mmit blog
conferences
A sunny day in Sheffield
This is just a quick post to thank everyone who participated in and contributed to MmIT2013: we managed to bust through the clouds and keep the rain at bay all day while we learned about searching, collaborating, virtual enquiry services, and sharing everything cloud. More detailed conference reviews will follow, but for now, catch up on the day’s events through pictures and tweets.
A note from the chair – Cloudbusting
A note from the chair on ‘Cloud busting: demystifying ‘the Cloud’ and its impact on libraries’
With just under two weeks to go until our national ‘Cloudbusting’ conference it’s safe to say MmIT is getting quite excited. With such a rich programme and so many great speakers it looks set to be a truly great conference. We hope you are able to join us in Sheffield on April 5th as there are still a few places left.
The concept of ‘the Cloud’ has been around for several years. Over that time the term has become ubiquitous with a general acceptance that ‘the Cloud’ has a definite impact on the way in which we use computers and information technology and how individuals interact with information. It is widely regarded that cloud computing can simplify processes for organisations and save them money and as a result many of the benefits associated with the ‘Cloud’ have been around efficiencies and effectiveness of services.
Many services that libraries have traditionally offered have been migrated into cloud solutions. For example the use of OpenURL providers and federated and pre-indexed search engines allowing users to search all of a library’s collections through a single search box. Discovery layers such as Serials Solutions’ Summon, EBSCO’s EDS or Ex Libris’s Primo Central allow access to all of a library’s collections, not simply those found on the library catalogue. Such discovery layers can provide enhanced service such as access to special collections, digital collections and institutional repositories.
Similarly, the ‘Cloud’ allows libraries to share data about their collections and the bibliographic management activities that they are engaged in. This includes licensing data, common vendor files, serials publications patterns and MARC records.
Add to this entire systems hosted in the Cloud, such as the Koha and Ex Libris Alma library management systems, or reference and citation management systems such as Mendeley, then it is simple to see the impact that the Cloud has on libraries, and indeed vice versa.
Even simple initiatives such as collaborative working through Google Docs, enabling a library community through Facebook or storing photographic collections in Flickr are all examples of how the Cloud has become part of the day to day computing and technology activity of the library.
MmIT strives to raise awareness amongst library and information professionals about current trends and topics in library and information technology and ‘Cloud’ initiatives and innovations, and how they are currently being used within the sector will be of interest to many librarians and information professionals who may not even realise the wealth of ‘Cloud’ activities and solutions available to them. The conference includes a series of workshops, each one focusing on a particular ‘Cloud’ initiative. This includes topics such as implementing Opensource library management systems; How libraries can make the most of mobile devices to access cloud resources; Creating media-rich e-book resources; Implications for research data management; Copyright and licensing issues associated with the ‘Cloud’, and much more. The keynote presentation will be from Karen Blakeman and will focus on search and discovery within the ‘Cloud’ and the conference will also include a series of rapid fire technical innovation presentations and a panel question and answer session.
For further information please see the MmIT Events pages:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/multimedia/events/pages/default.aspx
Cilip Update on Cloudbusting Conference 2013
Read Leo Appleton’s thoughts on working in the Cloud in this month’s CILIP Update and find out more about this year’s MmIT conference.
See an agenda for the conference and book your place on this year’s MmIT conference.
MmIT Conference…1 month to go!
Still not registered for this years conference? With only a month to go excitement is building! Register here and find out more about this years MmIT Conference.
Prizes to be awarded at “Cloudbusting — Demystifying the Cloud”
We’re delighted to announce that Facet Publishing is providing three prizes for delegates at the MmIT 2013 national conference.
