GOLD/GALILEO collaboration comes of age Aug. 13

GPLS News, June 2010

Hand in hand with their observance of milestone birthdays for PINES and GALILEO in 2010, Georgia librarians will soon celebrate another coming of age when the GOLD/GALILEO Users Group Conference turns 21 this summer.

"The number 21 symbolizes progression, growth, maturity, legitimacy and civic involvement," said Toni Zimmerman, director of Resource Sharing and Interlibrary Cooperation for GPLS. "Our 21st birthday and the theme ‘collaboration comes of age' will be cause for both celebration of and respect for all that Georgia's libraries have accomplished through creative collaborations. Adding to the celestial pathos of this year's theme is the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's Starry Messenger, a published work that changed our view of the solar system and our place in it. Surely that's a clear omen that the continued partnership of the GOLD and GALILEO communities will bring a zenith of educational and economic opportunities to Georgia's citizenry."

The annual conference will take place this year on Aug. 13 from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education Conference Center and Hotel in Athens. The event draws librarians, paraprofessionals and technical staff from academic libraries, public libraries, schools and special libraries throughout Georgia and the Southeast. Its goal is to provide a forum for continuing education and professional development related to the use of Georgia's interlibrary lending and resource sharing network, GOLD, and the statewide virtual library, GALILEO.

Each year, the conference showcases new collaborative trends in library resources and highlights current partnerships. Along with a spotlight session about GALILEO's first 15 years, "Collaboration Comes of Age" will include two sets of concurrent programs and updated versions of the popular training showcase. Sessions will feature presentations that demonstrate how dynamic Georgia libraries are using creative collaborations, emerging technologies and highly adaptive communication styles, tools and trends to meet the multifaceted needs of information seekers.

This year's keynote speaker will be Tom Sanville, longtime head of the pioneering consortium OhioLINK who joined LYRASIS in April as its new director of licensing and strategic partnerships. "Tom will explain why ‘coming of age' does not simply mean reaching a plateau of effectiveness or benchmarking efficiency," Zimmerman said. "He plans to show us how consortium-based activity must be exploited to its fullest extent to leverage our limited economic resources and make librarians the future's most relevant information providers!"

This conference is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services to GPLS under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act. Links to registration materials and hotel information will be available later this month at www.georgialibraries.org/lib/gold.html.