This trip turned out to be a lot of work actually as we talked about all kinds of library stuff. As Toby said “We can’t help but librarianing.” So, while this video that Loida made doesn’t capture all the ideas we came up with for the next Internet Librarian it does capture a really great aspect of the trip. BTW, if it did capture everything awesome on that trip, it would be hours long. 🙂
Friday
I have been inviting some of the librarians I’ve met at conferences and around my area to my boat for a day of sailing in the California Bay for a couple of months and Andrea, Lisa, and Nate took me up on it. Unfortunately, this was the one time my engine didn’t work. That was fine, there was no wind and it was raining anyway. So we sat on my boat having drinks made by my roommate bartender and her cousin (also serves as my crew) and I listened while the smart folks on my boat talked about all kinds of library related things until it was time for dinner in the yacht club where they continued to come up with all kinds of library awesome.
It would be difficult to explain some of the great ideas that came up on the boat and I won’t really try but it was a great creative thinking experience free from the constraints of library system’s rules and regulations. It was amazing to listen to these intensely smart folks talk about libraries on my boat. My big realization was that we need to do more to create these kinds of freeform opportunities for librarians to gather and socialize and just brainstorm possible innovations.
At the end of the night, most of us passed out on the boat listening to the rain on the deck and the wind in the rigging. I hope everyone had as great of a time as I did. Next year, “librarians on a boat” will be bigger and better. You’ll be invited, so don’t miss out!
Saturday
Unfortunately, on Saturday I had to work but that was fine because I love my library! So I drove my motorcycle through the rain to Monterey right after work in the dark and after finally finding my hotel and warming up, I found myself in the lobby bar of the Portola Plaza with even more library awesome! How is that possible? I have no idea. But once again a whole lot of smart library folks were blowing my mind with creative ideas. Some of these ubersmarties were Stephan Abram, Roy Tennent, Marshall Breeding, Lisa Carlucci Thomas, and Nina McPhail, who just sat around with some good drinks and once again said the kinds of things that need to be said about libraries. So, once again I just sat and listened and had my brains blown out with awesome bombs until I had to finally sleep.
Sunday
This was a tourist day for me and I went on an amazing drive with Lisa and Nina down highway one in the rain and checked out the pacific coast. If you’re reading this and you’re at the conference, I really suggest you take a couple of hours and make the drive south to Big Sur and see some of the gorgeous coastline in our great state.
Afterwards, my roommate (And bartender from my boat), who had heard about my conference good times, came down to see how the librarians party. We went out to eat with so many great folks and stayed out way too late (of course). Once again, being that we are librarians, there were many great discussions about libraries and librarianship in general and I heard some heated and intense debates between fantastic library folks on issues that I never even thought existed! I now have so many new things to think and lots of new motivations to get out and do something about some of the things I’m concerned about.
I simply could not have learned more (or had more fun) by attending the preconference. Instead, having my own little “preconference” where I sat and listened to the brilliant people in libraries say amazing things I was able to hear some ideas from people that could not have occurred in a structured or more restrictive environment. And… Of course it was awesome!
I think we’re starting to wind down this conference. Either there weren’t as many great presentations or all the twitterers have gone home already. I felt like there weren’t as many great tweets or thought provoking ideas put out as there were the other two days. Once again, these are my favorites from Internet Librarian 2009.
@grrb Use peer pressure and donuts to inspire staff to use new technologies.
I would also try to use beer as that seems to help get those creative juices flowing. I always seem to learn the most at a conference while out drinking with colleagues.
@desertlibrarian as with any other shiny new toys & tools, make sure you have a need and purpose for a sandbox before devoting time and resources
Yes, please don’t let the sandbox be like Second Life. Don’t invest in a waste of time and resources.
@theanalogdivide Sony at dawn of transistor – used word that detailed its real use. “Pocketable radio” sold 1.5M units in Japan alone
Hmmm… That’s a great thought. Should we rename libraries? Ah, I fear we’re too late for that. Maybe we should have thought of a better name for it a couple hundred years ago.
@degreesofshine Play with the technology! Its practice, its play and its fun! Its okay to be silly!
Always, always, play. That’s just a great life rule!
