Conference Reports

NEKLS Tech Day: Lightning Rounds

Lightning Rounds have been common at tech-type conferences for several years now though I'd never actually been to one at a conference until NEKLS Tech Day. We do mini-lightning rounds at our library all staff meetings every now and then and they are a great way to get a brief overview of new technologies (or older ones) that are being used. I've always found them very intriguing!

Here are some highlights the NEKLS event:

NEKLS Tech Day: Open Source Community

Open Source Community: Your Ace in the Hole

Diana Weaver, Liz Rea and Mickey Coalwell shared their experiences using Koha and Wordpress. 

Koha is an open source ILS that has been implemented in many of the state's libraries, including the Northeast Kansas Library System. They have a shared ILS called NExpress

One of the perceived challenges in implementing open source is that there is no 800 number to call for troubleshooting, support, or enhancements. This appears to cause staff the most discomfort.

Solution: google it to solve problems; solve problems yourself; it's actually fun to search for answers to the problems!

NEKLS Tech Day 2009 - keynote

I didn't attempt to live blog yesterday because my typing on my ASUS Eee can be a bit iffy given the tiny keyboard. I've cleaned this up a bit but essentially what you are getting are the highlights of the session rather than a lovely, clean summary:

Amy Begg de Groff - keynote speaker from Howard County Library (HCL) in Maryland - her experiences as director of information technology:  how many $$ might be saved using Open Source software.

HCL overview: 6 branches, 6million items circulated annually; 316 public computer (using Ubuntu platform); 400 staff comp (65% running on Ubuntu, which is a Linux software)