VALA2018 Roundtable 1: Community

Tuesday 13 February 2018

RMIT POS200Roundtable Session 1 sponsored by RMIT University

1345 – 1440 Room: Plenary Hall 3

Topic: Community – how do we use technology to build community?

Sponsor representative: Dr Paul Mercieca, Program Director, Master of Information Management, RMIT University

Facilitator:  Bart Rutherford

Guest Panellists:

  • Angela Galvan, eResources Manager, Brown University Library
  • David Lee King, Digital Services Director, Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library
  • Michelle McLean, Information Services Coordinator, Casey Cardinia Libraries
  • Prof Deb Verhoeven, Associate Dean of Engagement and Innovation, University of Technology Sydney

Please tag your comments, tweets, and blog posts about this session: #vala2018 #rt1

View the video of the presentation on the VALA2018 GigTV channel here:

The Big Questions: How do we use technology to build community? Are we building community around technology or building community with technology?

Questions:

  • What role do libraries play when big data is mining our communities and personalising experience?
  • Can we find community in the long tail? Is there something for everyone and do libraries have a role?
  • Is “Librarybook” enough in the age of Facebook?
  • When did society get reduced to swiping left and right?
  • How do libraries narrow the Digital Divide?
  • What issues are GLAM’s facing when building community in the mobile age?
  • What works, what doesn’t and what’s on the horizon? – Lessons learnt
  • How does the broader GLAM sector better leverage technology to develop community?

 

About the Sponsor Representative and Guest Panellists:

Sponsor Representative:

  • Dr Paul Mercieca, Program Director, Master of Information Management, RMIT UniversityDr Paul Mercieca is the Program Director for the Master of Information Management at RMIT University. He has a mixture of academic and professional experience that includes teaching in the areas of electronic content development, project management and information retrieval.

    Paul’s PhD focused on scholarly communication, in particular the impact that Australian policies about academic research recognition has on open access publishing. His broad research interest is based around digital information management and the impact of technology on information management. He has extensive professional and management experience in electronic publishing and library services.

Guest Panellists:

  • Angela Galvan, eResources Manager, Brown University LibraryAngela Galvan is Digital Resources and Systems Librarian for the State University of New York, Geneseo. Her research explores discovery, digital estates, and the role of power and authority in libraries. When she is not tinkering with various systems or learning ruby, she edits the MARCEdit Field Guide and loves watching great technical services power the rest of the library.
  • David Lee King, Digital Services Director, Topeka and Shawnee County Public LibraryDavid Lee King is the Digital Services Director at Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library, where he plans, implements, and experiments with emerging technology trends. He speaks internationally about emerging trends, social media, websites and libraries, and has been published in many library-related journals. David is a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. His newest book is Face2Face: Using Facebook, Twitter, and Other Social Media Tools to Create Great Customer Connections. David blogs at http://www.davidleeking.com.
  • Michelle McLean, Information Services Coordinator, Casey Cardinia LibrariesMichelle McLean is Information and Lending Services Coordinator at Casey Cardinia Libraries. She is the convenor of the Public Libraries Victoria Network ICT Special Interest Group and has presented at multiple conferences and written numerous articles related to developments in library ICT.
  • Prof Deb Verhoeven, Associate Dean of Engagement and Innovation, University of Technology SydneyProfessor Deb Verhoeven is Associate Dean of Engagement and Innovation, University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and Director of the Humanities Networked Infrastructure (HuNI) project (http://huni.net.au). In 2016 she was appointed inaugural Vice Chancellor’s Library Fellow. She served as inaugural Deputy Chair of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (2008-2011) and as CEO of the Australian Film Institute (2000-2002). She is Director of the Kinomatics Project (http://kinomatics.com), an interdisciplinary study that collects, explores, analyses and represents data about the creative industries. In 2013 Professor Verhoeven initiated the Research My World collaboration between Deakin University and the crowdfunding platform pozible.com to pilot the micro-financing of university research. On the basis of this initiative Verhoeven was recognised by Campus Review as Australia’s most innovative academic. She is currently writing a book on universities and the collaboration economies.