CS-SIS Blog

I wanted to share a few CS-SIS updates with all of you to get our blog rolling for the New Year:

• The board sent a short response to the Annual Meeting Special Committee about the Velvet Chainsaw Consulting report. We focused on the fact that our SIS has been innovating for years in some of the ways VCC recommends and our concern that limiting the roles of SISes in the way VCC recommends may inhibit future innovation.
• Our new website, which you are now reading, launched at the end of last year and is now fully switched over to our new server. If you have blogged for CS in the past, you already have account; you just need to reset your password. You can do so and request an account if you don't have one by clicking the login link in the page footer. We welcome blog posts from our membership about anything potentially of interest to CS members.
• We had 8 programs including a full-day workshop on building mobile apps accepted for the annual meeting. We will also be sponsoring a regular program (about HTML5), a roundtable (about educational technology), and a hot topic session for non-AMPC programming. Got ideas for hot technology topics? Please let me, Dan Blackaby, or Jason Eiseman know. We'll decide on a topic closer to the meeting. Likewise, we are looking for ideas for our SIS VIP guest.
• Archives of the CS-SIS newsletters are slated to be included in the Spinelli reference shelf on HeinOnline.
• The spring AALL e-board meeting is scheduled for March. If there is anything we as an SIS want them to consider, the deadline for submitting items (in the categories of action, consent, or information), the deadline is February 17. If you have any thoughts on this, please let the board know.

As always, the CS board welcome ideas from members about what kinds of new activities and projects we should be working on next!

Couldn't attend the CS-SIS Business Meeting? Minutes are available now!

Missed the Hot Topic Session and VIP Speaker Nicole Engard's presentation, "Libraries Developing Openly"? Never fear! The slides from her presentation are available!

As you may be aware, CS-SIS is hosting another installment of the Cool Tools Café where our members demonstrate new tools and technologies that we can all use in law libraries. It consists of 5-10 minute demos at tables around the convention hall room and attendees can wander from demo to demo as they wish.

This year, Cool Tools Café is during the A Session time (Sunday, July 24th, 1:30 - 2:45 pm) in PCC-Room 113 (AB).

Would you be willing to demo a technology? Prep time is minimal since all that is needed is a brief explanation and demo of the tool and a 1-page handout to post on the web. It would work best if you BYO gadget/laptop, but let us know if that is not possible and we can try to find an alternative.

We are looking for presenters to demo the following (multiple demos for the mobile apps are OK because the screens are small):

• Legal Research and Courtroom/classroom Technology for Android
• Legal Research and Courtroom/classroom Technology for iPhone/iPad
• Productivity applications (such as Evernote and Dropbox) for Android
• Productivity applications (such as Evernote and Dropbox) for iPhone/iPad
• Just for fun applications for Android
• Just for fun applications for iPhone/iPad
• Download Managers (such as Instapaper, DownThemAll, Dropbox)
• Firefox Productivity Plugins (such as CiteGenie, Jureeka, Fireshot)
• Google Apps
• Mindmapping Tools (such as Freemind)
• Simile Exhibit (if you have your heart set on showing Exhibit Kincaid can do something else)
• Prezi for presentations

This is just a suggested list; so if there is something so cool and new we don't have it on our list let us know and we'd be happy to consider it. Also, we could also use a couple of people to help direct people to the various demos and answer questions. You can volunteer by contacting Cool Tools Café Philadelphia Coordinators Bonnie Shucha (bjshucha at wisc.edu) and Kincaid Brown (kcb at umich.edu).

So far, the following people have offered to demo:

• Debbie Ginsberg - iPad Teaching Tools including ShowMe
• Ellen Qualey - Current Awareness Tools including Instapaper, Read It Later, watchthatpage
• Jean Willis - Capturing and Manipulating Images (such as SnagIt, Fireshot, Picnik)
• Jennifer Wondracek - QR Codes (intro, creating, library applications)
• Jocelyn Kennedy - iPhone/iPad productivity apps including Evernote and Dropbox
• Karina Condra - Communication Tools including Comm100 and Google Voice
• Katie Fitz - GoAnimate
• Kincaid Brown - Simile Exhibit
• Meg Kribble - iPhone/iPad apps Just for Fun
• Susanna Leers - either Remote Access Tools, video creation apps or mindmapping
• Ken Hirsh - Legal Research and Productivity Apps for iPad and bluetooth keyboard
• Tawnya Plumb - Video Creation Apps
• Nuchine Nobari - Citation Managers supporting Bluebook

Thanks!

Bonnie Shucha and Kincaid Brown, Cool Tools Café Coordinators

CS-SIS is presenting the Cool Tools Café at the AALL Annual Meeting again this year. This program will feature informal demos of tools, apps and gadgets that will help librarians create, organize and deliver information, increase productivity, and connect with users. There will be demo tables scattered throughout the room and attendees can float around as they please.

We're looking for suggestions on which technologies to present and volunteers to do a 5-10 min demo of each. If you have ideas, please complete our survey.

Thanks!

Bonnie Shucha and Kincaid Brown, Cool Tools Café Coordinators