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AMICAL2010 Conference attendees, and others interested, can share and follow links and comments related to conference sessions via Delicious.com (tag: amical2010) and Twitter (hash-tag: #amical2010). For Google Wave users, a wave has also been started.

For AMICAL members: A new E-resources section of AMICALwiki has been created to organize and share information about each of the database offers available through AMICAL membership. You can find there general product information, information about current trials, reviews of each e-resource, and pricing available to AMICAL members. Not all resources have information posted on this site yet, and prices for some are still being negotiated, but information will be added as it becomes available. AMICALwiki requires login - contact AMICAL if you need an account set up.

The 2010 AMICAL Conference, Digital Assets & the Cloud: Building Digital Collections through Library, IT & Faculty Collaboration, is being hosted by Central European University in Budapest, 9-12 June. The following workshops are still open to AMICAL members for enrollment: Technical services workflow & logistical issues for today’s changing library collectionsMatt Goldner (Product and Technology Advocate, OCLC)Susan L. Perry (Senior Advisor for Liberal Arts Colleges, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)An Introduction to RepositoriesThorny Staples (Director, Community Strategy and Alliances and Fedora Project, DuraSpace)Overview of ethnographic methods and their application to librariesDr. Nancy Fried Foster (Director of Anthropological Research, River Campus Libraries at University of Rochester)Overcoming Obstacles in your Electronic Theses and Dissertations ProjectRebecca Sandlin (Deputy CIO, Bowdoin College)Ethan Benatan (Director, Computer User Services, Reed College) A workshop registration form has been sent to all registered attendees from AMICAL institutions. See the conference web site for the full conference program. For full descriptions of the workshops, see below: PRECONFERENCEWEDNESDAY 9 JUNE 10:00-12:30 / 13:45-15:45Workshop: Follow-up workshop for AMICAL ethnographic study pilot groupFacilitator: Dr. Nancy Fried Foster (Director of Anthropological Research, River Campus Libraries at University of Rochester)This workshop is open to those already participating in the AMICAL ethnographic study pilot group and is not open for enrollment. A related workshop, open to all other AMICAL members, is being proposed 16:00-17:00 (see below). 10:30-12:30Roundtable discussion: Technical services workflow & logistical issues for today’s changing library collectionsFacilitators:Matt Goldner (Product and Technology Advocate, OCLC)Susan L. Perry (Senior Advisor for Liberal Arts Colleges, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation)In this workshop participants will work together to look at current practices and workflows, where they are spending time and effort, and where they can gain efficiencies with new practices. Examples from studies on technical services workflows will be presented into the brainstorming session. 13:45-15:45Workshop: An Introduction to RepositoriesFacilitator: Thorny Staples (Director, Community Strategy and Alliances and Fedora Project, DuraSpace)Repositories like ePrints, DSpace and Fedora are designed to manage content for the long term while making it as accessible as possible. They provide a very different way of managing information than using relational databases. This workshop will introduce the concepts needed to understand how to use repositories, including the design of information objects and formal relations among them; descriptive, administrative and preservation metadata; policy establishment and enforcement; and different ways of exposing information for access, including the Open Archives Initiative, faceted-browsing systems and RDF. Examples of how to apply these concepts will include creating collections of digitized texts and cultural heritage images, as well as the implications for scholarly use of these collections. 16:00-17:00Workshop: Overview of ethnographic methods and their application to librariesFacilitator: Dr. Nancy Fried Foster (Director of Anthropological Research, River Campus Libraries at University of Rochester)Dr. Nancy Fried Foster will introduce the use of ethnographic methods in the library by asking the question, “Why do students want to be in the library if they are not using the books?” Her talk will cover several ethnographic research methods and how they were used in building a group study space in the University of Rochester’s main library and in assessing the use and value of the University’s science library. CONFERENCETHURSDAY 10 JUNE 16:00-17:30Workshop: Overcoming Obstacles in your Electronic Theses and Dissertations ProjectFacilitators:Rebecca Sandlin (Deputy CIO, Bowdoin College)Ethan Benatan (Director, Computer User Services, Reed College)Our goal in this session is to help participants develop specific approaches to identifying and solving challenges that are likely to arise during the course of their ETD (Electronic Theses and Dissertations) project. We will first collaborate with the group to identify issues of interest, and then facilitate sharing of experiences and approaches. Interested participants will be able to develop and get group feedback on specific proposals that they plan to implement at their home institutions.

