Next week, the Computers in Libraries conference will be meeting for the 31st time in Washington, DC. For the second year in a row, Jill Hurst-Wahl, Associate Professor of Practice and Director of the MS in Library and Information Science program at the School of Information Studies (iSchool), will be a speaker. This is Jill’s tenth year attending the conference, held this year at the Washington Hilton.

Attendees at Computers in Libraries include librarians of different institutions; information managers, architects, and specialists; students; researchers; system and information professionals; and more. The iSchool is sending 7 MSLIS students to the conference this year. The group is comprised of first-year students, second-year students, and distance-students.

This year’s conference theme is “Library Labs: Research, Innovation, and Imagination,” and Professor Hurst-Wahl will be speaking about “Enabling Innovation,” a session on brainstorming. She aims to teach the rules around brainstorming with three different brainstorming techniques. There will, of course, be active brainstorming during the session.

Hurst-Wahl also belongs to a group that participates in a podcast called “T is for Training,” and with this group she will lead a session called “Embracing Training Failures and Learning from Them.” This session will cover different training topics and how to handle training situations. Using real examples of common mishaps and unusual occurrences, the speakers aim to better prepare attendees to cope with the unexpected during training.

A number of iSchool students, alumni and friends will also be attending and speaking at the conference:

  • Kenneth Roman, a current student who was recently awarded the Dewey Scholarship from the New York Library Association, will be speaking on “Digital Resource Management.” This session will focus on the implementation of commercial tools that generate statistics to help track computer and application usage in public library settings.
  • Tracy Z. Maleeff, a member of the iSchool’s LIS guiding council, will be leading a session called “Advanced Twitter: Research Tips for Power Users.” This session aims to teach the use of twitter as an advanced research tool. Maleeff will also be moderating a series of sessions under “Management and Metrics,” which focus on the repositioning of librarians, change, data management, metrics, outcome measures, and more.
  • Topher Lawton, an iSchool alumnus, will participate on the panel Professor Hurst-Wahl is running at “Embracing Training Failures and Learning from Them.”
  • Chad Harper, Kusturie Moodley, and Sarah Bratt, all iSchool alumni, will be leading a session entitled “Big Data Exploration for Libraries.” In this session, the speakers will discuss tools that can be utilized by modern information professionals in data mining, analytics, and more.

This event is one of many conferences and professional development experiences that iSchool students are strongly encouraged to explore during their time at Syracuse. Conferences are an important way for students to learn, make connections, evaluate, network, and get excited about their future professional field.