GOLD, GALILEO sponsor 20th users group conference
GPLS News, June 2009
Librarians from across the state are invited to help celebrate two decades of library collaboration at this year's GOLD/GALILEO Users Group Conference on Friday, July 31.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of Georgia's interlibrary lending and resource sharing network, GOLD, and the first of its users annual conferences. GOLD's eventual partnership with the statewide virtual library, GALILEO, created the foundation for one of the country's premier resource sharing collaborations and a new name for its signature event.
The goal of the 20th conference is to provide a forum for continuing education and professional development for librarians, paraprofessionals and technical staff from academic libraries, public libraries, schools, technical colleges and special libraries throughout Georgia and the Southeast. It will take place from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the University of Georgia's Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel in Athens.
According to Toni Zimmerman, director of Resource Sharing and Interlibrary Cooperation for GPLS, Georgia libraries have an important role to play in bringing about economic recovery in 2009 and beyond. "This conference must serve as a celebration of where we have been and also be a constant reminder of what we must do to stay the course," she said. "For this year's theme, we have adopted a familiar abbreviation -- re: -- as our power symbol, because it will always prompt a call to action on the words that follow. "Re:" is used throughout this year's conference theme, "re:invention, re:investment and re:source sharing -- Two decades of collaboration."
The keynote speaker will be Helene Blowers, digital strategy director for the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library. Her presentation, "Finding the Phoenix -- Feathers, Flight & the Future of Libraries," will examine how libraries must creatively evolve to meet customers' needs in a rapidly changing culture. Blowers will also discuss the "re:birth" of new service models that could soon supple-ment or replace older formats and service delivery designs.
The conference will also include three sets of concurrent programs, along with a rotating GALILEO training showcase. "Among the many highlights," Zimmerman noted, "will be a session called ŒCrisis is a Terrible Thing to Waste -- Reinventing Your Library When the Chips are Down.' This session will be led by our current deputy state librarian, Julie Walker, and David Singleton, our former deputy state librarian who is now director of Library Experience with the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in North Carolina. They will focus on secrets for thriving during down times. That's a subject many people will be interested in, given today's economy." Other sessions will focus on research methodologies for finding grant opportunities and on recognizing security threats and the protection of people, property and collections.
Conference organizers are holding the line on costs this year, Zimmerman said. Registration will again be $35 per person, with an early-bird discount of $5 prior to Monday, July 20. Links to registration materials and hotel information will be available later this month at www.georgialibraries.org/lib/gold. This conference is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to GPLS under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.