The prizes include Cloud Computing for Libraries by Marshall Breeding (one of our keynote speakers from MmIT 2012)
The No-nonsense Guide to Legal Issues in Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing by Charles Oppenheim
and Getting Started with Cloud Computing, edited by Heather Lea Moulaison and Edward Corrado
Book your place now through our online form:
https://docs.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dFlyZUFyNHF5UDAxeEVwZlpGcGwwR2c6MA#gid=0
The full conference programme is available on our Events page: http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/multimedia/events/pages/mmit-conference-2013.aspx
Cloudbusting – demystifying the Cloud – Conference update
Book Now “Cloudbusting – demystifying the Cloud”
MmIT Conference, University of Sheffield, 5th April 2013
MMIT bring you an exciting new conference in 2013 covering all aspects of Cloud technology and the implications for library and information services. Featuring a wide variety of excellent speakers and session formats this interactive conference will be both informative and inspirational. If you work in the library and information sector and are increasingly being asked to work in the Cloud or with new technologies, or are just generally interested in library Cloud developments, then this conference is for you!
Full programme available on the MmIT events page
(http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/multimedia/events/pages/default.aspx)
To book a place at the conference, please use the online booking form:
MmIT Journal February 2013 on “Cloudbusting – demystifying the Cloud” MmITFeb13web-cloudbustingconf(1)
MMIT 2013 Conference: Cloudbusting – demystifying the Cloud
The MMIT conference has come round again and this time we are ‘Cloudbusting – demystifying the Cloud’.
Take a first peak at the programme for the day with further details to follow…
MmIT Conference, University of Sheffield, 5th April 2013
9:30 – Registration and morning coffee
10:00 – Introduction and welcome – Chris Sexton, University of Sheffield, Leo Appleton, MmIT
10:15 -11:00 – Keynote presentation by Karen Blakeman, RBA Information Services “Searching in the cloud”
11:00 -11.50 – Parallel workshops sessions 1
* Andy Tattersall & Claire Beecroft (University of Sheffield) “Cloudme – Being an Effective LIS Professional without Touching Terra Firma”
* Gurdish Sandhu and Adjoa Boateng (University of East London) “The UEL Library: entering the cloud”
* Lise Robinson (OCLC) “Something good is going to happen” : an overview of developing a cloud based solution
* Emily Goodhand (University of Reading) “Cloud(y) Law: unpacking the issues for library & information professionals”
11.50 – 12.10 – Break
12.10-13:00 – Parallel workshops sessions 2
* Axiell Workshop
* Andrew Cox (university of Sheffield) “Research data management – what is the library’s role?”
* Paul Walk (UKOLN) “Bring your own Cloud”
13.00 – 13:45 – Lunch
13:45 – 14:30 – Rapid fire sessions
14.30 – 15:20 – Parallel workshops sessions 3
* Dave Parkes (University of Staffordshire “Implementing the Koha Library Management System”
* Anthony Beal (JISC) “Collaborating to create ebooks in the cloud: media rich resources for teaching, learning and assessment”
* Bethan Ruddock (MIMAS) “Opening up – bibliographic data-sharing and interoperability”
15:20 – 16:00 – Panel Q&A – Dave Parkes, Anthony Beal, Bethan Ruddock, Karen Blakeman, Paul Walk
16:00 Close
To book a place at the ‘Cloudbusting’ conference please use the online booking form:
Call for papers: Umbrella 2013
CILIP’s Umbrella Conference 2013
Bringing the information world together
Discover. Connect. Achieve.
Manchester | 2-3 July 2013
Call for Papers now open
The Call for Papers is now open for the country’s leading library and information conference: Umbrella 2013. The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) Umbrella Conference regularly attracts up to 600 delegates from across the library and information world to meet, learn, debate and be inspired.
Proposals for presentation are invited from within and outside of the profession on the four main themes for this year’s conference:
• Future Skills and Future Roles: What will society need from our profession?
