Reports From the 2018 Library Technology Conference Macalester College

摘要

The annual Library Technology Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota may be the best small library conference that not very many people have heard of. It began in 2008 as a mainly local conference, but the number of presenters and attendees from outside of Minnesota has been increasing each year. The conference does not need additional publicity, because there are only 400-500 places available, which go quickly. The sponsor and host, Macalester College, filled the first 400 slots on the day registration opened. Given that the conference is for library staff, the hosts keep the price reasonable at $160 for two days. The breakout sessions are by volunteers, and cover the full gamut of library technologies in all kinds of libraries: academic, public, school and corporate. The organizers find keynote speakers who are working in the most current areas in information science on topics that intersect with social justice issues. In 2016, Safiya Noble spoke about how search engine algorithms perpetuate a "monopolistic corporate search paradigm." Attendees learned about the topic two years before her 2018 book, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. This year, Dr. Sarah T. Roberts and Bergis Jules spoke about how social media companies can create as well as affect marginalized communities.