I had another day hanging out with librarians. I got introduced around by a coworker who has been in the profession for over 20 years. After a while I began to wonder if there was anyone there she didn’t know.
Today’s sessions were varied and interesting. I began the morning learning about a university library that created a game to help introduce freshmen to the library’s services and collections. It is an online murder mystery and includes social networking elements as well. They are putting together a new game “library survivor” and yes, players can get voted out of the library. It was fun and creative but not quite what law students would be interested in. Though there might be some aspects we could adopt.
I went to another session about using free web tools in the classroom. Granted, I am not teaching in a classroom (though the librarians do spend 6 weeks in the classroom as part of a lawyering skills class for first year law students that teaches research and writing skills), but some of these tools can be used in the library. Unfortunately as I was sitting there getting excited about making an animated video and cartoons I wasn’t thinking library I was thinking, “I can use that on my blog!” Am I bad?
The session I was most looking forward to was a hands-on workshop on creating tutorials for online learning. I was thinking about how I could make a tutorial on how to create an ILLiad account to request interlibrary loans and things like that. I eagerly arrived at the computer lab only to be told that the session was cancelled because the presenter had an emergency. All but two of the other sessions were closed and all I had to go by was the title of the presentation. So, do I go to Visual Thinking with Spatial Data or an ERM panel? ERM sounded catalog related to me and and since I have not had a cataloging class yet I thought it would be useless. So I went to Spatial Data thinking it might be about GIS (geographic information systems used in storage and retrieval, not an issue in my library but possibly informational). Tuns out it was about using Google Earth and maps and other archival materials to create layered pieces of information. For instance, overlaying old hand drawn land surveys on top of a current map of the same location then also linking in other historical pieces of information like photos and stuff. Really cool but totally irrelevant to what I am doing in my library. However, it might be super fun someday to map an old travel narrative or something and then link to other pieces of data about the locations.
Another session I went to was a presentation and discussion on Google asking whether it was an information monopoly. Some great food for thought and a marvelous discussion afterwards that got some people rather heated.
My final session was in a computer lab where I learned about Placeorgraphy, a wiki that anyone can register on and create pages of historical data about buildings, houses, and neighborhoods. You can add photos and links and stories and memories about the building. It’s pretty neat and could certainly be something fun to do for any library.
No keynote speakers today though I did hear some positive things about yesterday afternoon’s speaker–the one that scared a lot of people when he said we should learn a programming language. Will it surprise you that the positive comments came from younger and/or newer to the profession librarians?
Two things I learned from the conference that had nothing to do with the sessions. One, there are a good many libraries that are doing some fun and exciting things. Two, there are a good many libraries that aren’t doing exciting things but would like to but can’t because the people in charge still operate from a traditional library frame of mind. I heard two librarians talking about their director and how she needs to retire because she doesn’t get that things have changed and they felt it was damaging the library’s ability to serve its patrons. Oh my.
Back to my regular job tomorrow. I wish it was the weekend because I’m tired. I had no idea that a two-day conference could be so tiring.
Library survivor! Sounds ultra geeky and tons of fun! You don’t think law students would be interested in murder…??
I think you may be a blogaholic. Why don’t you learn PHP? Then you can help me convert my blog to WordPress.org.
Fun, fun, fun!
Sounds like so much fun. Oh, and based on the two things you learned, it sounds like libraries and schools are still walking hand-in-hand (despite the notorious cold wars that have always existed between school and public libraries).
– Your “Librarian (or is it Educator?) at Heart”
Wow, that’s a lot of information to take in! Conferences are fun, but exhausting — you need time to process all that new stuff! The games to introduce freshman to the library sound great — I’ll bet my library would be interested in something like that.
Knowing quite a lot of law students, I feel fairly confident that they would not only take to library survivor, but add a further dimension in which they debate the issues of tort and criminal law that arise from people’s virtual actions….;)
Conferences are utterly exhausting, but I’m so glad to hear you got so much out of that one!
It’s always good to be able to use skills in a variety of settings! Adaptability is the way of the future! It sounds like you are learning lots of really practical stuff and I am sure you’ll be well prepared for the library world when you finish. Are you planning on working in an academic library or a public one? Do you take classes tapered to one over the other?
Sylvia, you’re right. I think the students would be interested in library games but the staff tend to take things seriously so maybe it is better to say that the games aren’t right for the staff rather than the students. PHp, huh. I was thinking of Perl, but ok.
Bikkuri, yes. You summarized it nicely
Emily, there’s a cold war between school and public libraries? I guess I haven’t been around long enough to pick up on that one. I was surprised that the one presenter was a teacher but it was nice to have a different perspective on things especially since librarians are also educator at heart
Dorothy, it was a lot of information, but fun. I think it is a great idea to use gaming as a way to learn something especially when it comes to the library, a place that can seem so imposing in many respects.
Litlove, LOL, you are probably right. We could be stuck in the game for days and weeks as while each side presents their case
Danielle, I am going for adaptable. The way things are changing there is no telling what librarian jobs will be like when I am done with school. I want to work in an academic library. My classes are not specific toward a particular kind of library but it seems like the things I am learning about most often crop up in university settings.