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// libraries, technology, UX, &c.

ETIG Camp update

We’re about 10 days away from the ETIG Library Camp (Friday, May 29 @ McGill) and things are gearing up nicely: the schedule for the day is up, we’ve got three fun speakers lined up for the morning (Jessamyn West, John Fink, Jason Hammond), we already have some great suggestions for an interesting & informative afternoon, and there are all sorts of awesome folks signed up who I can’t wait to meet/see again!

If you’re in the area and haven’t signed up yet, we still have space for about 15-20 more, so head over to the wiki and register. We’ve even got a neat treat for every attendee, but you’ll have to register & show up to find out what it is (as if you needed further enticements)!

CLA Library Camp

Update! We’ve made a couple of changes to ETIG Camp!

The Emerging Tech Interest Group of CLA (which I co-convene with the lovely and talented Amy Buckland) is hosting a library-camp-style pre-conference at CLA in May. The details:

Jessamyn West (yes THE Jessamyn West of librarian.net) will kick-off our day with a keynote on emerging technologies, followed by two sessions on using these technologies in your library. The afternoon will be an “unconference”, where participants will share and learn on a variety of topics pre-determined by the group. (Note: this is not a “sage on the stage” afternoon – come armed with a curious nature and a will to participate.)

Speaker: Jessamyn West, librarian.net
Date & Location: Friday, 29 May 2009 @ Palais des congrès McGill University Library Cyberthèque
Registration Fee: $100.00 $40 (we’ll accept cash the morning of the event & provide a receipt if you need one)
Registration Includes: Two refreshments breaks and lunch Afternoon break

You don’t want to miss this! Register here If you’re planning to join us, please add your name to the attendee list and add your session ideas to the camp wiki. See you in Montréal!

wherein the author gets misty-eyed about her profession

I am sitting in a fairly deserted post-CiL Crystal City, scribbling notes and jotting ideas gathered from some wonderful conference conversations into my notebook. As I ponder the completion of another successful Computers in Libraries, I have to admit to being overwhelmingly inspired by my librarian friends and colleagues from around the world. I don’t often get sentimental but, let me just say, the past week has affirmed my belief in this profession and renewed my faith in what we do, who we are, and where we are going.

And then I read this and it made me want to wrap my arms around the library world even tighter. Thank you John, Cindi & Kathryn.

I have this taped to my office wall

I remember saying to a couple of colleagues after IL2008 that one of my takeaways from that conference was that I need to stop tinkering with things (projects, design stuff, proposals, reports, etc.) and just get it done and out the door. This brilliant manifesto serves as the perfect reminder that “done is the engine of more.” Love it.

more drupal, if you can stand it

This might be the last post I write on drupal for a while, not because I’m over it, but because there are a few other projects that have usurped my time, so it’s far more likely that you’ll hear me talk about mobile tech, usability, UI design, and new media over the next little while. That is, if you hear me talk at all (my blogging record being what it is).

Back in January, I had the pleasure of presenting at the OLA Super Conference with Catherine Baird, our Marketing, Communications and Outreach Librarian at McMaster, and Greg Senemma, Electronic Services Librarian at Wilfrid Laurier. Our goal for the session was to cover 3 different uses/installations of drupal (our library website and intranet at McMaster and the Laurier Library website). The three projects all differered in subtle ways, from our experience with different versions of the software, to the parametres we were working with for each of the projects, which lent itself to some fruitful comparisons and discussion. Our slides for the presentation are here. If you’ve been following along with the recent series of drupal-related posts on this blog, you might want to have a closer look at the last couple of slides, which effectively cover everything I said I’d cover in the final post of the series which never ended up getting written (lessons learned & must-have modules). Forgive me?

The other cool drupal-related thing that has gone down in the last couple of weeks was, of course, drupal4lib camp! Part of my excitement for the day was, admittedly, about being in Darien’s fabulous new building, which is decked out with all sorts of technology goodness, like the digital signage you see in the image on the left, but also the fun-to-watch self-check-in machine. It is obvious that they put a whole lot of thought into getting things right at Darien — from the technology to the staffing model and services — and walking through the building, witnessing the patrons interact with the staff, collections and space really illustrated just how right they got it.

The camp itself went quite well. I had some excellent conversations with other library drupalers during the course of the day that confirmed that people were learning good things and making important connections. I think the general feeling at the end of the day was that the camp should become an annual event, and I take that as a sign of success!