Internet Librarian International (ILI) takes place in London on 18/19 October (with workshops on 17 October). Here's a preview.
New forms of digital scholarship will be explored by the British Library's Mia Ridge in her keynote, while libraries' important role as catalysts of innovation is the focus for IFLA's Stuart Hamilton as he views how to achieve a sustainable information environment in the digital age. The creation of a visionary strategy for libraries is the focus of the keynote from Jan Holmquist of Denmark's Guldborgsund Library.
Mia Ridge joined the British Library’s Digital Scholarship team as Digital Curator in 2015, and before that was Lead Web Developer at the Science Museum Group. She has worked internationally as a business analyst, digital consultant and web programmer in the cultural heritage and commercial sectors. During her time at the Science Museum, Mia held the first ever museum mashup competition, and organised the release of over 200,000 collections records as open data. Since 2009 she has also maintained a wiki listing museum, gallery, library and archive APIs and machine-readable data sources for open cultural data, and the "cool things made with them".
Mia’s keynote, Digital scholarship: new technologies and new behaviours will look at how library staff can keep up with trends in digital scholarship while serving diverse audiences, examining the role of the library in an era of digitised collections. "No-one can ignore the pace of change for libraries, their users, and the wider scholarly and cultural networks in which they're embedded", she notes.
Stuart Hamilton’s keynote Is it all worth it if we can’t sustain it? will explore the essential components of an information environment which is sustainable for the long term. Stuart is the Deputy Secretary General and Director of Policy & Advocacy at IFLA, where he plays a key role in the organisations mission to encourage widespread understanding of the value of good library and information services, and promote high standards of provision and delivery of library and information services.
ILI’s Day 2 keynote speaker, Jan Holmquist, will share examples of modern world challenges to which libraries are the solution in his presentation Smart libraries create smart communities – towards a visionary strategy for libraries. In a world where competition for jobs is fierce, he argues that libraries are more important than ever. "They are the one place where everyone's learning is actively supported," he explains. "It’s important to acknowledge this when designing library strategy."