Having spent the last few years immersing myself in LITA, I’m trying to articulate things I’ve learned in case you want to get involved, too, but are looking for places to start. The whole series can be read at the how to get involved in LITA tag. Stay tuned for more over the next few days!
Official communication channels
LITA has official Twitter (@ALA_LITA) and Facebook accounts (mostly job listings, some association news). LITABlog echoes this content, and also includes occasional posts by LITA members (usually Board members) on other LITA-related topics. LITA-L is the official mailing list of the organization (mostly members getting tech project advice from one another, plus the content from other official channels).
All formally constituted groups of LITA (the Board, task forces, committees, interest groups) also have official ALA mailing lists and ALA Connect groups. How these are used, and how much, varies by group. Some are open for anyone to join; others are closed-membership, but have public archives; others are fully private. Mailing lists archives are either entirely public or entirely restricted to members; in Connect, individual posts can be set to be public or private. To what extent the ALA open meetings policy applies to these spaces has been a topic of lively debate in LITA these last few years.
You do not have to be a member of ALA to have an ALA Connect account and be a member of open Connect groups (though you do have to be a member of ALA to be a member of LITA).
The public content of both mailing lists and Connect groups, even ones you are not members of, can be consumed via RSS, and you can subscribe to email notifications for Connect groups. I keep up with a variety of LITA groups, including the Board, this way, and I encourage you to as well. I particularly want you to follow the Board if I get elected to it (I’m running), so you can tell me if you think it’s moving in the right direction and I’m representing you appropriately, and call me out if not.
andromeda yelton 