• Information to best support society: Information and digital literacy in education, work, health and leisure
• Beyond Information Matters: Pushing the frontiers of Knowledge and Information Management
• Partnerships for progress: Community engagement reaching our communities at organisational, local, regional, national and international levels
The closing date for entries is Friday 30 November 2012. For more information visit the website http://www.cilip.org.uk/umbrella2013/pages/call-for-papers.aspx
Internet Librarian International – save 25%
MMIT Group is again pleased to be collaborating with Internet Librarian International to bring our members a 25% discount on registration fees. Our August issue carried a preview of the event which takes place in London on 30th and 31st October.
KohaCon 2012: open source, community and the LMS
Photo Some rights reserved by nengard on Flickr
Koha is an increasingly popular open source Library Management System (or Integrated Library System if you prefer) and KohaCon 12 was held at the University of Edinburgh from the 05 – 07 June, with an additional 2 day hackfest immediately following. This was a great event, jam-packed with information for both seasoned Koha users and those just testing the open source waters and with delegates from all over the world.
The event opened with Paul Poulain (release manager for Koha 3.8.) talking us through all the new features available in the latest version. This is a major release and includes such shiny new functionality as a new staff interface, improved acquisitions and faster processing.
Nason Bimbe from the British Library for Development Studies talked about their experience in moving a specialist library to Koha from a bespoke system.
Next up (after Elevenses, of course) was Chris Cormack, one of the original Koha developers and most active contributors. Chris talked about the various support mechanisms in place within the Koha community to cultivate an active and diverse community with a low barrier to entry for participation. This is a very newbie-friendly community and help is always available for those interested in getting involved.
Fittingly, next up Paul Poulain gave a demonstration of sandboxes. Sandboxes provide a way for users to get involved in the development process by removing some of the cumbersome technical barriers. There’s more information about the sandboxes on the Koha wiki.
Robin Sheat, who has managed quite a few migrations as a developer at Catalyst IT, lead a discussion on best practices for migrating an existing LMS to Koha and some of the gotchas to watch out for.
Nicole Engard talked gave a big-picture overview of the benefits and barriers to open source, drawn from her experience running training sessions on Koha and FOSS. This gave a nice segue into the panel discussion which covered some of the various ways migration is handled and how the Koha community addresses the barriers to both open source adoption and community participation.
Day two of the conference kicked off with Dianna Roberts from Opus International talking about how they use Koha in a multi-national special library context. Joy Nelson then gave another perspective on migrating a library to Koha from a proprietary LMS. Rafael Antonio followed this by talking about Koha in Portugal and how this fits with the a broader shift towards shared library resources.
Paul Poulain spoke about BibLibre’s experiences of using Mirabel, France’s shared database of journals, reviews and serials, with Koha. Afterwards, Joy Nelson gave another perspective on Koha migrations, focusing on specific migration heuristics
Next it was Marijana Glavica and Dobrica Pavlinušić from Croatia who have developed a way to import approximately 6000 scans of book covers (and the associated metadata) into Koha using their own ‘scrape-cataloguing’ technique.
Nicole Engard spoke about training users new to the Koha software. If you are using or interested in using Koha, it’s worth checking out Nicole’s videos on the ByWater Solutions blog:
http://bywatersolutions.com/section/tutorial-videos/
Jane Wagner (Liblime/PTFS), presenting remotely, talking about how to troubleshoot Koha user support and Bob Birchall from Calyx in Australia discussed the importance of governance in ensuring the long-term survival of an open source project. This includes ensuring the software is shared under a suitable licence and that the intellectual property is protected in a sustainable way.
The final presentation of the second day was Adrien Saurat (BibLibre) talking about styling the Koha OPAC, using the SciencesPo Grenoble catalogue as an example.
I wasn’t able to say for the final day of the main conference and so missed some great presentations, including MJ Ray (software.coop and one of the organisers of the conference) talking about the future of Koha and demoes of various new developments, such as SRU, Solr, using a Drupal front-end and the off-line circulation module.
You can find out more about the outcomes from the hackfest on the koha wiki at:
http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Kohacon12Hackfest
or check out the scoreboard to see how many kittens were saved through collaborative bug squashing.
Links for presentations will be added as they become available.
