Live From London --- Two Global Broadcasts on Future Roles of Internet Librarians and Virtual Reference Services live, free and online next week

Fri Mar 23 01:00:00 EST 2001

To all librarians and other information professionals:

How would you like to go to London to discuss the future roles of internet librarians with your peers from around the world, or find out more about the new virtual reference technologies and how libraries are using them?  Well here's your chance, and you don't even have to leave the comfort of your own home or office.  The Internet Librarian International Conference and LSSI's Virtual Reference Services are co-sponsoring two interactive online global broadcasts that will take place live from the floor of the Internet Librarian International Conference at the Olympia Exhibition Center in London, and throughout the rest of the world, live on the Web using LSSI's new Virtual Reference technology.  We think programs like these provide an unparalleled opportunity to meet and discuss common issues with your peers from around the world.  In addition online interactive programs make it possible for librarians who would not otherwise be able to travel to conferences because of cost, physical disability, or other limitation to participate almost as if they were there.  So whether you join us live in London ... or live online, we are looking forward to meeting you next week. 
Sincerely,

Jane Dysart & David Raitt
Internet Librarian International Conference

Steve Coffman
LSSI

Now, here are the details on the programs:

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Future Roles for Internet Librarians – a Global Broadcast
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Tuesday March 27th  13:30-14:15 for presentations ... online discussion continues through 14:45.  Times are GMT (Greenwich Mean Time --- click here  http://www.worldtimezone.com to see what time it is in your part of the world.   Also be aware that England switches to Daylight Savings Time on March 25th ... the US does not switch until April 1st.  For our US audience, that means that this program will start at 4:30am Pacific, 5:30am Mountain, 6:30am Central and 7;30am Eastern) 

Join us for an exciting world-wide broadcast to discuss the roles of Internet Librarians in the Future.  A stellar cast will be presenting live from the floor of the Olympia Exibition Center, including ... 

David Raitt, Editor, Electronic Library, The Netherlands
Darlene Fichter, University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Mary Aukland, Director of Library and Learning Resources, The London
Institute, England
Steve Coffman, Product Development Manager, LSSI
And others yet to be named

And they will be joined live and online by you and your peers from all over the world, using LSSI's new Virtual Reference software.  The software will allow you to see the slides and web sites the presenters have chosen to illustrate their talks and to 'listen' to their presentations transcribed through chat technology.  The formal presentations will be followed by a live online chat session, where both the live and online audiences will have an opportunity to question the speakers and to discuss your ideas and reactions with your peers from around the world.   

To join this meeting in London, go to the Olympia Exhibition Hall and follow the signs for the Global Broadcast on Future Roles of Internet Librarians.  To join the meeting from anywhere else in the world, logon at www.lssi.com/virtual or www.internet-librarian.com/front.html (these sites will be live a few days before the meeting).  Click on the Live From London button, and follow instructions to logon.  All online participants will receive a complete transcript of the session emailed to the address you specify.  And if you can't make it for the live event, a complete transcript of the session will be posted to both web sites listed above a few hours after the broadcast. 

... then on Wednesday, March 28th,

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Virtual Reference:  Is It Feasible?
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Wednesday March 28th  15:00-15:45 ... online discussion continues through 16:15.  Times are GMT (Greenwich Mean Time --- click here http://www.worldtimezone.com to see what time it is in your part of the world.  Also be aware that England switches to Daylight Savings Time on March 25th ... the US does not switch until April 1st.  Again, for our US audience, that means this program will start at 6:00am Pacific, 7:00am Mountain, 8:00am Central and 9:00am Eastern).   

Join us for a live online tour of some of the premier virtual reference projects on the Web and a discussion of the challenges and issues libraries face in moving reference to the Web.  Steve Coffman and Kay Henshall will host this special tour for a live audience in London and an online audience of librarians logged on from around the world.  Together you will stop in and visit live with librarians from the QandACafe project in the San Francisco Bay area, the Alliance Library Systems Ready for Reference Project in Illinois --- the world's first true 24x7 virtual reference service, the Ask Us Live Project at MIT, and get an update on the Collaborative Digital Reference System from Linda White at the Library of Congress.  Finally, as of this writing we are trying to arrange for a representative from a major reference publisher to participate in the session to discuss the development of special online tools for virtual reference and the licensing on content expressly for reference use --- we will post additional details if we can work this out. 

As with Tuesday's program, you can either join us live in the Olympia Exhibition Center in London, or join us live on the Web by logging on at www.lssi.com/virtual or at http://www.internet-librarian.com/front.html (these sites will be live several days prior to the program) and clicking on the Live from London link; then follow instructions to logon. All participants will receive an email transcript of the session shortly after it is over, and we will also post transcripts to the Web.