Association for Library Collections & Technical Services Annual Report 2006–2007

Abstract

Association for Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS) celebrated its first fifty years during 2006-2007. This celebration took the form of looking back, assessing where we are today as an association and as a profession, and considering where we would like to see our profession in the years to come. This year was punctuated by great tumult in the collections and technical services fields, and ALCTS focused much of its energies on directive change and professional advocacy. In doing so, the most tangible achievements came in the areas of education, dialog and collaboration, publication, standards creation, and organizational renewal. Fiftieth Anniversary Events ALCTS celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of both the association as well as its flagship scholarly publication, Resources & Technical Services (LRTS). anniversary theme has been Commemorating the Past, Celebrating the Present, Creating the Future. An exciting array of events was planned by the ALCTS Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration Committee, ably led by 2002-2003 ALCTS president Olivia M. A. Madison. following is a synopsis of a few of the anniversary events. Definitely Digital: An Exploration of the Future of Knowledge on the Occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Association for Collections & Technical Services This symposium, held January 19, 2007, in Seattle, Washington, in conjunction with the American Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting, examined significant changes in scholarly communication, library services, collections, and staffing created by the digital environment. symposium speakers discussed scholarship in the digital age, new communication models, the future of cooperative technical services and enabling technologies, and the training and education of staff working with digital collections. Statements, intentionally controversial and intended to evoke discussion from the panelists and stimulate audience participation, are the subject of Digiblog, ALCTS' first Web log. speakers and topics at the symposium were: * Keynote speaker: James Hilton (University of Virginia): Scholarship in the Digital Age: Opportunities and Challenges; * Lorcan Dempsey (OCLC): Moving to the Network Level: Networks Change Structures; * Meg Bellinger (Yale University): Library Collections and Technical Services in the Digital Age: Perspectives and Predictions for the Profession at the Half-Century Mark; * Greg Tananbaum (author and consultant): Scholarly Communication 2.Oh: New Models of Publishing and Services; and * Brian Schottlaender (University of California-San Diego), Tom Clareson (PALINET), David Nuzzo (SUNY-Buffalo Library), Oliver Pesch (EBSCO Information Services), and Robert Wolven (Columbia University Libraries). Interactive Futures: A National Conference on the Transformation of Collections and Technical Services (ALCTS National Conference, June 20-21, 2007, Washington, D.C.) This day-and-a-half-long conference engaged attendees in a thought-provoking, open, and participatory exchange on the transformation of our work and the profession. Presenters and attendees collaborated to explore the challenges we face and to develop a vision of the future roles of collections and technical services librarians. Participants were enriched and energized by this experience. After the three plenary session speakers, attendees had an opportunity to discuss how the issues and insights the speakers offered will affect the future of technical services. These sessions, led by an outstanding group of facilitators, provided a forum to explore the challenges we face and to develop a vision of the future roles of collections and technical services librarians. plenary session speakers and topics were: * Richard Lanham: The Two Markets: Libraries in an Attention Economy; * David Lankes: Collecting Conversations in a Massive Scale World; * Dianne van der Reyden: Preservation at the of Congress; and * Stephen Abram: Social Libraries: Librarian 2. …