LITA--MidWinter 2005--Top Tech Trends Committee report

GROUP: Top Technology Trends Committee

CHAIR: David Ward

REPORTER: David Ward

CONFERENCE: midwinter

MEETING: Committee meeting

ATTENDEES = 200

CURRENT_ACTIVITIES = The Top Technology Trends committee hosted a
discussion by some of LITA's recognized technology experts on Sunday
morning at ALA. The speakers were Karen Schneider, Andrew Pace, Tom
Wilson, Clifford Lynch, Marshall Breeding, Joan Frye Williams, and Walt
Crawford.

The full list of trends, along with bibliographies of each and detailed
minutes from the meeting will be posted on the committee's website. An
incomplete list of the many trends discussed by the group includes :

• Storage - bigger and cheaper
  
  
• Blogs - including the rise of the "Citizen Journalist" and the need to
  evaluate bloggers for accuracy
  
  
• Ebooks - is the 2nd, better generation coming?
  
  
• OPACs - why they suck, and what can be done about it (FRBR, and interface
  like Delicious Library)
  
  
• WiFi - and security concerns
  
  
• Broadband - VoIP and rural underconnecting
  
  
• Google - what Scholar and Print mean for libraries
  
  
• Folksonomy - users are coming up with their own uncontrolled vocabularies
  for their personal searching and filing needs
  
  
• DRM - digital rights management and its effects on libraries
  

Also discussed was the way many new trends no longer come from the top (big
research libraries) down, but rather are "Bubble Up" technologies that
start from consumer trends or smaller areas and then catch on directly with
libraries of many different sizes.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES: The committee is watching the development of the ALA
Online Communities project, and is interested in starting a threaded
discussion group on trends using this software when it is available. This
is seen as an opportunity to provide an additional ongoing and interactive
forum for discussion of top technology trends.