goblin cartoons

I left Kansas City on a pleasant, sunny day and arrived to a haze of gloomy drizzle in Crystal City, VA. The weather matched my feelings about Computers in Libraries. I just wasn’t feeling excited about the conference–seeing my online librarian friends, yes, but not the actual conference.

I left DC on a warm, sunny, beautiful day and returned to a cold, rainy Kansas City. The weather again matched my heart: while I was happy to be going home to my family, I was sad to leave my conference friends and a great conference experience behind. Computers in Libraries 2008 was terrific from start to finish.

One big highlight: this was my first time presenting at a national conference. I honestly wasn’t nervous before the presentation, but afterwards I was completely drained. During the presentation? I was in a great place, like when you’re doing improv on stage and you feel yourself click with your fellow performers. In this case, my fellow presenters were Steve Lawson and Rikhei Harris, and I would happily, enthusiastically present with them again, any time, any where, on any topic. Our presentation was on the Library Society of the World and it was a glorious mess, complete with inside jokes, non sequiturs and Rickrolling. I had a great time in the presentation, and we seemed to make people laugh, so as far as I’m concerned, it was a success. I’m not objective enough to say more about it, so I’ll link to what other’s have said about it:

• LSW FTW from Kate at Loose Cannon Librarian
• CiL Day 1 from Rochelle at Tinfoil + Raccoon
• LSW goes public by Jenica at Attempting Elegance
• Computers in Libraries (CIL 2008) – My Brain is Full by Meredith at Information Wants to Be Free

I should also give props to the our co-presenters, Hannah, Laurie and Kate of Infodoodads. Not only were they game enough to not denounce us after our ramshackle presentation, they gave a good presentation of their own. And I personally find Infodoodads to be an extremely useful blog.

I attended some other really good sessions which have sparked all kinds of thoughts in my head. But I’m not going to expand on that now, because I think these thoughts warrant a blog post all of their own. Outside of the sessions, I had an outstanding time reconnecting with old friends (including a very old friend, someone I haven’t seen since we were both in elementary school), connecting with new friends, sharing, exploring, bonding with people. Any words I type will not do justice to how crucial the social aspects of these conferences are, but I’ll say this: just before I left to return home, I was on the verge of tears. I was so moved by the generosity of these people, so happy and honored to know them and spend time with them, and so heartbroken to leave them behind. If it weren’t for the fact that I can stay in contact with them through the magic of the intertubes, I’d be crushed.

Was there badness at the conference? Well, the wifi situation wasn’t great. But it was immensely better than the last two years at Internet Librarian, and after talking with some people from Information Today, I know that they really tried to make the wifi situation better. So, as frustrating as it often was to try to get and keep a wifi signal, I have no complaints for ITI.

For more on the conference, I recommend listening to the latest Uncontrolled Vocabulary podcast (and you should be listening to UV anyway, right?).

It’s Library Camp Kansas!

David Lee King took some video footage while at the unconference and put it together into a short video. Check it out! (I tried embedding it here, but it FUBARed my page.)

Early Saturday morning, I was interviewed by Connie Crosby and Stephen Kellat about Library Camp Kansas for the LISnews podcast, LISTen. The podcast was posted this morning, so give it a (*ahem*) listen. And like Connie, I hope others are inspired to organize unconferences in their areas (if they haven’t already),

I’m home from Library Camp Kansas, my first unconference (and the first library unconference in Kansas). And how was it, you might ask? (If you wouldn’t ask that, you’re reading the wrong blog.)

It was even better than I’d hoped. It was fantastic. The sessions I attended (including one in which I led the discussion–because I was the one to suggest the discussion topic) were dynamic, educational and engaging. I had trouble getting my computer to access the free wifi…and I didn’t care, because I was so engaged in everyone and everything around me. At other conferences I’ve attended, I’ve had many moments–including during actual presentations–when all I’ve wanted was to get online to check my email and feeds. Not today. The whole day felt like the best times at formal conferences, inbetween the official presentations, when you hang out with a bunch of other library professionals and talk about the things that make you excited, enthusiastic, angry, frustrated. At the end wrap-up session, the comments heard were overwhelmingly positive, but also with lots of good, constructive criticism to learn from, and there was a majority declaration that this needs to be done again, possible even making it a yearly occurance. Best of all, the unconference was organized and executed by adhocracy and it worked brilliantly.

Two years ago, I expressed a wish for more DIY professional gatherings. It finally happened for me, and I loved it. This has been a very, very good day.

In my other life in the world of tabletop role-playing games, I’ve been participating in online web forums for years. I’ve become a big fan of this form of asynchronous conversation, liking them much more than email lists or Usenet groups (even if they have approximately the same number of idiotic flamewars).

