LOUIS Users Conference 2004
| Pages | 11-12 |
| Published date | 01 December 2004 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/07419050410577541 |
| Date | 01 December 2004 |
| Author | J.B. Hill,Cherie Madarash‐Hill,Alexia Sheck |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
LOUIS Users Conference 2004
J.B. Hill, Cherie Madarash-Hill and Alexia Sheck
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 10 2004, pp. 11-12, #Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/07419050410577541 11
The LOUIS Users Conference
(LUC) 2004 was held on October
18-19, 2004 at the Pennington
Conference Center in Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. An annual conference since
1993, this year's LUC brought together
230 attendees from the 39 LOUIS
member libraries.
LOUIS, the Louisiana Library
Network, is a consortium of Louisiana
academic libraries. Each year, LOUIS
sponsors a conference featuring
speakers from the LOUIS Office,
LOUIS member libraries and library
vendors. This year, the conference was
co-sponsored by a number of library
venders, including Cambridge Scientific
Abstracts, EBSCO Publishing,
DiMeMa, Library Dynamics, Sirsi
Corporation and Thomson Gale.
Sessions at LUC tend to focus on
practical, technology-driven library
applications rather than theoretical
studies. The authors were unable to
attend all of the concurrent sessions, but
a sampling of some of the sessions
follows.
Ralph Boe', LOUIS Director, and
Gerard Killebrew, Associate
Commissioner for Academic Affairs of
the Louisiana Board of Regents, opened
the two day conference. Boe' in his
``LOUIS Update'' provided a historical
overview of the consortium,
highlighting recent initiatives and
future plans of the consortium.
One of the initiatives of LOUIS in
recent years has been the development
of the LOUISiana Digital Library
(http://louisdl.louislibraries.org/), a
collection of digitized Louisiana special
collections. A number of sessions were
dedicated to discussing issues related to
creating and promoting digital
collections. Greg Zick, President of
DiMeMa presented an overview of
CONTENTdm (http://contentdm.com/),
outlining the future plans for the
product. John Guillory, LOUIS,
detailed digital imagery technology and
terminology, using the LOUISiana
Digital Library as an example. Pat
Vince, LOUIS, discussed important
issues to consider in undertaking a
digital project, including tips on
funding and marketing digital
collections. Marcy Stevens, LOUIS,
addressed setting up a digital project,
focusing on specific features of the
CONTENTdm software. Zehra
``ZeeZee'' Zamin, LOUIS, provided a
detailed demonstration of how to create
monograph compound objects such as
books, diaries, journals, and scrapbooks
using CONTENTdm. John Kelley,
Digital Initiatives Librarian at the
University of New Orleans (UNO)
discussed using CONTENTdm in the
creation of an institutional repository of
scholarly research of the UNO faculty.
Another computer application of
particular interest to LOUIS members is
the Sirsi Unicorn OPAC (www.sirsi.
com/). A number of presentations
focused on specific applications/
modules within the Sirsi Unicorn
system. In one such presentation,
``Catalog-Based Reports,'' Natalie
Palermo and Marsha Aucoin of
Louisiana State University addressed
identifying cataloging errors, tracking
staff activity, weeding, identifying
duplicates, and determining the age of
the collection through the use of SIRSI/
Unicorn generated reports.
A number of presentations focused
on the administration of networks and
databases. In their presentation,
``OpenURL and Database
Administration,'' Carla Clark of
Louisiana State University in
Shreveport and Lisa Stigall, LOUIS,
discussed how to best maximize full-
text collections through database links.
Clark presented a good overview of
OpenURL technology and the practical
application of link resolvers. In another
session, Carla Clark, along with Jean
Caswell, Southeastern Louisiana
University, Michael DiCarlo, Louisiana
Tech University, and Jeremy Landry,
Nicholls State University, discussed the
use of EZproxy software for remote
database authentication, including
hardware and software requirements,
authentication methods, configuration
and troubleshooting. In another session,
Carla Clark discussed the installation of
a Thin-Client network and the
implementation of Go Print pay-to-print
software at Louisiana State University
in Shreveport.
Several presentations dealt with
reference and instructional uses of
technology. Ladonna Guillot, J.B. Hill
and Alexia Sheck from Southeastern
Louisiana University, Ed Rock from
Tulane University and Melanie Sims
from Louisiana State University
provided a report on the digital
reference services at their respective
institutions. Topics covered included
marketing, staffing and training
challenges, as well as unique features of
the Tutor.com (http://tutor.com/),
QuestionPoint (www.questionpoint.org/)
and LiveAssistance (www.liveassistance.
com/) digital reference software. In
their presentation, ``Flash-Targeting
Undergraduates with Interesting
Interactive, Innovative and Explosive
Twist in Everyday Online Tutorials,''
Ted Chaffin from Southern University
and Sigrid Kelsey from Louisiana State
University introduced the audience to
the use of Flash to develop animation-
based web tutorials that engage
undergraduate students. While Chaffin
and Kelsey, demonstrated the
possibilities of going beyond text in
web-based tutorials, Janet Woolman
and Brantley Cagle from McNeese
State University addressed the
importance for library web masters to
adhere to the Web Content
Accessibility Guidelines and Section
508 Standards in order to develop
library web sites that meet the needs of
all library patrons.
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