The Syracuse University School of Information Studies (iSchool) and the Syracuse University Library will host the Handheld Librarian Online Conference, an annual conference about mobile library applications and services. The event will be held February 17 and 18, 2010, from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. both days.
Opening keynote sessions each day will be held in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons on the first floor of Syracuse University’s Bird Library. Other sessions will be shown in rooms throughout Bird Library. The conference will include sessions on topics such as mobile reference, e-books, mobile apps, marketing, and web sites.
Syracuse iSchool executive doctorate student Alison Miller will provide the keynote address on February 18 at 2 p.m. Her talk, “Mobile Trends and Social Reference,” will address the changing trends that mobile reference has brought about. Traditional ready reference questions are still asked frequently with mobile services, but the nature and subject of many mobile questions are leading to a new type of reference question: social reference.
In addition to her doctoral studies, Miller is the researcher in distance education with the Internet Public Library. She also works virtually for Florida State University from her home in the New York Finger Lakes region. She received an M.S. in Library and Information Science from the iSchool at Drexel University as a distance student. She actively participates in responding to reference questions from a variety of mobile services, including My Info Quest, Aardvark, Mosio, and kgb.
Detailed information on the program schedule and speakers can be found at http://www.handheldlibrarian.org/schedule2010.
To register for the conference, please e-mail an RSVP to Donna Sullivan (dlsulliv@syr.edu) indicating which days/sessions you would like to attend. Space may be limited for some sessions. There is no registration fee for SU students, faculty, and staff; registration fees for the SU site have been covered by the iSchool.
For more information, please contact Jill Hurst-Wahl (jahurst@syr.edu) in the iSchool or Tasha Cooper (nacoop01@syr.edu) in the Library.