Part I: DIGITAL SCHOLARSHIP: support by digital

The digital environment has changed, even revolutionized, scholarship in a dramatic fashion. Among others, it has: speeded and extended the exchange of ideas; increased cooperation in great many disciplines, not only in science and technology but also in humanities; and enabled the creation of many new kinds of works that are accessible to end users directly. Digital resources have become essential tools for scholars conducting research, building scholarly networks, and disseminating their ideas and work. Digital libraries are becoming closely associated with digital scholarship by, among others, building digital collections of information for further study and analysis; creating the tools to use them; and developing a variety of services that make use of the space, speed, and interactivity that the Internet allows.

The goal of the first theme of LIDA 2010 is to reflect on the changes that have occurred in the realm of scholarship as a result of the digital environment and explore and evaluate efforts, ideas, and practices that emerged in libraries in support of digital scholarship. The general aim is not only to reflect and synthesize what went on, but even more so to help further development of current efforts, as well as development of frameworks within which diverse and future efforts could be compared, evaluated, and improved.

Contributions are invited covering the following topics (types described below):

• research, practices, and values related to digital scholarship, including conceptual frameworks that emerged;
• contemporary nature of the scholarly information and communication environment in general and as involving digital libraries in particular;
• navigating shifting patterns of scholarly communication;
• the impact digital libraries have on digital scholarship and on education in various fields, and vice versa; the impact of digital scholarship on digital libraries;
• studies on how faculty, researchers, and students  make use of digital scholarly resources for their research or in education;
• practices that emerged in libraries related to support of digital scholarship, such as resource/collection building, digitization, preservation, access, services and others;
• international aspects of digital libraries with related trends in globalization and cooperative opportunities for support of digital scholarship;
• research and discussions on general questions:  How are we to understand new forms of scholarship and scholarly works in their own right? How are we to respond in digital libraries? What are the opportunities and challenges?

Part II: DIGITAL NATIVES: challenges & innovations in reaching out to digital born generations

A digital native is a person for whom digital technologies already existed when they were born, and hence has grown up with digital technology. In contrast, digital immigrants are those who were already socialized in predigital ways when digital technology arrived on the scene. However, the concept of digital natives or of digital immigrants is not binary – it is a matter of degree. Many discussions and a few studies addressed the characteristics and behavior of digital natives as related to digital technology and resources; some dealt with similarities and differences between digital natives and immigrants as related to libraries. Libraries in general and digital libraries in particular have felt the impact of digital natives  -  among others, the concerns are related to accessibility, flexibility, openness to collaboration and sharing (as that of social networks) and heightened expectations. These issues have pragmatic and strategic implications for libraries in creating effective responses, while still reflecting the cultural, social and political roles, dimensions, and values of libraries.

The goal of the second theme of LIDA 2010 is to survey characteristics of digital natives, particularly in expectations from libraries, and to explore efforts, concepts and ideas related to shaping digital library resources, access, and services for effective use by digital natives. The general aim is not only to reflect and synthesize the concepts and what went on, but even more so to help further development of current efforts, as well as development of pragmatic suggestions within which diverse and future efforts could be compared, evaluated, and improved.

Contributions are invited covering the following topics (types described below):

• research and discussions on general questions:  who are these digital natives? How they are different from older generations – or digital immigrants – and what is the world they’re creating going to look like?
• the impact of digital natives on libraries;
• digital libraries and social networks on the Web;
• the cultural and technological challenges faced by digital libraries in serving digital natives;
• examples of library services specifically aimed at digital natives;
• efforts by libraries to help people that are more digital immigrants to  become more digitally natives;
• role of libraries in e-learning and education in general;
• is the future of libraries closely associated with how successfully they meet the demands of digital users?