WASHINGTON, DC.-The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) has made an award of $499,702 to The Wolfsonian–Florida International University to plan and co-host the 2008 and 2009 WebWise Conferences on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World. The Florida Center for Library Automation (FCLA), which serves Florida’s institutions of higher education, is also a partner.

“WebWise is a signature initiative of the Institute of Museum and Library Services,” said IMLS Director Anne-Imelda M. Radice. “This year it will be better than ever. The partnership with the Wolfsonian-FIU will allow us to offer it in the South for the first time. We look forward to working with the Florida team.”

Each year the WebWise Conference brings together approximately 350 representatives of museums, libraries, archives, information and systems science, and other fields interested in the future of high-quality online content for inquiry and education. The annual conference shares new research and innovations in digital technology with technical experts and thought leaders from the library, archives, and museum fields in order to enhance technology transfer among cultural heritage institutions nationwide and to promote institutional collaboration. It also provides grant recipients the opportunity to showcase exemplary projects and to demonstrate the impact of federal funding on the development and improvement of library and museum services. The conference has been co-hosted in previous years by the University of Missouri at Columbia, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, OCLC, Inc., and the J. Paul Getty Trust, in collaboration with IMLS.

The 2008 WebWise Conference will be held in Miami Beach, Florida, with tentative dates of March 5-7. The conference theme is “WebWise 2.0: The Power of Community.” Sessions will emphasize the ability of institutions to provide unfettered access to their collections and to reach a broad public audience by developing innovative ways to involve users in a digital environment. Projects featuring museum and library resources, the paths to their discovery, and digital tools to help institutions and users effectively manage, manipulate, present and use digital content will be featured in plenary sessions and demonstrations. Half-day workshops requiring separate registration will be offered on the first day, with the main conference taking place over the next two days. Online registration for all events will be available through the IMLS Web site in Fall 2007. Dates for the 2009 conference, which will be held in Washington, D.C., will be announced later.

Members of the 2008 Program Committee are: Cathy Leff, Director of the Wolfsonian Museum; Priscilla Caplan, Assistant Director for Digital Library Services, Florida Center for Library Automation; Paul Marty, Assistant Professor of Information Studies, Florida State University; Joyce Ray, Associate Deputy Director for Library Services, IMLS; Bernard Reilly, President, Center for Research Libraries; Marsha Semmel, Deputy Director for Museums, IMLS; and Robert Semper, Executive Associate Director of the Exploratorium Museum.