It is long overdue that we need to hack the conference experience. There needs to be a mashup of the traditional conference experience with the dynamic conversational tone of an unconference. There should be more realtime sharing and interaction between audience and presenter, and time for brainstorming and exchanging thoughts and ideas that result from presentations, in a way the captures and sustains the conversation long after we check out of the conference hotel.

Granted, it is common for conferences to have a Twitter hashtag, but are the questions and ideas posed on the backchannel churned up and contributed to the “live action” in the room? Sure, the sessions are live streamed, but how is virtual participation structured so that it can be a meaningful experience? Some conferences are doing a great job of this, but they are seldom professional library conferences. In this time of reduced resources to support professional development, we need to demand more of our conferences and meetings.

With this in mind, the 2012 DLF Forum program planning committee used a number of strategies to maximize interaction and dynamic participation.

First, we minimized the number of sessions that followed a traditional presentation format. In addition to panels and presentations, the Forum had working sessions, project updates, workshops, several preconference unconferences, and a community marketplace. Descriptions of all these session types are spelled out in the call for proposals. The overarching goal of these alternative session types is to create an opportunity for conversation between the presenters and the DLF community. For example, the working session Tales from the Cloud focused on sharing experiences of cloud adoption, the decisions that led there, migration strategies and considerations, and technical implications of cloud usage in a preservation context. The idea was that panel members would share their experiences in a session that was structured to have a conversation with the audience.

Second, we maximized opportunities for interaction between speakers, session leaders, and conference participants. Not only did the Forum have a Twitter hashtag (#dlfforum) and archive tweets, but we also asked that all the speakers share their presentations via SlideShare and we provided the opportunity for collaborative notetaking using an open GoogleDoc for each session. The collaborative notetaking was inspired by a recent symposium titled Take Note held by the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. These notes—which can be found through a link to the original GoogleDoc at the bottom of each session page—were used to create a summary report of the 2012 Forum sessions.

Our third strategy to enhance interaction at the Forum was to offer “more room at the inn.” Digital library conversations span many topics, including data management, digital humanities, and scholarly publishing. Often, these conversations happen within “home” communities or in silos, when the issues cut across many stakeholder groups and would benefit from having a broad open discussion. So how do we encourage new voices from outside of the core digital library community to join the conversation? Our solution was to position the Forum as a hub meeting, while providing meeting and logistic support for other groups to “spoke” from. This year, preconference meetings included the METS editorial board meeting, the Taiga Forum 8, CURATECamp, and THATCamp. The Scholarly International Infrastructure Technical Summit met directly after. These pre- and post-conference meetings encouraged many who had never attended a DLF Forum to test the waters. This year we had more than 230 attendees from organizations that ranged from research universities and liberals arts colleges to independent organizations and service providers.

In planning a meeting, it is often the small details that can make a difference. This year, in addition to maximizing interactivity, we wanted to minimize our carbon footprint. The DLF greening initiative started last year as a way to reduce paper by using SlideShare to distribute presentations and the Guidebook app to post the conference schedule. This year, we expanded our efforts to include distributing water bottles in place of offering bottled water at breaks, and using recycled/recyclable name badges with compostable badge holders.

On the basis of early evaluations, it seems our efforts have paid off: attendees were pleased with our efforts to support a broader range of participation. But there is always room to improve. Next year we’d like to live stream the event, but in a way that our remote participants can feel that they are part of the Forum, and not just watching it. We hope to expand the conference by a day to avoid overlapping sessions. But most importantly, we’ll be thinking about how we can sustain those good conversations that started at the 2012 Forum in a way that carries our whole community forward until we meet again, in Austin Texas in 2013. Stay tuned … we are working on that!

Originally posted on clir.org November 28, 2012.

Please visit our registration page to view registration and pricing details. All set? Register now! We look forward to seeing you in Denver.

Based on an earlier talk given at NYPL Labs, Voss’s presentation will “explore the fundamental elements of Linked Open Data and discover how rapidly growing access to metadata within the world’s libraries, archives and museums is opening exciting new possibilities for understanding our past, and may help in predicting our future.”

This event is free and open to the public, so register soon. For a sneak peek, check out this slideshow from Voss’s earlier talk.

The conference takes place May 16-19, 2011 in Salt Lake City, UT.

The early registration deadline is April 17th.

The preliminary program is available at the conference website.

