After quickly learning that there would be no wireless access at the California Library Conference, I dug in to accept that I would be working almost entirely from my iPhone. I suppose that this is fine considering our current financial situation, but I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept of professionals whose job is to provide information access, and then not be able to access information when we gather in large groups. Oh, well I suppose it is, what it is. And there’s always next year.

So, I spent the first day in the “Planning Library Space” full day institute by the Cohen and Associates. Besides being highly informative about some of the aspects of gaining support for the construction of a new library, there were quite a few great ideas about designing a library as a space. Some of the best ideas from this seminar were:

• The library is a stage, how do you want patrons to feel about the performance?

• Create collaborative workspaces to encourage an exchange of information in libraries

• Walls in libraries to separate different service areas creates barriers to service

• Develop “Living Edges” in library designs

I’m excited to get back to my library and take a look at our space and see what else needs to be done. Unfortunately that list is getting longer and longer but gets me all excited.

After the seminar I went to attend a tweetup in the unconference. A tweetup is a gathering of people who are using twitter and an unconference is… Well… I’m not sure. But I did get a free drink out of it and met the 4 or 5 people at the conference who are twittering about what’s happening at CLA this year. I’m hoping that Saturday or Sunday more people start twittering so I can see what I’m missing at other sessions.

Overall, regardless of the lack of Wireless Internet, this conference has started out fairly well.