A PILOT PROJECT OPEN ONLY TO AMICAL MEMBERS:
AMICALconnect
A social network connecting AMICAL members
AMICAL’s annual conferences are exceptional opportunities for sharing ideas with librarians, technologists and faculty at other AMICAL institutions, but one of our challenges has been to further develop those great ideas throughout the year. After much talk about creating a platform to facilitate online communications and collaboration between AMICAL members, we are pleased to announce that such a platform is now available.
AMICALconnect is an online space, open to AMICAL members (Full, Affiliate, Consortial Partner Institutions and Individuals), that is designed to help individuals at AMICAL institutions connect, communicate and collaborate with each other, individually and as groups. We will be using it initially as a communiciations platform for discussions that develop before and during the AMICAL Conference, but any member can create a new group or discussion at any time on any kind of topic related to AMICALor its mission. Inorder to create an environment where members feel as free as possible in their discussions, AMICALconnect is visible only to AMICAL members.
Get started!
To create your AMICALconnect account, sign up here (to be approved, you must be an AMICAL member and use your institutional email address). Sign-up is easy - only 2 questions on the sign-up form are required, and you can complete your profile later if you wish. (Please do add a photo and your profile details as quickly as possible, though, since this enriches the social network function of the site.) Since approval is done manually, you may have to wait a few hours before receiving your confirmation email.
What can you do with AMICALconnect?
Among other things, once you’ve created your account, you can use AMICALconnect to:
- Suggest/Vote on ideas
- Ask/Contribute/Find answers
- Join or Create a group
- Start a forum discussion
- Search for other members by job title, institution, etc.
- See/add photos from AMICAL events
You can choose to follow nearly any type of site activity (groups, discussions, comment streams on any page), using your AMICALconnect email settings to control the type of activity you follow and how often you get notified. Guidelines for the use of the site, still under development, are being posted in answers.
What other kinds of information can you find on AMICALconnect?
To simplify access to AMICAL member services requiring login, we are also testing the relocation of members-only content from AMICALnet.org to AMICALconnect. E-resource pricing information, for example, is being copied to the Licensed Resources section on AMICALconnect.
Anything about this site may be changed over time, including the names and organization of groups and discussions. Your feedback on the site is warmly encouraged (as an idea, a reply to the feedback discussion, or by message to the administrators), and you may notice frequent changes to the site during this pilot period as features are tested, feedback incorporated, and improvements made.
Please join us on AMICALconnect, make active use of this resource, and help us build on the conversations that generate so much excitement at our face-to-face events!
The AMICALconnect Site Administrators
Jeff Gima (AMICAL / American University of Paris)
Dimitris Tzouris (American College of Thessaloniki)
Josiah Drewry (American University in Cairo)