The MSU Libraries Emerging Technologies Summit focuses on the effects of emerging technologies in academic libraries. Now that libraries have adopted social networking, mobile technologies, and social research tools, what’s next? What sort of assessment of these programs is available or appropriate? How have these emerging technologies been incorporated into academia, and what are the ramifications of their adoption?

This conference will explore these issues with nationally-known user experience and design expert Aaron Schmidt as our guide in the keynote session, followed by breakout Steal-this-Idea sessions led by regional experts who can speak to this post-implementation environment.

Mississippi State Libraries is also pleased to present the MidSouth eResource Symposium, taking place the day before the Summit, on Thursday, August 11th. The eResource Symposium will offer a focused program on the acquisition and management of electronic resources in libraries.

Keynote Speaker

Aaron Schmidt is one of the architects of the Library 2.0 revolution. A 2005 Library Journal “Mover and Shaker,” he has been on the forefront of re-imagining the library in view of evolving technologies. He presents on the topic of library technology and usability throughout the United States, and in Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and Spain. With the DC Public Libraries as their Digital Initiatives Librarian, he assisted with website visioning, conducted usability testing, led the library’s Library 2.0 Interest Group and helped coordinate and generate ideas for the library’s digital research and development project called DC Library Labs. He was part of the team that created the first iPhone and Blackberry online catalog searching applications. He is currently a Principal in Influx Library User Experience Consulting, and maintains a library and website usability weblog, walkingpaper.org.

About MSU Libraries

The Mississippi State University Libraries strive to be leaders in the application of emerging technologies to the library environment. You can follow our efforts by becoming a fan on Facebook, following our Twitter feed, or subscribing to our podcasts and other RSS feeds. For more information on activities and collections at the MSU Libraries, check out our Flickr, Youtube, and MySpace.