Microsoft Word - December_ITAL_vacek_final.docx President’s  Message   Twitter  Nodes  to  Networks:   Thoughts  on  the  #litaforum   Rachel  Vacek     INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGIES  AND  LIBRARIES  |  DECEMBER  1014     1   One  thing  that  never  ceases  to  amaze  me  is  the  technological  talent  and  creativity  of  my  library   colleagues.  The  LITA  Forum  is  a  gathering  of  intelligent,  fun,  and  passionate  people  who  want  to   talk  about  technology  and  learn  from  one  another.    I  suppose  many  conferences  have  lots  of   opportunities  to  network,  but  the  size  and  friendliness  of  the  Forum  makes  it  feel  more  like  a   comfortable  place  among  friends.  However,  the  utilization  of  technology  always  inspires  me,  and   the  networking  and  reconnect  with  friends  is  rejuvenating.   So  many  more  people  are  sharing  their  research  and  their  presentations  through  Twitter,  and  it’s   fantastic  in  so  many  ways.  So  no  matter  what  concurrent  session  you  were  in,  or  if  you  couldn’t   even  make  it  to  Albuquerque  this  year,  you  can  still  view  most  of  the  presentations,  listen  to  the   keynotes,  see  pictures  of  attendees,  follow  the  backchannel,  and  engage  with  everyone  on  Twitter.   With  libraries  having  more  tight  budgets,  it’s  extremely  important  that  we  continue  to  learn   virtually.  There  are  plenty  of  online  workshops  and  webinars,  but  often  they  still  cost  money,  don’t   usually  encourage  much  communication  between  attendees,  and  “attending”  the  LITA  Forum  only   through  Twitter  is  not  only  free,  but  the  learning  and  sharing  is  more  organic.  You  have  the   opportunity  to  engage  with  attendees,  observers,  and  even  the  presenters  themselves.  Structured   workshops  have  their  place  for  focused,  more  in-­‐depth  learning  on  a  particular  topic,  and  they  are   definitely  still  needed  and  very  popular.  I  enjoy  our  LITA  educational  programs  and  highly   recommend  them.  However,  interacting  with  Twitter  throughout  the  Forum  was  like  a  giant  social   playground  for  me,  and  I  could  engage  as  much  as  or  as  little  as  I  liked.  It’s  a  different  user   experience  than  so  many  other  more  traditional  learning  environments.   Twitter  was  born  in  mid  2006  and  the  paradigm  shift  started  happening  a  few  years  later,  but  the   ways  people  are  socially  engaging  with  one  another  through  Twitter  has  changed  drastically  since   then.1    People  aren’t  just  regurgitating  what  the  presenters  are  saying,  but  are  responding  to   speakers  and  others  in  the  physical  and  virtual  audience.  People  are  talking  more  in  depth  about   what  they  are  learning  and  supplementing  talks  with  links  to  sites,  videos,  images,  and  reports   that  might  have  been  mentioned.  They  are  coding  and  sharing  their  code  while  at  the  conference.   They  are  blogging  about  their  experiences  and  sharing  those  links.  They  are  extending  their   networks.       The  conference  theme  this  year  was  “From  Node  to  Network”  and  reflecting  on  my  own   conference  experience  and  reviewing  all  the  Twitter  data,  I  don’t  think  the  2014  LITA  Forum     Rachel  Vacek  (revacek@uh.edu)  is  LITA  President  2014-­‐15  and  Head  of  Web  Services,  University   Libraries,  University  of  Houston,  Houston,  Texas.     PRESIDENT’S  MESSAGE  |  VACEK       2   Planning  Committee,  led  by  Ken  Varnum  from  the  University  of  Michigan,  could  have  chosen  a   better  theme.     As  previously  mentioned,  the  ways  in  which  we  are  using  Twitter  have  been  significantly  changing   the  way  we  learn  and  interact.  When  combing  through  the  #litaform  tweets  for  the  gems,  I  found   many  links  to  tools  that  analyze  and  visually  display  unique  information  about  tweets  from  the   Forum.  The  love  of  data  is  not  uncommon  in  libraries,  and  neither  is  the  analysis  of  that  data.     The  TAGSArchive2  contains  lots  of  Twitter  data  from  the  Forum.  As  you  can  see  in  Image  1,   between  November  1,  2013,  and  November  17,  2014,  (the  same  tag  for  the  Forum  was  used  for   the  2013  Forum)  there  were  5,454  tweets,  4,390  of  which  were  unique,  not  just  retweets.  There   were  1,394  links  within  those  tweets,  demonstrating  that  we  aren’t  just  repeating  what  the   speakers  are  saying;  we  are  enriching  our  networks  with  more  easily  accessible  information.     Image  1.  