@Carravagio Reward both success and failure, but punish inaction. Innovation comes from quantity
Inaction has been the death of libraries for far too long. This needs to be fixed now!
@Cindy_Shamel Library 101 merits a look. Awesome video launched at http://www.libraryman.com/library101
If you’re not familiar with Library 101, I can’t say enough great things, so I’m not going to try. Take some time, learn and contribute.
@Zuma_Rain can get the ‘good stuff’ from the other sessions by reading others’ tweets (I LUB DIS)
Can I say that Twitter has changed everything I have thought about conferences?
@htomren when dealing with change, your level of positivity or negativity affects everything. Buddhist quote: “lean into your discomfort”
For all you manager… When presenting a change, just be positive. Actually, as a manager always be positive! No need for negativity, EVER.
One of the most entertaining (and strangely informative) parts of Internet Librarian in Monterey 2009 was Rockin’ Battledecks on Tuesday night. This video is just bits and pieces of everyone’s battle. I missed filming the winner, but it was Amy Bucland who did an amazing job. To be fair, everyone’s presentation was spectacular and fun!
Throughout the conference I was most impressed with the level of presentation abilities in just about every one of the sessions and I’m inspired to find something to present and see what I can do. Battledecks only highlighted the level of shear talent that was present at this conference. hope this becomes a part of more library conferences.
Sorry for the video quality, I have been putting off buying a Flip camera… I guess its time to spend the extra money. Luckily Aspen Walker (@AspenWalker) who invested in a Flip filmed the whole thing on her camera and you can check it out here
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Drat! My Vlogging ability was no match for hers. Unfortunately, I was defeated by her mad interviewing skills. Although, to be fair, my video was up first 🙂
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*note* This is an updated post. I got to some more reliable internet access and added the links and formatting I wanted. Its a little better now. Thanks to everyone who RTed the original!! *note*
I was going to try to write a Blog summarizing my thoughts on the first day of Internet Librarian but realized this was already done for me on twitter. So instead of re-writing everything that people are already saying… I’m posting SOME of my favorite tweets from #il2009 on Monday, October 26. On some of them I have added my own commentary and I removed the #il2009 hashtag, but I left the twitter name of the person who tweeted it. Don’t be shy about following these folks. They’re good people and have my patented seal of approval!
@mamccallister Word. RT @rphulser: “If u don’t like change, ur going to like irrelevance even less.” Gen. Eric Shinseki as cited by @rtennant
I couldn’t agree more with this statement and I’ve been politely yelling about this since library school.
@LibTechSucks All this silly dithering about twitter. The only way to converse is in leather chairs with some Oban 14yr.
Ok this character’s tweets are getting funnier but only because I kind of agree with this one. I’m a big fan of a big leather chair, a good stiff drink (on the rocks) and some good folks to talk to.
@infogdss29 Put chat windows in the locations (online) where people get frustrated
Also, can I add? Put all kinds of windows in the locations online where the patrons are, or (use my catalog search widget video) and let the patrons put the library where they are.
@walkingpaper great quote- @davidleeking: “i’m a librarian. people stop to ask me questions in the grocery store. Why not let that happen online?”
Why not let it happen everywhere? It makes me think we’re kind of like doctors in this sense. “oh! You’re a doctor? Hey, listen… I got this rash…”
@kristenyt Wii has changed the way people interact w/ computers. What’s the future in physical computing?
This is a great question… I’m going to think about this one for a while.
@ahniwa Use events networks like Eventful, Upcoming.org, Going.com, and Craigslist to create awareness of library events.
@kristenyt Users know library has the best content, but want a more convenient access point – single search box.
This is very true… Why do libraries have the worst search boxes? I think we need to be doing a little more market research.
@varnum John Law: Users know that libraries have the best research content & resources The library is NOT the easiest place to start.
@john_fereira A picture is worth a 1000 words. Take as much time as you would to read 1000 words to look at a visualization.
@varnum K. Godfrey: Nielsen Report says YouTube’s largest user group is 18-24 yr-olds. This is our demographic. Why aren’t we there?
