The US' National Federation for Advanced Information Services (NFAIS) has announced that it will hold two workshops on indexing and indices in the coming months. The first workshop will focus on the approaches to indexing that are currently in use, their pros and cons, and possible changes for the future. The second will look at the evolution of abstracting and indexing services, the challenges offered by the current information environment, and how these services may need to adapt to remain relevant to future generations of librarians, scholars and researchers.
Indexing and Indices: An Essential Component of Information Discovery will be held on November 30, 2012 from 9:00am - 4:45pm, EST, in Philadelphia, PA. This workshop will look at some of the indexing approaches that can be used to ensure the discovery of scholarly and scientific content. Publishers, as well as librarians responsible for the indexing of their institution's digital information assets and other intellectual property, will discuss the approaches that they have taken, what works, what doesn't, and why.
The importance of controlled vocabularies will be discussed as will the pros and cons of manual indexing versus machine-generated indexing versus a hybrid approach. The indexing of non-textual content will be discussed and the meeting will close with a conversation with librarians who will voice their perspective on what is needed to improve information discovery. The agenda can be accessed at http://nfais.brightegg.com/page/378-indexing-and-indices-nov-2012.
The Future Role of Abstracting and Indexing Services will be held on March 15, 2013 from 9:00am – 4:15pm EST in Philadelphia, PA. This workshop will provide an overview of the history and current status of today's Abstracting & Indexing Services (A&I) and the challenges that they face to remain relevant in a rapidly changing information environment. Librarians will discuss how well these services meet the needs of their users and will offer insights as to how the role of A&Is may change as libraries - and their own services - continue to evolve.
The workshop will also look at the new competitors who are emerging and what unfilled needs they are attempting to address. A&I providers will offer their perspective on the current environment and will discuss what initiatives they are planning to keep pace with change. The meeting will close with a look at the future of information discovery and the role that both new and traditional information providers may play. The preliminary agenda can be accessed at http://nfais.brightegg.com/page/379-the-future-of-abstracting-and-indexing-march-2013.
Both onsite and virtual registrations are available for individuals and for groups of three or more from the same organisation. Group registrations can be a mix of onsite and virtual attendees, with a small food charge added for those attending onsite. Members of Sister Societies (CENDI, ISCTI, AAUP, NISO, ASIS&T, SSP, AAP/PSP, and LYRASIS) are eligible for discounts. The attendees can register for both workshops and receive a 15 percent discount.
