Archive for January, 2011

Kat Meyer

I interviewed Kat Meyer, one of the Program Chairs of the upcoming O’Reilly TOC conference, and afterwards, I became even more enthusiastic about attending TOC than I was before.  Click below to listen to a podcast of this approximately 20-minute interview.

Meyer TOC Interview

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

With the current heavy emphasis on e-books, the Digital Book World conference occurring this week in New York is highly relevant.  Two of the featured speakers are Russ Grandinetti, head of Kindle content for Amazon, and Abe Murray, project manager for Google eBooks.  The program includes sessions on:

• Research, Data, and Perspective,
• E-books and Beyond,
• Sales and Marketing in the Digital Age,
• Evolution of Children’s Publishing, and
• New Business Models that Work.

You can also sign up for a conference newsletter (I did) that will keep you up to date on the conference and future similar events from the same organizers.  Even if you hadn’t planned to attend, a last minute decision to do so seems like a good idea if you’re at all interested in e-books.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Through a special partnership with IFLA, Emerald Insight has begun publishing papers that were presented at IFLA conferences.  The first group of 14 articles has been published in 4 Emerald journals.  Nine months after publication, the articles become open access and freely available.  You can read all the details here.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

Sydney Opera House and Harbor Bridge

Organized by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), the 15th Information Online Conference will take place in Sydney, Australia on February 1-3.  This is the major conference event in Australia  and only occurs every other year.  It attracts a large number of attendees, primarily from Pacific Rim countries in Asia and Australasia and features not only a full range of presentations but also an exhibit hall and many networking events.  An active blog is now underway with further information, and the program is also available.

Sydney is a long way from North America, but attending this conference is always well worth the effort (I speak from previous experience!).  And as an added bonus for North American visitors–February is mid-summer in Sydney!  If you have the opportunity, don’t miss it.  And if you are there, please tell us your impressions in comments to this posting.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor

The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) has organized its 7th Librarian Focus Group, to be held in Washington, DC on February 1.  Here is an extract from the website:

In these troubled but dynamic times, the Society for Scholarly Publishing’s ever popular “Librarian Focus Group” returns in 2011 with a panel of leading librarians from a range of institutions primed and ready to answer the questions publishers and vendors have for them. The digital future and continued economic turmoil will be at the forefront of discussion, but a range of other topics will also be covered, such as trends in pricing and licensing, the future of authentication, the challenges of electronic resource preservation, the state of “open access,” and the growing interest in campus publishing.

As books reach the digital tipping point and electronic journals continue to add more functionality, far-reaching decisions are being made by librarians in regard to their collections. The first “all electronic” libraries are becoming a reality and more efficient exchange mechanisms are developing to reduce duplication of collections. With double digit cuts in library budgets inevitable over the next few years, librarians are becoming increasingly radical in their reactions to price rises. Necessity is truly the mother of invention, and surprising new initiatives are being planned and executed within academic libraries – initiatives that publishers need to be aware of.

In a proven formula, six librarians will take questions from moderators and participants on a range of themes during a full day of discussions. The panelists have been chosen for their wide ranging knowledge, and there will informal as well as formal opportunities for discussion.

Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today and Conference Circuit Blog Editor