ProQuest and ER&L Support Librarians at SXSWi
ANN ARBOR -- The Ann Arbor database and information provider ProQuest has become part of the South by Southwest Interactive festival March 8-12.
ProQuest and the Electronic Resources & Libraries program are creating the "ER&L + ProQuest #ideadrop house" at this year's festival. Located in the heart of Austin, Texas, the house will be a premier destination for librarians to gather for salon-style group discussions about the future of libraries and librarianship.
"The #ideadrop house at SXSWi offers library and information professionals the opportunity to think differently about libraries in the broader world of digital creativity and emerging technology," said Bonnie Tijerina, who founded ER&L in 2005 and leads electronic resources at Harvard University. "I am pleased and excited that this vision for thought leadership and creativity in libraries is now full of life, entrepreneurial spirit and youthful enthusiasm."
An early leader in supporting librarians attending SXSWi, ProQuest hosted a meet-up at the 2012 festival. Its expanded role at this year's festival is designed to create an opportunity for more focused "think tank" discussions. The Digital Library Federation is also sponsoring live streaming at the house, enabling the conversations to be shared with a broader audience.
"Our experience at the 2012 festival showed us that librarians need a place where they can share ideas about what they're learning at SXSWi to advance libraries," said Pam Cory, vice president global field and enterprise marketing. "Our vision for the #ideadrop house is to create that venue for inspiring discussions so we can push the innovation agenda forward."
The #ideadrop house is open to all SXSWi participants.
Electronic Resources and Libraries is an effort of librarians to improve the way we collect, manage, maintain, assess, and make accessible electronic resources in an ever-changing digital environment. ER&L is also an annual physical and virtual conference focused on practical, tactical, and strategic work by e-resources management and digital services professionals to further the field. More information about ER&L can be found at www.electroniclibrarian.com.
ProQuest's massive information pool is made accessible in research environments that accelerate productivity, empowering users to discover, create, and share knowledge.
An energetic, fast-growing organization, ProQuest includes the ProQuest, Bowker, Dialog, Ebrary and Serials Solutions businesses and notable research tools such as the RefWorks and Pivot services, as well as its Summon Web-scale discovery service.
More at www.proquest.com.
