SpringEvent Conference in Rome
SpringEvent Conference in
Rome
(Organized by the US Embassy to Italy, Roma 3 University and the
American University of Rome)
11th April, 2008
It was an excellent experience and a great opportunity for me to be one
of the main speakers in this International Conference for librarians. The conference theme was: The 21st
Century Information Professionals.
I have been invited to give a presentation on: Information Literacy – a
theme which is very current in library scenario. The Title of my presentation was: “From one to many:
Information Literacy is Key with a SOA Concept”.
A word about the Title
In the above mentioned Title, I wanted to link the ‘book’, which is
still part of the information paradigm to the other many different sources of
information which have been given birth through the Internet and the Web. Therefore, the need to become Information
Literate is sine qua non. The SOA concept (Service Oriented
Architecture) has to do with the
professional approach with which information professionals are to serve the
users. This is further explained in
this article.
The Conference
First of all I would like to point out that this conference was ‘first’
in a couple of ways. It was organized
for information professionals for the first time in Italy and it was also live-streamed
on the Internet in real time. This
meant that delegates who could not be present, still they could follow what was
happening throughout the day. Participants were from the US, Greece, Italy and Malta.
My Presentation
I had to speak in Italian…even this was new for me I still enjoyed it. However, since I received positive feedback
both for the delivery and the content of my presentation, it means that what I
wanted to deliver did come across to the participants. I will not go into details about information
literacy but it will be worthy to note the following statements: (1) being computer
literate does not mean being information literate; but (2) being information
literate means being computer literate.
What is the SOA Concept
Regarding the SOA concept which, formed the second part of my
presentation, is attributed to working at MITTS Ltd. MITTS Ltd. is the IT arm of the Government of Malta. All the IT projects in their entire entirety
have to be researched, analyzed, tested and deployed through MITTS before the
government departments can actually use them. I am the person who assists all the employees and management in all the
required research.
In these two years, with a vision to lead the IRC (information Resource Center) to new
pastures and spending most of the time reading, researching and alerting
colleagues with new information updates on different matters, I came across
various acronyms such as SOA, CRM, KPI, etc. On reading different Gartner (Consulting Firm) articles on SOA, I
started wondering whether I might extrapolate the SOA concept to the
information paradigm – specifically to Information Literacy. As I continued to read and discover various
principles, I concluded that SOA can form part of the information
professional’s scenario since the ‘focus’ is the ‘user’. Without a ‘user’ there can never be a
service.
In the end, I synergized this concept to the information professional
(librarian) paradigm. I find that this
concept enhances more and more my profession and all the work it vouches for
especially when one considers the other important aspect of ‘social
networking’.
SOA and Social Networking
I consider these two aspects to go hand in hand from an information
professional point of view. The SOA
concept which focuses on the ‘user’ – very fundamental for librarians – hones
in the architecture of the whole idea to connect the user to other aspects of
the information available. For example,
the information professional working in a library can connect the user not only
to the specific book or article but also to the author. This implies suggesting to the user to
locate other pieces of information related to that particular author. Another environment where the SOA concept
can be applied to is, in a school especially tertiary level. Most probably, a user/student would not have
much knowledge about the author. Therefore, the information professional, through the ‘reference
interview’, would engage in a conversation whereby, he links the user not only
to the source but to the author or to other authors on the same subject.
The SOA concept ensures that the user would not find the needed
information by chance but by design.
Additionally, the information professional could make various suggestions
about other articles on the same theme to aid the student, or even other
sources such as web sites which might be of interest to the student. It is worth noting that, suggesting other
resources does not imply doing the actual research for the student but the SOA
concept ensures that the student/user is being aided enough to remain focused
and ensures that authoritative, reliable and accurate information is acquired.
Furthermore, the SOA concept can easily be applied in public or national
libraries in the way librarians assist and handle queries from users. Thus, the SOA concept does provide an edge
for librarians in the information paradigm.
Personal Learning Curve
First of all it was a ‘breath of fresh air’. All professionals need to keep on developing themselves professionally. Conferences are really important events for
continuing professional development.
There were three
speakers whom I would like to mention in relation to what they said. Giacomo and Rosella of the Bocconi
University in Milan are librarians who also teach Information Literacy to
students. Both their presentation and
mine were in synch on various accounts and therefore, it emphasized the need
for an Information literacy Program to be implemented. Another speaker was Fabio from the US
Embassy in Rome who heads the IRC and from whom I learned the importance of ‘mashups’
– an area which I would like to explore more. Luisa, who is an academic lecturing at Roma 3 University emphasized the
importance of an Information Literacy Program in schools. In her presentation she mentioned various
sources which I was aware of and therefore, I concluded that I was on the right
track. Furthermore, Luisa highlighted
the different approaches, models and
standards for Information Literacy.
Finally, James, who heads the American University of Rome (AUR) showed
us how he applied different mashups to create a unique interface for the
collection housed at AUR. His argument
was to create new ways to interact with the library’s collection which attracts
the ‘Google generation’, - a term also used by myself in my presentation to
signify those people who were born post-1993.
It is worth saying that Jim and I had a very long and
interesting conversation and explored what can be termed as new ways of how the
OPAC may change in the future especially through mashups.
Conclusion
This conference has been an excellent experience and making contacts is
also important in such events. The
expertise and experience of the different librarians present at the conference
adds to the importance of these meetings and receiving their encouragement
gives you the necessary impetus to go forward. Lastly, I believe that in the future, we will hear more about the need
to become Information Literate and the eventual Program implemented in schools. Adopting a SOA concept will help focus on
the most important aspect that is the student/user and therefore, devising the
necessary architecture in a way that we will truly have lifelong learners and
informed citizens.
Claudio Laferla
SpringEvent page: http://springevent.ning.com/profile/ClaudioLaferla
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