The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) will host their 75th General Conference and Assembly this year in Milan, Italy. The theme of this World Library and Information Congress is "Libraries Create Futures: Building Cultural Heritage." The conference will be held August 23-27, 2009.

SLIS faculty member Pnina Shachaf participate in the Conference. She will also present at an IFLA Satellite Pre-Conference sponsored by the Information Technology Section. The theme is "Emergency Trends in Technology: Libraries between Web 2.0, Semantic Web and Search Technology." The pre-conference will be held in Florence, Italy from August 19-20, 2009.

Shachaf notes that "the pre-conference will address the new web technologies, the semantic web and the new search technologies that have a very deep impact on the services in the library-scene. The first day will be more theoretical and introductory, while the second day will be dedicated to implementations and developments in practice." The abstract for her talk is included here:

Social Reference and Library Reference Services

Abstract:
"Some of the fastest growing Web 2.0 segments are question-answering (Q&A) sites that involve a collaborative reference service - social reference. Social reference refers to online question answering services that are provided by communities of volunteers on Q&A sites. Because this collaborative group effort in answering question is comparable with library reference service in quality, the implementation of the social reference model to enhance reference service in library 2.0 is discussed."

Posted August 10, 2009