Monday, October 30, 2006

Event: Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA) 2007

From the Sigdl-l distribution list.

LIBRARIES IN THE DIGITAL AGE (LIDA) 2007

Dubrovnik and Mljet, Croatia
28 May - 1 June 2007

Inter-University Centre <http://www.iuc.hr/> Don Ivana Bulica 4, 20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia, and Hotel Odisej, island Mljet, Pomena, Croatia <http://www.hotelodisej.hr/>
Web site: <http://www.ffos.hr/lida/>
Email: :lida@ffos.hr

The general aim of the annual international conference and course Libraries in the Digital Age (LIDA), started in 2000, is to address the changing and challenging environment for libraries and information systems and services in the digital world, with an emphasis on examining contemporary problems, advances and solutions.

Each year a different and "hot" theme is addressed, divided in two parts; the first part covers research and development and the second part addresses advances in applications and practice. LIDA seeks to bring together researchers, practitioners, and developers from all over the world in a forum for personal exchanges, discussions, and learning, made easier by being held in memorable locations.

Themes LIDA 2007

Part I: Users and Use of Digital Libraries


Over the last decade numerous digital libraries have been designed and developed world wide. One can evaluate the importance of these projects in terms of their resources, collections, services access, and other related aspects. However, the ultimate measure of success of digital libraries is their acceptance and use in the work and every day life of their users.

The goal of the first part of LIDA 2007 is to explore the behavior, place, and role of users of digital libraries and the reasons, ways, and means related to their use of digital libraries. Special attention will be on users -- information behavior and moreover, on the role of users throughout the process of design, development, and evaluation of digital libraries. The general aim is to concentrate on works that increase our understanding of the needs, interests, and experiences of users in the context of digital libraries. Many research approaches and understanding users could be examined, e.g., behavioral, cognitive, affective, organizational, social.

Invited are contributions (types described below) covering the following topics:
* reasons for and approaches to use of digital libraries; related experiences of various categories of users. Why and how do users interact with digital libraries?
* users? experience with digital library content in various forms of presentation (text, audio, visual) and accessibility (mobile, handheld, wireless, wearable, etc.)
* usability evaluation of digital libraries; methodologies for and results of usability studies
* impact of digital libraries on various categories of user populations and in various contexts (within specific cultures, countries, disciplines, professions, age groups; with various technology use levels, access problems, etc.)
* cross-cultural and international studies of the opportunities and barriers to development and use of digital libraries
* use of various digital library services, such as virtual and chat reference
* users as interactive creators of a new generation of digital libraries
* application of various theories and models in study of users and use of digital libraries and associated human information behavior
* relating such theories and user information needs assessments to design and development of digital libraries.


Part II: Economics and Digital Libraries

The goal of the second part of LIDA 2007 is to address economic factors: costs, resources, sharing, consortia, and the nature and control of expenditures. Digital libraries, like all other libraries, have costs that must be paid. In addition to the familiar costs of providing services, digital libraries assume a responsibility to serve as portals, for their complex communities of users and to the exponentially expanding resources of the World Wide Web. Finally, the costs of conversion from older forms such as paper and microfiche, to new digital forms, are of vital importance because, increasingly, materials that have not been converted will not be used.

There are several approaches to library economics, including most importantly so-called unit cost, or functional cost analysis, and econometric modeling. As most libraries are today a mix of paper and digital, it is particularly difficult to separate costs into the costs of becoming digital, and the ongoing costs of remaining digital. As libraries reference each others' materials, the collaborations dreamed of in the 1970's and 1980's become a practical reality. But the forms of operational collaboration needed to make all of this both efficient and effective are still being discovered. At the same time, some dramatic commercial initiatives are putting vast amounts of material into digital searchable form.

The general aim is to bring together working librarians, academic researchers, industry representatives and government officials, to review our present understanding of library economics in the Digital Age, to identify needed research, and to sketch a road map for the transition.

Invited are contributions (types described below) covering the following topics:
* application of library performance measures to the digital realm, to new forms of service, and to new methods of delivery
* methods for measuring or estimating the costs of digital operations in a scalable and generalizable fashion
* real world experience of moving from a non-digital situation to a fully digital one, with regard to some area of service, with particular focus on the costs, both tangible and intangible, of the transition. This can be from the perspective of a library, a publisher, or an Internet firm
* case studies of governmental intervention to accelerate the digitization of national resources, or of more specialized collections
* other issues related to the economics of digital libraries - novel approaches, are particularly welcome.

Types of contributions

Invited are the following types of contributions:
* Papers: research studies and reports on practices and advances that will be presented at the conference and included on the conference Web site. Papers of up to 4000 words in length should be submitted, following the American Psychological Association
(http://www.apastyle.org/index.html) style, followed, among others, by the Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
(http://www.asis.org/Publications/JASIS/jasis.html)
and Information Processing & Management
(http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/244/description#description).

