NFAIS 2013: In Search of Answers: Unlocking New Value from Content: conference report
| Date | 26 April 2013 |
| Published date | 26 April 2013 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-03-2013-0014 |
| Pages | 1-5 |
| Author | Martin Kesselman |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science |
From February 24-26, Iattendedthe
55 hAnnual Conference of the National
Federation of Advanced Information
Systems.The title of the conference
was abit misleading as it tellsonly half
the story. As the title suggests value is
an important commodity but not only
can it mean dollars, which manyofthe
speakers spoke to, it can alsomean
some of the hidden value that needs to
getexposed through non-traditional
means, i.e. open access, open science,
open data, and all the conversations that
take place on the web via social media.
As alibrarian,itmademerethink the
numerous ways we packageinformation
through our web sites and research
guides. Does this lead ouruser
communities to allthese hidden kinds
of information that canbeopenly
accessibleorjusttothe traditional
resourceswehavedecided forthemare
thebestonestouse forscholarly
research.AsIthoughtand rethought all
of this,Istartedtogivemoreimportance
to these“conversations” that take place
on theweb andhow we mightempower
ourusers to organize themessy webina
waythatbringsmeaning to them:both
theexpensive resourcesweprovide but
also that opens to door to themyriadof
newoptions that exist.Shouldwebe
packaging information? Or instead,
should we be teaching our communities
howtocreatepersonalfilter stoall the
informationthatexistsand of potential
interest to them?
Thatdilemma in my mind started out
withthe veryfirstpaper, the keynote
address, “FromDatabasestoNetworks:
Knowledge in theAge of Connections,”
by David Weinberger authorof the book,
Too Big to Know,and Senior Researcher
at the Berkman Center for Internet&
Society and Co-directorofthe Harvard
Library Innovation Lab. Accordingto
Weinberger,the research paper is static
andsomescientists,particularly in
disciplines suchasphysics,put their
papers in arxiv.org to get informationout
fastrather than waiting for published
journalarticleswhich thenleadstomore
articles, tweets, blogposts, and other
social networking tools. In the web
environment,everyone is entitled to their
own opinions and disagreement scales
knowledge. Thisishow knowledge gets
really big.Thesedisagreementsmake a
mess as it is not organized but this
messiness scales meaning as it is abetter
reflection of the realityofthings. When
you (the you in this casecould be
libraries and librarians) curate, we make
decisions of what we think our usersare
going to find useful.
Weinberger noted that there are now
three million plus repositories on the
web and theserepositories generate
LibraryHiTech News
Number 32013, pp. 1-5, qEmerald Group Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-03-2013-0014 1
NFAIS 2013: In Search of
Answers: Unlocking New
Value from Content:
conference report
Martin Kesselman
LIBRARY HI TECH NEWS NUMBER 32013
VOLUME 30 NUMBER 32013
APRIL
AN EMERALD PUBLICATION
CONTENTS
Conference Report
NFAIS 2013: In Search of Answers:
Unlocking New Value from Content:
conference report ............ 1
Features
Asurvey of students’ use of and
satisfaction with university
subscribed online resources in
two specialized universities in a
developing country ........... 6
Library in the Cloud with Diamonds: a
critical evaluation of the future of
library management systems .... 9
Column
Hot off the Press!
Social media, books, movies and ...
libraries! ................. 14
New &Noteworthy ........ 16
Calendar.................. 24
Library Link
www.emeraldinsight.com/librarylink
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