ILA Program Proposal Planning Meeting

We had some really great ideas that came out of the meeting this morning! We have decided to pursue 6 topics. These topics are the program proposals that the ILA RTSF will sponsor. This gives it a little bit of added weight when the ILA 2015 Planning Committee reviews program proposals. If you were planning on submitting a proposal not sponsored, please do so! I encourage everyone to independently submit proposals so we can have a great selection of sessions to attend. If you have an idea and need help getting the ball rolling or connecting with other panelists, please contact me. I’m happy to help!

To decide on the following 6 topics (listed in no particular order), we reviewed feedback people had sent me and the survey results from the ILA 2014 conference.

1. Small group networking: This idea is inspired by the RAILS Face-to-Face program. Each table will have a facilitator and focus on a topic. I plan on sending out a poll at a later date to gauge interest in the topics we came up with (RDA, shifting roles in TS, ILA changes, managing a wide variety of tasks that shelvers/clerical staff perform, Workflows, Processing/Outsourcing, III, Sirsi, Voyager, Polaris, Leadership, working a public service desk).
2. Electronic vendor product review: We hope to have a representative from school, public, academic, and special libraries. Ideally, we want this to be very organized so at the end attendees can take away some comparisons. The products need to be compared on the same guidelines…maybe a chart handout? We definitely want a panel for this one and envision going down the panel so everyone discusses eBooks or Videos at the same time.
3. Staff motivation and motivating yourself: This is not necessarily Tech Services focused, but we really want a TS speaker as part of the presentation. We hope to have at least two different library types speaking.
4. World language collections: Hopefully a multi-type panel again discussing where they purchase world language materials from as well as who catalogs them, best practices for collection management, display, etc.
5. RDA: Since the sessions are only an hour, we decided that we should be specific and just focus on a single format (we’re thinking DVD or Blu-ray or kits… we all think we’re beyond needing assistance on books).
6. Trends in subject headings: LOC’s genre headings, fast headings, local subject headings. The importance of highly-specific subject headings in the era of information overload. And of course, we’d like a multi-type panel to discuss practices.

If you know of anyone (or yourself) that would like to be a presenter, please let me know. We’re still  in the early planning stages. Proposals are not due until March 20th. I am very interested in getting some new presenters at ILA in an effort to boost the forum’s presence/morale. 🙂 So don’t be afraid to volunteer!