K-State Libraries: Conference Reports

Library Camp Kansas 2008

Prologue

SInce Library Camp Kansas 2008 was an UnConference, it is fitting that this post will deviate a bit from the traditional Conference Report post. It  will be more of an UnReport, perhaps.  The main reason for the deviation is that I found myself more in the role of host-liaison/monitor/photographer than participant. Enough with the prologue and onto...

Some Facts

Library Camp Kansas 2008 took place at K-State Libraries' Hale Library on Wednesday, March 19th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. About 80 people participated in the Library Camp, with about half coming from Academic Libraries, a quarter from public libraries, and the other quarter from regional systems, special libraries or library schools. One of the initial activities of the camp was a name tag cloud activity in which each participant was given a list of terms and asked to highlight the ones that applied to him or her. The participant then appended the list to his or her nametag. Toward the end of the day, we gathered up the tags and tallied the number of times each term was highlighted. Erin Downey Howerton then plugged the data into  Tag Crowd. The resulting tag cloud gives a sense of who came.

Opening Session

During the opening session, Brenda Hough (from NEKLS) explained the concept of an UnConference and stressed that the success of the day would depend on everyone's willingness to share information and act both as learner and teacher. I then explained how to access the wireless network through the guest account that Anthony Cobb (iTAC) and Richard Becker (CTS) graciously set up for the participants. I also thanked the sponsors for their generous donations of space and facilities (K-State Libraries) and money (NEKLS, KPLACE Roundtable, and K-LIRT). Erin Downey Howerton (from Johnson County Public Library), then led the group in assembling the schedule for the three break-out sessions. This involved soliciting suggestions for topics from the attendees and then soliciting a volunteer to lead the discussion about that topic. Erin then asked for a show of hands to see who wanted to participate in that discussion. With information about the number of people in the discussion, she assigned the discussion to one of the 7 rooms we used for the morning and afternoon breakout sessions (Hemi, 408, 407, 401, 301, 123, 114). The 2nd breakout session was held over lunch. Rather than assign the discussions to rooms, the leader of each chose a destination in Aggieville or the K-State Union.

Breakout sessions

As I was running to-and-fro and hither-and-yon taking pictures and making sure that all the technology was working (which it did!!), I didn't really participate in any of the sessions. I caught part of a session about staff training and the end of a session about Web 2.0 technologies. In both sessions, I was delighted to see that a large number of the participants were sharing ideas and asking questions.  From conversations I had with several people after the Camp, I gather that what I observed was true of most sessions.

A list of the 19 breakout sessions and the person who facilitated each is available on the Camp's wiki.  I was fascinated by the diversity of the topics and found myself wishing I could attend all of them, most especially the sessions led by our own K-State Librarians, Danielle Theiss-White (who led a session on Staff Training and another on the Future of Reference), Dale Askey (who led a session on Library 2.0 technologies), Lisa Loberg (who led a session on Staff Training), and Rhondalyn Peairs (who led a session on Outreach and Programming). Others that struck my interest were sessions on Green Libraries, Gaming, and Creative Commons. Notes from several of the sessions are available on the wiki.

Closing Session

After the three breakout sessions everyone gathered again in the Hemisphere Room for a wrap-up discussion.  Brenda solicited group feedback about the event. In general, everyone said they enjoyed the opportunity to meet their colleagues and discuss ideas and solutions to problems. A few people said they wished there had been more sessions and that there had been a bit more of a focus on solving specific problems, rather than a general wide-ranging discussion. Still, the feedback was sufficiently positive that the group resolved to have a Library Camp 2009 somewhere in Western Kansas.  Erin Downey Howerton's live notes from the session are available on the wiki.

Coverage of the Library Camp

During the opening session, the group decided to use the tag libcampks08 on any photos, blogs, or other information related to the event. This agreement means that it is relatively easy to find post-event coverage of the event at places like Flickr (photos), Technorati (blog search), and Google. The group also agreed to record notes on the Library Camp Kansas 2008 wiki. I notice that several people have done so.

The most recent LISNews podcast (episode #14) features an interview with Joshua Neff, who was one of the Library Camp KS organizers.

Thank Yous!

I want to end what I am certain is the longest Conference Report blog post yet (sorry!!) by extending a huge THANK YOU to K-State Libraries administration for offering the use of Hale Library's rooms and to CTS and iTAC for facilitating access to the wireless network and lending us laptops and projectors.  Of all the positive comments I've heard about the event, the most glowing have been about our facilities and our technologies. Your contributions are greatly appreciated!!

 

ER&L 08: User-Centered Technical Support of E-Resources

Sarah Wessel
Illinois Wesleyan University

"User-Centered Technical Support of E-Resources"

ER&L 08: A Matter of Semantics?

Mason Hall
Electronic Resources Librarian
Jonathan Blackburn
Web Development Librarian
Florida State University

"A matter of semantics? Intelligence, open data, and the future of ERM"

Library Camp Kansas

It would be difficult to write out notes for what transpired today at the first ever library unconference in Kansas (I think it was the first, anyway). There were no papers, panels, or keynotes; rather, there were sessions chosen by the participants that took the form of discussions. The topics ranged broadly. I seemed to end up in two of the "Web 2.0" sessions, one of which I led. My goal in that session was to have a discussion revolving around one of the suggestions made in advance on the conference wiki, namely "How do you measure the success of your libraries social networking endeavors?"

It was a good group, and I appreciate both their participation and ideas, as well as their willingness to let me at least try to steer us back to the main question. Personally, I had what I described as a mini-epiphany, which was that we in libraries actually don't do much in terms of real assessment, despite much ado in this arena. Were we to really assess how we do things, we'd be forced to start making hard decisions about some of our tried and true practices that have likely outlived their usefulness given the radical transformation in the way information is created and disseminated. Some of those practices are incredibly expensive, and should therefore perhaps be subject to far closer scrutiny than low-cost social networking experiments which, after all, are only a few years old, so it should be no surprise that there are some unanswered questions that will take some time to deal with.

ER&L 2008: E-Resource Usage Statistics & Library Assessment

Virginia Kinman
Electronic Resources Librarian
Longwood University

"Putting the Trees back in the Forest: E-Resource Usage Statistics and Library Assessment"

ER&L 2008: Transforming into Effective E-Resource Management

Tyler Walters
Jeff Carrico
Georgia Tech

"Transforming into Effective E-Resource Management"

ER&L 2008: E-Resources Management

Luiz H. Mendes
Electronic Resources Librarian
CSU Northridge

"E-Resources Management: so many silos to synchronize...still!"

ER&L 2008: Transforming Tech. Services

Janice Adlington
Electronic Resources Librarian
McMaster University

"On the Leading Edge: transforming technical services"

ER&L 2008: Institutional Repositories

Dave Stout, Director
Bepress Services

"Institutional Repositories:
Using the IR to create scholarly assets"

ER&L 2008: Opening Keynote

Karen Coyle - Digital library consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net

"There's no catalog...
...like no catalog"

Understanding Fair Use

Wes Blakeslee, Johns Hopkins University,
speaking at the KU Copyright Symposium, March 7, 2008

[This was an excellent talk. It was that rare opportunity to listen to someone who has both strong opinions and expert knowledge of fair use and other copyright issues. Moreover, he's on the 'right' side of fair use; most of the strong opinions come from content firms.]

There is no case law evidence that copies of scholarly articles for classroom use have ever impacted journal subscriptions, actually the opposite is generally true.

The worst disaster ever for fair use was the Classroom Guidelines. Why?