APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING
We cordially invite members of this group to the OCLC EMEA Regional Council Meeting in Berlin on 21 and 22 February 2017.
The theme of this year’s Meeting is "Libraries at the Crossroads: Resolving Identities" which focuses on the changing concept of identity.
Once, our identity was known only to those whom we knew personally, socially or professionally. Today, thanks to social media and innovations like ‘big data’, our identity can be pieced together from millions of fragments of our online identity; and, even if not properly ‘known’, can at least be analysed to develop a greater understanding of who we are and how we behave and shared with thousands if not millions of others. As knowledge professionals, we understand very well the power of openness and sharing, but also have the utmost respect for the privacy concerns that go with it. We are standing at a crossroads, where the ability to trace our steps digitally promises new breakthroughs in research, but also creates new concerns about protecting our identity. The Meeting gives us much-needed time to consider the route we should be taking.
In our event we run a series of plenary sessions with several speakers from around the world, to talk about how they are choosing to rise to these challenging issues. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger, co-author of the bestseller “Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work and Think” examines how Big Data reshapes every sector of society. He will show us how potentially it can improve the learning process – even by making it more social – and the role libraries can play in this changing environment.
We will also be joined by David Lee King, Digital Services Director, Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library who will be sharing some of his own perspectives on how public libraries are using data to make better decisions about customer service and developing better community partnerships. Finally, Prof. Dr. Klaus Tochtermann will be giving an update on the work that is taking place within the European Union to promote the development of a European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Prof. Tochtermann will be focusing importantly on what role academic libraries should be taking in this process which aims to revolutionize access to research data.
To find out more about this annual conference, go to: http://oc.lc/emearc17
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