In order to receive the member rates, online registrants must first select “member” as the registration type and complete BOTH the society name box and membership ID with “DLF” in the provided space. Note: the system recognizes IS&T members and so will not ask for this information. It will only come up for non- IS&T members. DLF members can also fax in the registration form with this information.

DLF is seeking conference reports from Archiving 2011. If you would like to contribute a report from this conference or other DLF related conferences, please volunteer via the DLF  info mailbox.

In partnership with CenterNet, DLF is working to create opportunities that bring together digital library and digital humanities communities in order to explore where we converge and to better understand our roles and responsibilities. As part of this effort, DLF is offering its members, who are first time DH conference attendees, a $100 conference registration discount.

This is a first come, first serve offer, open to all DLF community members who have NEVER attended the DH conference. Some restrictions apply*.

To take advantage of this special offer please send your name, contact information and organizational affiliation to the DLF mail box. Eligible DLF members will receive a special registration URL in order to activate this special discount. Do not register for the event until you have received your discount code.

For more information about the DH conference go to their website.

For more information about DLF Digital Humanities activities, go to the DH interest group page.

*Restrictions: not open to Stanford University (a special Stanford Employee rate is being offered separately).

“First time attendee” is defined as anyone who has not attended DH in the last 5 years.

This is a first come, first served offer, and is limited to the first 20 respondents. Offer expires April 30th, or when we receive 20 request, whichever comes first. Please send contacts and inquiries to DLF Info.

See details.

By an overwhelming majority (74 of 130 votes), Denver will be the location of the 2012 DLF Forum, which will be held Saturday November 3rd – Tuesday November 6th, 2012. Note, this coincides with Election Day (November 6th), so please remember to make plans accordingly.

• Atlanta,Georgia, Loews Atlanta Hotel, Monday-Thursday, October 15-18. The Loews Atlanta is the newest Midtown Atlanta hotel – open just about a year at this time. This neighborhood, just north of downtown is the most up and coming area in Atlanta.
• Houston, Texas, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Monday-Thursday, October 15-18 or 22-25. The Hyatt Regency Houston is located directly downtown giving guests access to all that the city offers.
• Denver, Colorado, The Westin Tabor Center, Saturday-Tuesday, November 3-6. This date will dovetail Educause, scheduled for Denver November 6-9. Located in renowned Lower Downtown Denver, the Westin is only a stroll away from the 16th Street pedestrian mall, Denver Center for Performing Arts, Convention Center, museums and entertainment.

The survey is now open and will be active until Tuesday, February 22, 2011. Thanks for your help!

The goal of the ER&L Conference is to bring together information professionals from libraries and related industries to improve the way we collect, manage, maintain, and make accessible electronic resources in an ever-changing online environment. We do this once a year at an in-person conference. In addition, sessions are recorded and made available online. ER&L allows for cross-pollination of ideas across fields of librarianship not often brought together in traditional public services or technical services conferences.

DLF is excited to be sponsoring keynote speaker, Amanda French. Dr. Amanda French is currently THATCamp Coordinator at the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University, where she helps people all around the world organize interdisciplinary and interprofessional “unconferences” on humanities and technology (THATCamp stands for The Humanities And Technology Camp). One of her primary professional interests is in helping humanities scholars learn from librarians and archivists, and in helping humanities scholars, librarians, and archivists address technology issues and projects together. She has drawn on her experience as a Council on Library and Information Resources Postdoctoral Fellow to develop courses in digital methods and issues for graduate students in English at NCSU and for graduate students in the Archives and Public History Program at NYU. She recently contributed to two collections of essays: Hacking the Academy and #alt-ac: Alternative Academic Careers for Humanities Scholars.

Amanda will be presenting “Toward the Digital Public Library of America”.
Below is a brief description.

In December of 2010, Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society announced a planning initiative toward a Digital Public Library of America. Countries such as Norway, France, and China have already built or begun building national digital libraries, and indeed we even have a World Digital Library (which, with less than 200 items, is not as impressive as it sounds). Despite its name, the Digital Public Library of America is the brainchild of research librarians, with stakeholders on the Steering Committee from the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Smithsonian, the Council on Library and Information Resources, the Mellon Foundation, and Harvard. What challenges will this key planning initiative face, and how can research libraries help? What benefits might the creation of such a national digital library have for research libraries?