Archive  of  #litaforum  tweets  through  TAGS   The  data  also  tells  stories.  For  example,  @cm_harlow  by  far  tweeted  more  than  everyone  else  with   881  tweets,  @TheStacksCat  had  the  highest  retweet  rate  at  90%,  and  @varnum  with  the  lowest         INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGIES  AND  LIBRARIES  |  DECEMBER  1014         3   retweet  rate  at  1%.  I  was  able  to  look  at  every  single  tweet  in  a  Google  spreadsheet,  complete  with   timestamps  and  links  to  user  profiles.  All  this  is  rich  data  and  quite  informative,  but  TAGSExplorer,   developed  by  @mhawksey,  is  also  quite  an  impressive  data  visualization  tool  that  shows   connections  between  the  Twitter  handles.  (See  Image  2.)     Image  2.  TAGSExplorer  data  visualization  and  top  conversationalists   Additionally,  you  can  see  whom  you  retweeted  and  who  retweeted  you,3  again  demonstrating  the   power  of  rich,  structured  data.  (See  Image  3.)  All  of  these  tools  improve  our  ability  to  share,  reflect,   archive,  and  network  within  LITA  and  beyond  our  typical,  often  comfortable  library  boundaries.   Tweets  also  don’t  last  forever  on  the  web,  but  they  do  when  they  are  archived.4    One  conference   attendee,  @kayiwa,  used  a  tool  called  twarc  (https://github.com/edsu/twarc),  a  command-­‐line   tool  for  archiving  JSON  Twitter  search  results  before  they  disappear.  Looking  through  the  tweets,   you  will  learn  that  a  great  number  of  attendees  experienced  altitude  sickness  due  to   Albuquerque’s  elevation,  which  is  around  5,000  feet  above  sea  level.  The  most  popular  and   desired  food  to  were  enchiladas  with  green  chili.  Many  were  impressed  with  the  scenery,   mountains,  and  endless  blue  skies  of  the  city,  as  evidenced  by  the  number  of  images  of  outdoor   landscapes  and  sky  shots.       PRESIDENT’S  MESSAGE  |  VACEK       4     Image  3.  Connections  between  @vacekrae’s  retweets  and  who  she  was  retweeted  by   There  were  two  packed  pre-­‐conferences  at  the  LITA  Forum.  Dean  Krafft  and  Jon  Corson-­‐Rikert   from  Cornell  University  Library  taught  attendees  about  a  very  hot  topic:  linked  data  and  “how   libraries  can  make  use  of  Linked  Open  Data  to  share  information  about  library  resources  and  to   improve  discovery,  access,  and  understanding  for  library  users.”    The  hashtag  #linkeddata  was   used  382  times  across  all  the  Forum’s  tweets  –  clearly  conversation  went  beyond  the  workshop.   Also,  Francis  Kayiwa,  of  Kayiwa  Consulting,  and  Eric  Phetteplace  from  the  California  College  of   Arts,  helped  attendees  “Learn  Python  by  Playing  with  Library  Data”  in  the  second,  equally  as   popular  pre-­‐conference.  (See  Image  4.)     Image  4         INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGIES  AND  LIBRARIES  |  DECEMBER  1014         5   The  Forum  this  year  also  had  three  exceptional  keynote  speakers.    AnnMarie  Thomas,  @amptMN,   an  engineering  professor  from  the  University  of  St.  Thomas  in  Minnesota,  kicked  off  the  Forum   and  shared  her  enthusiasm  and  passion  for  Makerspaces,  squishy  circuits,  and  how  to  engage  kids   in  engineering  and  science  in  incredibly  creative  ways.  I  was  truly  inspired  by  her  passion  for   making  and  sharing  with  others.    She  reminded  us  that  all  children  are  makers,  and  as  adults  we   need  to  remember  to  be  curious,  explore,  and  play.    There  are  129  tweets  that  capture  not  only  her   fun  presentation  but  also  her  vision  for  making  in  the  future.  (See  image  5.)     Image  5   The  second  keynote  speaker  was  Lorcan  Dempsey,  @lorcand,  the  Vice  President,  OCLC  Research   and  Chief  Strategist.    He’s  known  primarily  for  the  research  he  presents  through  his  weblog,   http://orweblog.oclc.org,  where  he  makes  observations  on  the  way  users  interact  with  technology   and  the  discoverability  of  all  that  libraries  have  to  offer,  from  collections  to  services  to  expertise.   He  wants  to  make  library  data  more  usable.  In  his  talk,  he  explained  how  some  technologies  such   as  mobile  devices  and  IRs  are  having  huge  effects  on  user  behaviors.    “The  network  reshapes   society  and  society  reshapes  the  network.”  What  was  nice  also  is  that  Lorcan’s  talk  complimented   AnnMarie’s  talk  about  making  and  sharing.  Users  are  going  from  consumption  to  creation,  and  we,   as  libraries,  need  to  be  offering  our  services  and  content  in  the  users’  workflows.    