I love the Meebo chat room for the Library Society of the World, but I’ve been pretty busy at work and home lately, and I haven’t found the time to log in to chat as much as I used to. Now Tangler has appeared, a free web forum site, and I decided to try adding asynchronous conversation to the LSW mix (beyond the wiki, which is so-so for this kind of thing). I created a Library Society forum the other day and sent out some invitations, but it’s an open forum, so anyone can sign up and join in on the conversation. It’s definitely an experiment, and so far I haven’t seen an outpouring of posting on the forum. Past library forums I’ve seen haven’t really overflowed with conversation either, so maybe library folk just aren’t into forums that much (it seems to me their either heavily invested in email lists, which I pretty much detest, or stick with blogs, IMing and Twitter), but we’ll see how it goes. If it suits your fancy, go ahead and join in the forum. Add to the conversations and start your own topics.

In my previous post, I said,

I need face-to-face interaction and conversation. I need spontaneous gatherings. I need occurrences of random escapades and shenanigans. I can get some of that online (the LSW Meebo room is great for that), but nothing really replaces in-person socialization.

Some people may see that as saying I think social software is inferior to face-to-face interaction, so let me expand on my statement: in-person socialization is also no substitute for synchronous and asynchronous interaction through the internet.

There are people in my life that I respect and admire, both personally and professionally. Many of them are spread out across the globe, and it is simply not feasible to have them all in the same geographical space at the same time as often as I need. Being able to interact with them through IM, Twitter, Facebook, blogs, web forums, email and other internet-y ways is so very important to me. My life would be much poorer without these means of interacting with these people in my life. The internet brings these people closer to me when it would otherwise be improbable or impossible.

Plus, there are ways of communicating online that you can’t do as well (or at all) in person. This is why we have prose, printed poetry and essays as well as live storytelling, performance poetry and lectures; there are ways of using text that you can’t do with other forms of communication. Heck, for some people, interacting with others at a distance is preferable to meeting in-person, and social software gives them more ways to do this.

Social software is not a fad or a flash in the pan. That’s absurd. Social software didn’t come about because a few programmers thought it would be cool. It came about because humans are social creatures and they will use any technology they can to interact with each other. That’s why humans have written so many letters and postcards, why we’ve made so many phonecalls, why we’ve invented telegraphy and radios and televisions. Social software is no substitute for in-person interaction, but it adds to the potential and the richness of our interaction in ways that other technologies don’t.

That’s why it’s important for libraries to incorporate “Web 2.0″ and other new technologies into their services. Not because it’s “cool,” not because it makes us look “hip” and “modern,” but because people are already using these technologies to connect and communicate with each other. Implementing these technologies offers people more ways to use our services, not less. Isn’t that what we want to offer?

No one method of communication is good for everyone, which is why variety is so goshdarned great. More technology, more social software, more in-person interaction! Bring it all on, says I!

Time for me to fess up: Meredith Farkas told the truth when she said she isn’t the Annoyed Librarian. She’s not. I am.

I know, I know, everyone assumes the Annoyed Librarian is a woman. What better way to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes than to blog as if I were female? Better than slapping on a pair of glasses and claiming I’m not Superman.

And sure, I’ve slagged off the Annoyed Librarian in public, claiming “she” is nothing more than an attention hound, cultivating a loyal following while also maintaining an identity of “rebel” and “victim of the mainstream biblioblogosphere.” I’ve also said I don’t think “she” is funny. Again, how better to throw everyone off the scent than to disparage my alter ego in public?

People have been claiming lately they know the true identity of the pseudonymous (not anonymous!) blogger called “the Annoyed Librarian,” but they keep naming the wrong people. My misdirection has worked too well. But I refuse to let other people get the credit for my work, and so I’m outing myself.

I am the Annoyed Librarian!

I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday. I was not feeling up to writing about going to NEKLS Tech Day the day before. I’m feeling better now, thank’s for asking, and so, once more, here we go with…NEKLS Tech Day 2007.

The Good: I got to hang out with my witty, amusing coworkers. I got to see old friends. I got to hang out with Mr. Royce Kitts. I got to copresent with two of my teammates on developing our new websites and using paper prototyping and usability testing to get input and buy-in from staff and patrons.

The Not-As-Good: As always the NEKLS crew put on a great, educational, fun conference. But unlike the past two conferences, I didn’t leave feeling particularly inspired or enthusiastic. Maybe I’ve just been too preoccupied with our website redesign (with the rapidly approaching go-live date only two weeks away). Maybe the ground that was covered in the talks and presentations on technology and Library 2.0 ideas is ground that I’ve covered too many times already. Whatever the reasons, I had a good time at Tech Day this year, but I didn’t have a great time like I did the previous two years. So it goes.

I just took Meredith Farkas’ biblioblogger survery. Got yerself a little ol’ blog? Are you a library person? Then do what I did, and take the survey.

It was with a heavy heart that, due to a variety of circumstances, I had to miss last night’s Uncontrolled Vocabulary. But in general, I do my utmost to listen and participate in the conversation. And so should you. Why? Cindi Trainor has some reasons for you, so go read her blog. And if you haven’t gone for a ride on the good ship Uncontrolled Vocabulary yet, come aboard and give it a try. I triple dog dare you!