ATGthePodcast 063 – ATG Trendspotting

Against the Grain - The Podcast

Hi, this is Leah Hinds. Welcome to episode 63 of ATG: The Podcast. We’ve had a gap in our shows recently but I’m glad to be getting back on track! This week, I’m nearing the end of our summer road trip. We’re in Freeland, Michigan, visiting my husband’s family and then we’ll be heading back to South Carolina in time for me to participate in the Charleston Conference Call for Papers review meeting.

Speaking of the conference, before we get into today’s episode I have a brief reminder about our Charleston Fast Pitch Competition. The call for submissions and nominations is now open, and the deadline is this Friday, July 20. Fast Pitch encourages proposals for ideas on improving or transforming the work environment at a library, or any information-related enterprise or organization in educational technology. There will be two awards of $2,500 each for winning proposals from U.S.-based tax exempt non-profit organizations through the generous support of the Goodall Family Foundation. There will also be a third international award of a travel stipend to attend the 2018 Conference to present your winning idea to the audience. The international travel award is graciously supported by Business Expert Press and Momentum Press. Go to www.charlestonlibraryconference/fastpitch for more information and to submit your proposal or nomination. I’m looking forward to seeing all of your innovative ideas!

This week’s episode features the audio from a recording of a webinar where we introduced a new project called ATG Trendspotting. Building on last year’s FutureLab, Against the Grain and the Charleston Conference invite broad participation in our new ATG Trendspotting Initiative, a community-engaged process for cooperatively and collaboratively exploring different trends and forecasting their impact on scholarly communication, publishing, and academic libraries.

One of the outcomes of the initiative will be producing a vetted listing of social, policy, economic, technology, and educational trends by means of the Trend Storm. Anyone in the library, publishing, and information industry is invited to fill out the Trend Storm submission form by July 20 – the link is available in the show notes. You can submit a Trend Storm even if you are unable to attend the Charleston Conference so don’t let travel be a barrier to participation!

We will also be hosting a Trend Lab forum at the Charleston Conference on the potential impacts of the trends on the information industry with a small group of nominated/invited participants, as well as presenting a Trend Talk panel at the Charleston conference sharing the results of the Trend Lab discussion and soliciting further input.

LINKS:

• Charleston Fast Pitch Competition: http://www.charlestonlibraryconference.com/fastpitch
• Video of the Trendspotting Webinar: https://youtu.be/zP3c_2qa_uY
• Trend Storm Submission Form: https://forms.illinois.edu/sec/1183232
• More information on ATG Trendspotting: https://www.charlestonlibraryconference.com/announcing-the-new-atg-trendspotting-initiative/