Section: e-Forums

The ALCTS e-Forum “The Write Stuff: Strategies and Tools for Staying on Track from Start to Finish” was held on September 18–19, 2018. The discussion was moderated by Rebecca Nous (discovery services librarian at University at Albany), Wendy West (head of discovery services at University at Albany), and Stacey Marien (acquisitions librarian at American University). The e-forum’s 40 participants posted more than 90 messages during the two-day event. Participants came to the e-Forum with varying experience in writing, having been involved in a wide variety of writing projects, including zines, articles and books, journal editorial work, coursework, and grants.

The ALCTS e-Forum “Working with Digital Repositories” took place August 14–15, 2018. Participants gathered together for an online discussion focusing on the current repository ecosystem in the library field, discussing best practices, metadata standards, and staffing models, as well as sharing online resources to support repository managers.

The ALCTS e-Forum “Linked Data for the Rest of Us” took place on July 24–25, 2018. Anne Washington (coordinator of metadata services), Andrew Weidner (digital operations coordinator), and Xiping Liu (resource description librarian)—all of the University of Houston M.D. Anderson Library—moderated the discussion. Over 70 people posted around 200 messages during the two-day discussion.

On May 22–23, 2018, the ALCTS Continuing Education Committee hosted the e-forum “Present and Future Challenges of Cataloging Special Collections Material.” The discussion was facilitated by Becky Skeen (special collections cataloging librarian at Utah State University) and Gail Spears (poetry and literature cataloger at Emory University) and included over 225 messages posted by more than 70 participants.

An ALCTS e-Forum on “User Experience and the Electronic Resources Librarian” took place April 10–11, 2018. Kate Hill (Electronic Resources Librarian, University of North Carolina Greensboro) and Michael Rodriguez (Licensing and Acquisitions Librarian, University of Connecticut) facilitated the discussion. More than 20 participants collectively contributed 70 posts over the course of the two days.