Each year, the WebWise Conference brings together some 300 museum and library professionals from across the country to address the development of technological and digital resources and their impact on museums, libraries, and other cultural organizations.

The theme of the 2009 WebWise was Digital Debates, and engaged panelists and attendees in the complicated and sometimes problematic "Big Issues" faced by museums, libraries, archives, and other cultural institutions in terms of emerging technologies. Questions explored include: what happens to an institution's control when audiences become collaborators? What are the rights and responsibilities of cultural institutions when it comes to digital technologies and an online presence? How can cultural institutions collaborate with users, peer institutions, and/or corporate entities without compromising their own identity/integrity? When should museums and libraries invest in technologies, and when are such investments extraneous to an institution's core mission?

In addition to the main conference sessions held on February 26 and 27, a pre-conference workshop was held the afternoon of February 25. The WebWise Welcome Reception, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, held later in the evening of February 25, featured presentations by Foundation-supported projects in the field of Digital Media and Learning. For more information about the schedule of events at the 2009 WebWise Conference, please visit the WebWise Agenda page.

The 2009 WebWise Conference was co-hosted by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (www.imls.gov), and The Wolfsonian-Florida International University (www.wolfsonian.org), with assistance from the Florida Center for Library Automation (www.fcla.edu ).