Don’s Conference Notes Column Editor: Donald T. Hawkins (Freelance Editor and Conference Blogger) <dthawkins@verizon.net> Column Editor’s Note: Because of space limitations, the full text of my conference notes will now be available online in the issues of Against the Grain on Charleston Hub at https://www. charleston-hub.com, and only brief summaries, with links to the full reports, will appear in Against the Grain print issues. — DTH
The 2021 Computers in Libraries (CIL) Connect Conference The 2021 CIL Connect Conference on March 22-24, organized by Information Today, Inc. (ITI), featured 140 speakers and moderators and 16 exhibitors in the virtual exhibit hall, and drew over 1,000 attendees. On each of the three days, Erik Boekesteijn Senior Advisor, National Library of the Netherlands, began the day with a “Talk Libraries: Stories From Around the Globe” interview with an information professional, which was followed by an opening keynote. Each day ended with a keynote session. A recurring theme of the presentations was resumption of services in the “new normal” following the COVID pandemic and looking forward, not back where we have been. Barbara Lison, Sr. Library Director, Bremen City Library, Germany and IFLA President-Elect, the first “Talk Libraries” speaker, noted that in Germany, libraries are the most frequently visited cultural institutions in their communities. The opening keynote by R. David Lankes, Professor and Director, School of Information Science, University of South Carolina, entitled “Libraries Leading the New Normal” was very challenging. What do we want the new normal to be even as we hope we are nearing the first phase of the end of the pandemic? John Formica spent ten years at Walt Disney World and managed their hotels and resorts in the midst of a big expansion. Customer service is important, but we must also focus on customer experience (the next battleground) because most people will spend more to get a better customer experience. Amy Affelt, Director, Database Research Worldwide, Compass Lexecon, presented an informative overview of fake news related to COVID-19. There are two types of fake news: misinformation — fake news shared with no ill will — and disinformation — fake news shared with an intention to deceive. Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian and Founder of the Internet Archive (IA), presented the first closing keynote address. The IA was founded in 1996 and now serves 1.5 million library visitors per day. Its most widely known product is the Wayback Machine, a robust global resource providing access to an impressive collection of content. Erik Boekesteijn’s second day guest was Peter Kok, CEO, LocHal, in Tilburg, a city of 220,000 in the Netherlands. The LocHal won an award in 2020 as the best library in the Netherlands. The second-day keynote was presented by HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who has a long record of combatting illiteracy in the Netherlands and internationally and is the author of several children’s books. She listed three things about technology — digital inequality, reach, and human-centered government. Complex issues such as child poverty require generations to solve. Cindy Hill from the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank described how the Bank has shifted to a digital first environment
Against the Grain / June 2021
and how we can thrive in it. Virtual is our new reality, and we need to think about the “new next,” not the “new normal.” Sara Teas from the Fort Vancouver WA Regional Libraries (FVRL) described her experiences with a contactless consumerfocused approach for libraries. FVRL plans to continue offering curbside pickup when they reopen. Barbie Keiser, President, Barbie E. Keiser Inc., described a survey by ExLibris on what scholars and libraries contribute to supporting academic research. Libraries are perfectly positioned in the research ecosystem to help others because they are on both the content side and the technology side. We must think about people working in the library, not as librarians but as information professionals. Peer review is changing and becoming more open, and reviewers are waiving rights to anonymity. In her day 2 keynote address, “Demand Proof: The Urgent Need For Data Lineage and Provenance,” Beth Rudden, IBM Distinguished Engineer and Principal Data Scientist, said that we frequently make investments in technology, then do many experiments and find that we cannot reduce all costs in the organization. We need to design the relationship we want with AI, and then invest in human beings. Erik Boekesteijn’s Talk Libraries guest for the final conference day was Nick Poole, CEO, CILIP (Chartered Institute for Library and Information Professionals), who said that there must be equitable access for everyone. We need to start looking at where we are going, rather than where we have come from, must ensure that we build back bolder, and not try to go back to the way we were. Phaedra Boinodiris from IBM began her day 3 keynote address “Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Tech, and Ethics” by observing that AI is used in many high-stakes decision-making applications, but just because a decision is made by AI does not make it morally or ethically clean. Trusted AI depends on four pillars: fairness, explainability, robustness, and transparency. Amy Jiang from LaVerne University noted that many campus units are now loaning laptops, cameras, physics lab tools, and computer lab devices, which is an opportunity for libraries because they can become the central campus point from which to circulate everything. The library is the only campus organization that can handle a large volume of materials, track overdue items, and is open long hours to serve all campus groups. Rice Majors, Associate University Librarian for Scholarly Resources, University of California (UC) Davis Library, discussed UC’s strategy and experiences and its recent contract negotiations with Elsevier. Negotiations for renewal ended in 2019, and in July 2019, UC’s access to Elsevier articles stopped. In June 2020, negotiations resumed, and a settlement was reached in March 2021. In March 2021, UC and Elsevier reached an agreement which provided for reading access to all Elsevier journals without a fee. The closing keynote was a panel discussion of libraries’ biggest challenges and solutions for the future. Read the full report at https://www.charleston-hub. com/2021/05/dons-conference-notes-the-2021-computers-inlibraries-cil-connect-conference/.
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