@infogdss29 dear librarians, pls stop being snobs about freeware kthxbai – link 2 open access open source zero cost resources… FREE ?= inferior
This is absolutely spectacular! Can we please STOP PAYING for databases already? I think we’re beyond that point.
@gretchenhams RT @pollyalida: “Rejoice in failures – it means you’re pushing the boundaries” sarah houghton jan – live that.
Sooo true. The only time I really learn something is when I fail at it the first time.
@Rudibrarian when working with nextgen, you have to know where your students are, work with them in the formats they use.
….And go to where their formats are.
@buffyjhamilton Website design principles: simple/clean; tighter integration of website and catalogue; expose/repackage library services
@AspenWalker Cloud collaboration: thebigpic.org is user-friendly and fun project management option. it also syncs with google calendar.
I’m going to have to go figure out this new “Cloud” buzzword. Apparently it’s derived from the concept of cloud computing in which multiple systems work on a common project? Sounds like the new management “thing”
@AmbivaTwit cloud computing: not replacement for actual assembling of humans in lib but will impact how we think about lib spaces.
And of course… My favorite Tweet
@Tombrarian : @librarianbyday has a box of monkeys
Internet Librarian is a conference I have been wanting to go to for a couple of years now but I’ve always been committed to other conferences throughout the year that took up large amounts of my conference going budget. This year though, I have a new job as a branch manager that pays well enough and offers some financial assistance to attend various conferences thus allowing me to attend the ones I typically go to AND Internet Librarian! Needless to say, I’m pretty much a librarian geek and conferences really get me all excited. So what am I doing to prepare?
Well, one of the first things I’m doing is twitter stalking other folks that are going to the conference. Hopefully, they’ll stalk me back and we can get a kind of secondary cyber conference going. So every couple of hours or so I’ve been checking in to twitter to follow other folks who are going. I’m hoping that I can find out about some of the other sessions even though I didn’t attend those and maybe go to some tweetups around Monterey and geek out with other librarians. So if you’re a twittering librarian feel free to let me know you’re attending so I know to follow you!
FYI- The hashtag for Internet Librarian is #il2009 and I only recently figured out that it WASN’T #ili2009. That hashtag was for the international version of this conference in London.
Lastly, of course, I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to attend. Unfortunately, it looks like I am going to have to miss Saturday’s Library Camp and Sunday’s Gaming and Gadget Petting Zoo (Boo!) but so far I am going to be following these tracks.
Monday:
Track B: “Social Media, Leveraging Web 2.0”
B101: iGoogling With the Library: Customized Omnipresent Homepages
B102: Creating Connections & Social Reference in Libraries
B103: Micro Interactions, Conversations, & Customers: Sweet Tweet Strategies
Julie Strange
B104: 2.0 Too: Web Services for Underfunded Libraries
B105: Evaluating, Recommending, & Justifying 2.0 Tools
Marydee Ojala
B106: Sneaking the Social Web Into Your Library & Going Beyond 23 Things
Tuesday:
Breakfast at the Marriot for “Meeting the End-User’s Expectations”
Track C: Mobile Trends & Practices
C201/C202: Dreaming, Designing, & Using Mobile Library Platforms
Matt Benzing
R. Toby Greenwalt
C203: Putting Your Library on a Mobile Phone
C204: Mobile Marketing
C205: When Students Go Mobile
Kristine Ferry
Wednesday
Track C: Cultivating Innovation & Change
C301: Every Library Should Have a Sandbox to Play In
C302: Persuasion, Influence & Innovative Ideas
Nicole Hennig
C303: Pecha Kucha: Innovative Practices
Nicole Hennig
Steven Harris
Steven Harris
Amy Affelt
C304: Retooling Technical Services for the Digital Environment
Doris Small Helfer
Brad Eden
Overall I think I think I’m going to have a great time! There are so many other tracks that would be fantastic to see but I think I just need to stick to what I have and go with it. If you’re a dork (like me) and are interested I will be blogging for PLA on their site, twittering, and I will be posting videos here from my youtube channel. If anyone has any other suggestions for good times at Internet Librarian, I’m always game to change my plans, meet some good folks, and have a good time! And, of course… Don’t forget to check out Compagno’s for the biggest and best sandwiches of ALL TIME!!
PC Sweeney 