbrown@uci.edu)Co-editors, LHTN