The papers will be refereed and published in LIDA 2007 Proceedings.
* Posters: short graphic presentations on research, studies, advances, examples, practices, or preliminary work that will be presented in a special poster session. Awards will be given for Best Poster and Best Student Poster. Proposals for posters should be submitted as a short, one or two- page paper.
* Demonstrations: live examples of working projects, services, interfaces, commercial products, or developments-in-progress that will be presented during the conference in specialized facilities or presented in special demonstration sessions. These should involve some aspect of users and use. Proposals for demonstration should provide short description and a URL address, if available.
* Workshops: two to four-hour sessions that will be tutorial and educational in nature.
Workshops will be presented before and after the main part of the conference and will require separate fees, to be shared with workshop organizers. Proposals for workshops should include a short description, with indication of level and potential audience.
* PhD Forum: short presentations by PhD students in a session organized by the European Chapter of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (EC/ASIST).

Submissions should be sent in electronic format (as an email attachment) to Prof. Tatjana Aparac at taparac@ffos.hr.
Inquires can also be addressed to the Co-Chair of the conference Prof. Tefko Saracevic and Program Chairs (for Part I Prof. Sanda Erdelez. and for Part II Prof. Paul Kantor). Full contact information is provided below. All submissions will be refereed.

Deadlines:
For papers and workshops: 15 January 2007. Acceptance by 15 February 2007.
For demonstrations and posters: 1 February 2007. Acceptance by 1 March 2007.
Final submission for all accepted papers and posters: 15 March 2007.

Invitation to institutions
We are inviting libraries, information agencies, professional organizations, publishers, and service providers to consider participation at LIDA by providing a demonstration, workshop, or exhibit about their products, services or advances, or by presenting a paper or poster about their activities, as related to themes.

Sponsorship of an event is also invited.

Institutions can benefit as well: we will provide course materials to participants so that they can communicate and transfer topics of interest to their institution. Thus, we are organizing LIDA to reach a wider audience.

Conference contact information
Course co-directors:
TATJANA APARAC-JELUSIC, Ph.D.
Department of Information Sciences
Faculty of Philosophy; J.J. Strossmayer University 31000 Osijek, Croatia
taparac@ffos.hr
(contact for general correspondence)
TEFKO SARACEVIC, Ph.D.
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies; Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ, 08901 USA
tefko@scils.rutgers.edu

Program chairs:
For Part I:
SANDA ERDELEZ, Ph.D.
School of Information Science and Learning Technologies; University of Missouri -- Columbia Columbia, MO, 65211 USA
ErdelezS@missouri.edu

For Part II:
PAUL B. KANTOR, Ph.D.
School of Communication, Information and Library Studies; Rutgers University New Brunswick, NJ, 08901 USA
paul.kantor@rutgers.edu

Organizing chairs:
Organizing committee:
MAJA KRTALIC
Department of Information Sciences
Faculty of Philosophy; J.J. Strossmayer University 31000 Osijek, Croatia
mcujic@ffos.hr

Local organizing committee:
MARICA SAPRO FICOVIC
Dubrovnik Libraries
20000 Dubrovnik, Croatia
msapro@dkd.hr

Venues

The first part of LIDA 2007 will be held in Dubrovnik and for the second part the conference will move to island Mljet, less than a two-hour ride from Dubrovnik on a fast catamaran.
Pre-conference workshops are planned for 28 May 2007 in Dubrovnik and post-conference workshops for 2 June 2007 on Mljet.

Dubrovnik, Croatia is recognized as one of the World Cultural Heritage sites by UNESCO. It is a walled city, preserved as it existed in medieval times. A beautiful natural location on the Adriatic Sea, a lavish architecture of squares, palaces, and churches, small, intriguing hill-hugging streets, pedestrian-only traffic within the walls, outings to the enchanting near-by islands - all these and more combine to make Dubrovnik one of the most popular destinations in Europe. For Croatia see http://www.croatia.hr/ and for Dubrovnik, http://web.tzdubrovnik.hr/, travel information at http://www.dubrovnik-online.com/

Mljet is one of the most enchanting islands in the Adriatic, a sea that abounds with beautiful islands to start with. Hotel Odisej is in a small harbor. Near the hotel is the entrance to Mljet National Park with lush vegetation surrounding three inland lakes, a small island with a monastery in the middle lake, paths for walking, and spots for swimming in the blue and green sea.

For Mljet National Park see http://www.np-mljet.hr/
and for hotel Odisej (with further information about the surroundings) see http://www.hotelodisej.hr.

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