Information landscapes for a learning society

Programme

MONDAY 29 JUNE

Registration and Lunch (10.00-12.00)

Opening Session (13.30)

Chair:

Brian Lang, Chief Executive, The British Library, UK

Welcome address:

Brian Lang, Chief Executive, The British Library, UK

Opening keynote address: Information landscapes for a learning society

Richard Heseltine, Director of Academic Services and Librarian, University of Hull, UK

Session 1 (14.30): Information architectures: constructing the digital library

The Internet provides a pervasive, predictable transport. The Web provides a pervasive predictable presentation and user access medium. However, poor support for organisation and management of network resources creates difficulties for information providers and frustration for information users. It is the need for such support that is driving digital library and information architecture initiatives. This session will explore the technical building blocks and discuss how they will be used to weave information resources into rich information landscapes.

Chair:

Lynne Brindley, Dean of Information Strategy and University Librarian, University of Leeds, UK

Moving to distributed environments for library services

Lorcan Dempsey, Director, UKOLN, UK

Discovering resources across the humanities: an application of the Dublin Core and Z39.50

Daniel Greenstein, Director, Arts & Humanities Data Service, UK

Networking cultural heritage: creating open, sustainable resources

Mike Stapleton, Technical Director, System Simulation Limited, UK

Testing a general architecture: experiences from multiple application domains

David Kay, Strategic Development Director, Fretwell-Downing Informatics, UK

This evening there will be a sherry reception and buffet supper with music in the Senior Common Room of the University of Bath.

TUESDAY 30 JUNE

Session 2 (09.00): Information landscapes: the accommodation of knowledge

Current information and learning systems exist as functional islands, a series of individual, unconnected opportunities. The information landscapes of the future will weave together electronic services and existing services in ways that join users to the materials and tools that they need, when they need them. How will these landscapes support users and how will they relate to existing places and services? How will library services combine physical places and digital information spaces, the print and the electronic, learning and information?

Chair:

Bruce Royan, Chief Executive, SCRAN, UK

The library as a place and cyberspace: towards an ecology of learning

Peter Lyman, University Librarian, University of California, Berkeley, US

'Very flat, Norfolk': a broad horizon for an information lanscape in the next century

David Baker, Director of Information Strategy & Services and University Librarian, University of East Anglia, UK and Hilary Hammond, Director of Arts & Libraries, Norfolk County Council, UK

Who's in command? Defining the boundaries of competency and action for the 'informational society'

Ray Lester, Head of Library & Information Services, The Natural History Museum, UK

Information landscapes: secret garden or wonderland?

Cris Woolston, Director, Teaching and Learning Support, University of Hull, UK

Lunch (12.30)

Session 3 (13.30): Information and the public sphere: an informed citizenry

Libraries have long existed in the public sphere: they are instruments of learning, of an informed citizenry, of civilisation. How will this mission be maintained in a network society which is increasingly globalised, where the unconnected are increasingly disadvantaged, where new costs are changing patterns of accessibility. How inclusive will the landscapes be? How can libraries ensure that their role is recognised in the emerging policy framework that is driving national and international information society initiatives?

Chair:

Chris Batt, Director of Leisure Services, Croydon, UK

Floods won't build bridges: rich networks, poor citizens, and the role of public libraries

Andrew Blau, Director, Communications Policy, Benton Foundation, US

Up hill and down dale: citizens, government and the public library

John Dolan, Head of Central Library, Birmingham, UK

Everybody's archives?

Sarah Tyacke, Keeper of Public Records, The Public Record Office, UK

Libraries in the learning community: strategic partnerships for lifelong learning

Andrew McDonald, Director of Information Services, University of Sunderland, UK

Special guest presentation: Creating the learning age: challenges and opportunities

Bob Fryer, Principal, Northern College, UK

This evening delegates will be welcomed to Bath at a civic reception in the Pump Room followed by a tour of the Roman Baths. Afterwards the Conference Dinner will take place in Bath's 18th century Guildhall Banqueting Room, with the after-dinner address by Derek Law (King's College London).

WEDNESDAY 1 JULY

Session 4 (08.45): Information exchanges: the library, the network and the future

This session will be more prospective: how will libraries and other information and knowledge exchanges develop as key components of an information and learning society? How will they change themselves to change the lives of their users.

The Future: Organisations and People

Chair:

Monika Segbert, The British Council and Expert to DGXIII, UK and Luxembourg

The electronic library - job design, work processes and qualifications in electronic information services: the JULIA project at the Technical Knowledge Centre of Denmark

Lars Bjørnshauge, Director, Technical Knowledge Centre of Denmark

Maps, compasses and information skills: orienteering for librarians

Biddy Fisher, Head of Academic Services and Development, Sheffield Hallam University, UK

Dawning of the age: the horizon for powerful people-centred libraries

Grace Kempster, County Librarian, Essex County Council, UK

The Future: Widening the horizon

Chair:

Richard Heseltine, Director of Academic Services and Librarian, University of Hull, UK

Unifying our cultural memory: how could the electronic environment bridge the historical accidents of collecting institutions and traditions that have fragmented our cultural memory?

David Bearman, President, Archives & Museum Informatics, US

Democracy and information in a 'network society'

Frank Webster, Professor of Sociology, Oxford Brookes University, UK

Closing Session (12.15)

Closing keynote address:

Clifford Lynch, Executive Director, Coalition for Networked Information, US

Lunch and departure (13.30)