This sponsor update is by Bonnie Tijerina, ER&L President and Head of E-Resources and Serials at Harvard.
I am looking forward to the DLF Forum and all it brings—convening bright and motivated minds, sharing knowledge, delving deeply and thoughtfully into library challenges all while building a smart and diverse peer network. We are equally enthused about the ER&L + DLF Cross Pollinator Travel Award and our combined and reciprocal commitment with the DLF to make this professional collaboration happen.
Like the DLF Forum, ER&L represents an opportunity for e-resources and digital service library community to connect, share and broaden their knowledge. Electronic Resources and Libraries (ER&L) is holding the ninth annual conference in Austin, March 16–19 at the AT&T Center and we are so pleased to be back for our third consecutive year at the lovely University of Texas campus and with the enthusiastic support of the UT Library staff.
The topics we cover at ER&L include managing e-resources & licensing, collection development and assessment, organizational strategies, external relationship management, user experience, scholarly communication, library as publisher as well as emerging technologies and trends.
Our Program Planning Committee Chair recently stated, “Managing electronic resources is a challenge, whether you’re new to it or have been engaged in it for years. Which systems and tools can be used to manage electronic resources more effectively? What kinds of challenges are new formats posing? How are libraries rearranging workflows to find solutions to e-resource management problems? What can we achieve through more thoughtful licensing? How can standards and best practices assist our efforts?” I like the simplicity and truth of these statements.
As I read this passage from just one of our 2014 tracks for our current call for proposals, it strikes me that these statements of need, and these questions, are foundational and significant questions requiring the best and brightest from libraries of all sizes and types, from those on the leading edge to those starting out, from those professionals who oversaw the period of great emergence of the digital environment in large research libraries and from those who are new e-resources managers at government or public libraries.
If you have not heard of ER&L, I encourage you to check out our website. Fresh eyes, different perspectives, well documented case studies, productive partnerships with industry professionals, immersive workshops have all made a monumental difference in advancing our field collectively and professional development individually. And, I hope you’ll consider joining the conversation at ER&L in 2014.
