Editorial

Citation

Gelfand, J. and Riggs, C. (2003), "Editorial", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 20 No. 9. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.2003.23920iaa.001

Editorial

This issue, long overdue, features some critical content from summer 2003 conferences and some exciting new content about trends in important areas. Truly an impressive, global representation of lucid writing that explores library programs and scholarship, we as a profession and LHTN family of contributors have much to be proud of with these achievements.

Conference Reports bring us memories from many interesting places. The Libraries in a Digital Age (LIDA) conference takes us to Croatia where colleagues explored many aspects of what shapes the electronic library environment, from a services and resources perspective. An incredibly generous and thoughtful report is provided by Marie O'Brien and her attendance at the International Association of School Libraries conference in Durban, South Africa. Not only was there coverage on service to children within the school library environment, but a substantial focus was given to the circumstantial situation of a the Aids/HIV crisis that is so prevalent on that continent and in particular in South Africa. Librarians are not only resource people and teachers, but they are often caregivers and serve as an inspiration to other community service movements. The incredible planning and hospitality that went into the planning for this conference ekes out in every descriptive passage. O'Brien shows empathy and compassion as she traveled and visited school libraries and observed teaching conditions and challenges our colleagues have in less-developed countries.

Fiesole 2003 took place in Oxford and we have some clear insights from our publishers at Emerald who were able to participate. More like a retreat than a traditional conference or seminar, it is collection development focused with intensive representation from the book trade and journal publishing sectors. And, it always promises deep discussions about authors, readers, publishers and librarian behaviors and there are some real gems among this year's presentations that can now be found at the Casalini Web site: http//digital.casalini.it/retreat/retreat_2003.html

IFLA this year was in Berlin and what a week that was in August. There were significant "firsts" – beginning with a heat wave that struck the entire European continent. The current President of IFLA is from Botswana and that, too was a first with having leadership from the African continent. Planning for IFLA 2004 in South America was another first. Our publishers Emerald hosted several activities chronicled in the report.

The American Chemical Society annual meeting in New York wrapped up the summer season of library-related meetings and technology is always a focus of our chemistry colleagues, both librarians and chemists from academe, industry and government research.

Each issue we try and have several features and we assume that you will find the two examples in this issue as equally impressive as we did. The first one offers new and insightful thinking about the Open URL initiatives and standards. Increasingly important in all aspects of online catalog management and maintenance, as well as with our publishing partners, Kyle Felker demonstrates how the Open URL will influence the work we are engaged in and future library technology developments. The X-Lib Software experience in Nigeria is described so that it can be applied to other library settings in that part of the world with analogous library attributes. These tools achieved incredibly creative solutions to some difficult problems and it is gratifying to read about the way it was executed.

The usual columns are part of this issue – the first of an anticipated trilogy from E-profiles, an extensive E-currents overview of industry developments in E-books and hand-held apparatuses and New Books which were discovered by extensive traveling and conference attendance and a full list of transitions from our corporate and institutional partners and a range of events to consider in our near and far futures.

We are excited and hope that "better late than never" describes this issue. You will see the calendar of deadlines for future issues in our next volume year (Table I) and we hope that you will keep a mental note to impress upon yourselves that this is a worthwhile publication to contribute to and follow.

With best wishes,

Julia Gelfand(jgelfand@uci.edu)Colby Riggs(cmriggs@uci.edu)Co-editors