NFAIS ANNOUNCES 2011 ANNUAL CONFERENCE THEME & LOCATION: MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW!

Philadelphia, PA, September 28, 2010 -    The National Federation of Advanced Information Services (NFAIS - www.nfais.org), the premier membership association for organizations that create, organize and facilitate access to authoritative information, today announced the theme and location for its 2011 Annual Conference. The conference, Taming the Information Tsunami: A New World of Discovery, is scheduled for February 27 - March 1, 2011 at the Hyatt at the Bellevue in Philadelphia, PA. ( Details available here) The meeting will take a look at how publishers and librarians are successfully navigating the exponential growth of digital information to provide scholars and researchers with the reliable, relevant information that deserves their time and attention - no matter what the source, language or medium!

"The Web, search engines and social media have created an information tsunami," said NFAIS President, Judith Russell. "We are flooded daily by e-mails, RSS feeds, and postings from blogs, social networks, and other sources. And Web searching can deliver thousands of results across all media platforms - text, video, audio, datasets and more. Yet, despite today's wealth of information, finding the most relevant and credible content can be difficult and time-consuming. Whether you are a publisher, librarian or an information seeker - we all face the same challenge - and that is to ensure that reliable information is not missed and that misinformation is not used."

Russell noted that the conference will begin with an overview of today's digital information explosion, the complex problems that it presents, and the entrepreneurial opportunities that it offers. This will be followed by survey results highlighting the forces that are driving today's information abundance and offering insights on the exponential growth that can be expected between now and the year 2020. And a panel of librarians and users will talk about how they are adapting to information overload - the tools that they use, what works, what doesn't, and how their jobs have changed as a result. Critical issues such as the growth of credible non-English language content, the roles that semantic search, image search, and the social graph play in finding the specific information that users want, and how emerging technologies such as cloud computing can help publishers manage the volume of information required to produce comprehensive products and services will also be discussed. Highlights include case studies from publishers and librarians who are successfully dealing with the issues of multi-media and information overload, the Miles Conrad Lecture, and a visionary closing keynote on the future of information discovery.

"The information discovery process is changing for everyone," said Russell. "Publishers and librarians are currently faced with the daunting challenge of identifying, acquiring, processing, transmitting, and storing incredible amounts of digital content across all media and across a growing amount of foreign languages - a challenge that will continue into the foreseeable future as the volume of information continues to escalate. And more than ever before searchers need innovative products and services to help them navigate the information tsunami in order to find credible, reliable answers to their queries."

For more information or to be added to the mailing list for updates on the 2011 NFAIS Annual Conference, contact Jill O'Neill, Director of Communication and Planning (jilloneill@nfais.org, or (215)-893-1561 phone) or visit the NFAIS web site at www.nfais.org. Early bird discounts are available until January 7, 2011.

This program is being developed by the 2011 NFAIS Annual Conference Planning Committee
 

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Founded in 1958, NFAIS is a membership organization of more than 60 of the world's leading producers of databases and related information services, information technology, and library services in the sciences, engineering, social sciences, business, and the arts and humanities. For more information on NFAIS and its member organizations, on NFAIS Annual Conferences and meetings or the Miles Conrad Memorial Lecture series, contact Jill O'Neill, Director of Communication and Planning (jilloneill@nfais.org or (215)-893-1561) or visit the NFAIS web site (www.nfais.org).

NFAIS: Serving the Global Information Community

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