Library Tech Development Panel @ Mobility Shifts Conference, 10/14

[Shannon Mattern]

Hello, everyone.

I'm sure I'm not the only person in our group who'll be participating
in, or at least attending, the Mobility Shifts conference (http://
mobilityshifts.org/) at The New School in October -- but because I'm
not particularly well "networked" with some of the potential target
audiences (namely, librarians) for the panel I've organized, I thought
I'd ask if some of you could please help me to spread the word. My
panel focuses on library-led technology development projects and
features Kim Dulin from the Harvard Library Innovation Lab; Linda
Johnson, Interim Executive Director of the Brooklyn Public Library;
Deanna Lee, V.P. for Communications and Marketing at the New York
Public Library; and me, as moderator. I've pasted below more
information about what each panelist will address. You can find a
flyer here: http://bit.ly/n1vqR4 -- I'd be greatly appreciative if you
could please share this with potentially interested folks.

We'll meet in the Theresa Lang Student and Community Center on the 2nd
Floor of Arnhold Hall, at 55 West 13th Street, on Friday, October 15,
from 4 to 6pm. Interested attendees need to register in advance:
http://mobilityshifts.org/register1/

There will be lots of other fantastic workshops, panels, and
presenters -- including Matt Gold -- at the conference, and I
encourage you to browse through the conference website, register, and
attend!


With Appreciation,
Shannon

Shannon Mattern, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Media Studies and Film
The New School
wordsinspace.net


Kim Dulin, Co-Director of the Harvard Library Innovation Lab, will
discuss the Lab’s work in developing a front-end web application, a
“virtual front door,” for the proposed Digital Public Library of
America (DPLA). As Dulin notes, this interface will allow the DPLA to
become more than “just a collection”; it will be “a place users can go
to discover works, engage with them, engage with one another, and
share what they learn, know, and care about.” Deanna Lee, Vice
President of Communications and Marketing at the New York Public
Library, will address several recent digital initiatives – the Biblion
application, a John Cage “living archive,” a crowdsourced historical
menu transcription project, and a new, more interactive library
catalogue – that likewise change the ways and places in which patrons
can access, experience, organize, and contribute to the collections.
Linda E. Johnson, Interim Executive Director of the Brooklyn Public
Library, will address the Library’s Broadband Technology and
Opportunities Program and other of the library’s digital literacy
initiatives. Finally, Shannon Mattern will identify common threads in
the panelists’ presentations and offer prompts for discussion, which
will address (1) how these projects provide opportunities for self-
directed learning in new contexts; (2) how they evidence new thinking
about pedagogy and epistemology; and (3) what the challenges and
limitations of these projects might be, particularly as we attempt to
implement them among traditionally underserviced populations and in
the developing world.