We  need  to   share  our  resources,  make  them  more  discoverable.    Why?    “Discovery  often  happens  elsewhere.”     Check  out  the  123  posts  on  the  Twitter  archive,  which  includes  links  to  his  presentation.    (See   Image  6.)     Image  6     PRESIDENT’S  MESSAGE  |  VACEK       6   Kortney  Ryan  Ziegler,  @fakerapper,  is  the  Founder  Trans*h4ck  and  the  closing  keynote  speaker.     His  work  focuses  on  supporting  trans-­‐created  technology,  trans  entrepreneurs,  and  trans-­‐led   startups.  He’s  led  hackathons  and  helped  create  safe  spaces  for  the  trans  community.    His  work  is   so  important  and  many  of  the  apps  help  to  address  the  social  inequalities  that  the  trans   community  still  faces.    For  example,  he  mentioned  that  it’s  still  legal  in  36  states  to  be  fired  for   being  trans.    But  there  are  174  tweets  captured  at  the  Forum  that  give  examples  of  the  web  tools   created,  and  ideas  about  how  libraries  can  be  inclusive  and  more  supportive  of  the  trans   community.    (See  Image  7.)     Image  7   The  sessions  themselves  were  excellent,  and  many  sparked  conversations  long  after  the   presentation.  Lightning  talks  were  engaging,  fast,  and  fun.  Posters  were  both  beautiful  and   informative.  Overarching  terms  that  I  heard  repeatedly  and  saw  among  the  tweets  were:  Open   Graph,  OpenRefine,  social  media,  Makerspaces,  BIBFRAME,  library  labs,  leadership,  support,   community,  analytics,  assessment,  engagement,  inclusivity,  diversity,  agile  development,  open   access,  linked  data,  VIVO,  DataONE,  discovery  systems,  discoverability,  LibraryBox,  Islandora,  and   institutional  repositories.  Below  are  some  highlights:           INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGIES  AND  LIBRARIES  |  DECEMBER  1014         7       There  were  so  many  opportunities  to  network  at  sessions,  on  breaks,  at  the  networking  dinners,   and  even  at  game  night.  I  see  networking  as  a  huge  benefit  of  a  small  conference,  and  networking   can  lead  to  some  pretty  amazing  things.    For  example,  Whitni  Watkins,  @NimbleLibrarian  and  one   of  LITA’s  invaluable  volunteers  for  the  Forum,  was  so  inspired  by  a  conversation  on  OpenRefine   that  she  created  a  list  where  people  could  sign  up  to  learn  more  and  get  some  hands-­‐on  playing   time  with  the  tool.    On  her  blog,5  Whitni  says,  “…most  if  not  all  of  those  who  came  left  with  a  bit     PRESIDENT’S  MESSAGE  |  VACEK       8   more  knowledge  of  the  program  than  before  and  we  opened  a  door  of  possibility  for  those  who   hadn’t  any  clue  as  to  what  OpenRefine  could  do.”   Another  example  of  great  networking  is  where  Tabby  Farney,  @sharebrarian,  and  Cody  Behles,   @cbehles,  decided  to  create  a  LITA  Metrics  Interest  Group.    At  one  of  the  networking  dinners,  they   discussed  their  passion  for  altmetrics  and  web  analytics  but  noticed  that  there  wasn’t  an  existing   group,  and  felt  spurred  to  create  one.         The  technology  and  information  sharing,  the  networking,  the  collaborating,  and  the  strategizing  –   these  are  all  components  that  make  up  the  LITA  Forum.    Twitter  is  just  another  technology   platform  to  help  us  connect  with  one  another.    We  are  all  just  nodes,  and  technology  enables  us  to   both  become  the  network  and  to  network  more  effectively.   But  finally,  I  want  to  acknowledge  and  thank  our  sponsors,  many  of  which  are  also  LITA  members.   We  could  not  have  run  the  Forum  without  the  generous  funds  from  EBSCO,  Springshare,  @mire,   Innovative,  and  OCLC.  On  behalf  of  LITA,  I  truly  appreciate  their  support.   I  want  to  leave  you  with  one  more  image  that  was  created  by  @kayiwa  using  the  most  tweeted   words  from  all  the  posts.6  Next  year’s  Forum  is  in  Minneapolis,  and  I  hope  to  see  you  there.           INFORMATION  TECHNOLOGIES  AND  LIBRARIES  |  DECEMBER  1014         9   REFERENCES     1.  http://consumercentric.biz/wordpress/?p=106   2.https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AsyivMoYhk87dFNFX196V1E2M2ZQTVlhQ2J VS2FsdEE&output=html     3.  http://msk0.org/lita2014/litaforum-­‐directed-­‐retweets.html   4.  http://msk0.org/lita2014/lita2014.html   5.  http://nimblelibrarian.wordpress.com/2014/11/14/lita-­‐forum-­‐2014-­‐a-­‐recap/   6.  http://msk0.org/lita2014/litaforum-­‐wordcloud.html