For interested AMICAL members, trial access has been set up for the following e-resources (links go to entry/search pages): Project MUSEACLS Humanities E-BookACM Digital LibraryEuropa World PlusOxford Reference OnlineOxford English Dictionary OnlineCredo ReferenceWilson Art Full Text / Art Abstracts / Art Index Trial periods run from end of April through June, depending on the database.

The 7th annual AMICAL Meeting and Conference will be held at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, under the theme “Creating and Managing Digital Assets: Librarians, Information Technologists and Faculty Working Together.” AMICAL members, save these dates and join us in numbers! Wed 9 June - Pre-ConferenceThu-Fri-Sat 10-11-12 June - Main ConferenceSun 13 June - Post-Conference event (tourism)

“Library cooperation in the 21st century,” the cover story in the latest issue of OCLC’s NextSpace magazine, focuses on AMICAL and a few other groups as examples of cooperation that bridge libraries on new levels — across vast geographic distances and variations in culture and professional practice, among other things. AMICAL’s RESPOND project is highlighted, with comments from consortium director Jeff Gima and librarian Elisabetta Morani (John Cabot University) on the impact this project has had on AMICAL members.

AMICAL members: in this tough budget year, take advantage of the professional development possibilities available to you through the consortium, thanks to grant support and special rates and opportunities negotiated on your behalf. Our Professional Development & Training page has been revised with new instructions about how to take advantage of free and reduced-rate Lyrasis and Nylink online classes, as well as information about how to participate in NITLE events. And don’t forget that funds remain available for 2009 in our Small Grant Award program for training, staff exchanges and conference participation — the deadline for the last round of applications is being extended and will be communicated to you shortly.

AMICAL and the American College of Thessaloniki will be hosting a 3 1/2 day CONSER-SCCTP serials cataloging workshop in September. Steve Shadle (SCCTP trainer and Serials Access Librarian, University of Washington Libraries) will be training catalogers from AMICAL libraries in: Advanced Serials Cataloging Electronic Serials CatalogingOnline Integrating Resources Cataloging The organization of this workshop was made possible in part through the cooperation of Karen Bohrer and the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

The Sixth Annual American International Consortium of Academic Libraries Conference will take place from Thursday to Sunday, May 21-24, 2009 at American University of Armenia in Yerevan, Armenia. This year’s conference will focus on “The Learner’s Perspective — Adapting Information Services for Today’s Students,” with presentations, discussions and the usual rich opportunities - formal and informal - for exchanging ideas on library, technology and curricular collaboration among AMICAL’s uniquely international and American-modeled institutions. Keynote speakers will include: Nancy Fried Foster (Lead Anthropologist, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester) speaking on ethnographic methods and findings on undergrad research behavior. James Simon (Chief Technologist, Principal Engineer, and Director, North American Systems Practice, Sun Microsystems) speaking on user-centered design of web-based information systems. Librarians, technologists, faculty, and academic leaders from AMICAL member institutions are welcomed and encouraged to attend. Others interested in attending should contact the conference organizers. For the conference program, registration and other information, please see the conference website.

AMICAL’s sixth annual meeting and conference will take place at the American University of Armenia, in the capital city of Yerevan. The conference program will offer speakers, workshops, discussions and other forms of professional exchange around the theme of “Today’s Students.” The main days of the conference will be Thursday-Saturday 21-23 May 2009; an optional half-day post-conference workshop is tentatively planned for 24 May. For the first time ever, reflecting the growing alignment of AMICAL and AAICU (Association of American International Colleges and Universities) membership, AMICAL’s conference is being organized in conjunction with the annual AAICU meeting (22-24 May).