Contact: Mary DeWalt

             Ada Community Library

             208-362-0181 ext. 123       

             mdewalt@adalib.org  

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE –  

Libraries Host Summit on Digital Natives

for Local Decision Makers

(Boise, Idaho – 6/05/2008)  Local elected officials, community leaders, and library board members are invited to participate in a summit next week focusing on libraries and digital natives.  The event will be held on Wednesday, June 11, at the Meridian library from 7:30 to 10:30 a.m., and will include a breakfast prepared by Life’s Kitchen. 

The summit, titled “Did You Know?” is described as “a think tank summit on digital natives and libraries”.  Ada Community Library and the public libraries of Boise, Caldwell, Garden City, Kuna, Meridian and Nampa are hosting the event as a means of informing key decision makers about the role of the 21st century library and about public library services in the digital native context.  A digital native is often described as a person who has grown up with computers and digital technology.

Keynote speaker Ben Quintana will open the summit.  Quintana manages the Boise Young Professionals (BYP), an offshoot of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce.  BYP provides local young professionals with opportunities for professional and leadership development, community and civic involvement, and social activities.  

Summit attendees will also see short video presentations.  The first, “Shift Happens,” is intended to start a conversation on globalization in the information age; the second captures a conversation on libraries by an Idaho digital native focus group.  Each video is followed by discussion moderated by Marc C. Johnson, a frequent moderator for the City Club and a member of the Boise Public Library Board of Trustees.  The summit was funded by an Institute for Museum and Library Services grant, administered by the Idaho Commission on Libraries.

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