presentation slides, &c.

Whew, what a week. I’ve been in a tailspin since I got back from Access, which is why I’m just getting around to posting my slides. They’re here (864 KB, pdf), all annotated like I promised. (UPDATE: looks like I uploaded the wrong file, sorry. Here’s the file, with notes this time. You might need to clear your cache to see the new file.)

Apart from feeling completely out of my depth talking about the topic, it went OK. There were a fair number of questions after the session, and some great comments too. Including one from Dale Askey, from Kansas State, who blogged my session and said enough to tweak the interest of the Endeca folks, who saw Dale’s post, emailed me, and asked to chat more about my ideas and why our users are not all over the facets in our catalogue. Cool, huh? Dale blogged about it here and Jessamyn (who was there and did a brilliant keynote) picked it up here.

The rest of the conference was great. I took a fair amount of notes and the to-do list I scribbled down for myself was ridiculously long by the end of the conference (always a good indication of how much I learned). Also, I finally realized that I am no longer the conference-blogger I once was (I think I’ve known this for a while now). My wrap-up, “what-I-learned” post has taken a back-burner to preparations for IL, but I should have that up in the next day or two. Hopefully.

Er, you’re right, it’s Dale. Fixed my post. Thanks! And it was great seeing you too. Hopefully next time we’ll have time for a beer

I have agree that Access was, as it has been in the past, a worthwhile endeavor. Sea kayaking on Saturday afternoon was just icing on the cake.

It makes me so happy that my ranting made some sense, and that it didn’t hack you off. Perhaps I’m just too enamored of Socratic inquiry, but I don’t think anything comes of sugarcoating one’s criticism or points. There are rules of engagement–don’t level personal attacks, don’t be gratuitously facetious, etc.–but these don’t have to put a gag on candor, opinions, and disagreement. I cringe when I go to library conferences and some publisher or vendor gives a talk that leaves wide openings for criticism, and the questions that come are of the “thanks for your talk, it gives me something to think about” puffball type. And we (academic librarians, at least) often fancy ourselves faculty?! The shame.

If you’re finding that 20% of searchers actually use the Endeca facets, congratulations–that’s an extremely high use rate for any added feature, especially one that involves at least one more click to use.

Some year I’ll get back to Access–and DanDale’s comment reminds me of why I found it worthwhile.