Computers In Libraries

Go to http://cil2008.pbwiki.com/ or the official site http://www.infotoday.com/cil2008/ to see what was covered. The emphasis of this annual conference (the 23rd) was: INNOVATIVE CHANGE: Integrating High Tech With High Touch.

At the start of each day a keynote speaker addressed the crowd. On Day 1 we heard from Lee Raino, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project http://www.pewinternet.org/

Mr. Raino discussed how the project paid “particular attention to those who have limited access to the internet and the ways in which libraries might serve them”. In the past year for example, 80% of the American population (169 million people), experienced at least one problem that entailed internet research. 53% of American adults visited a library in the past year. 62% of young adults 18 to 30 made the most visits. 60% of online teens in 2008 use the internet at libraries; up 36% since 2000. Wireless internet connectivity has grown from 0% in 2000 to 62% in 2008. There is no difference in use of libraries among ethnic groups. He concluded by saying that we need to market our services. We need to get feedback and give training. He said “your un-patrons are primed to seek you out”. This is an era of social networking – “aspire to be a node in peoples’ social networks”.

On Day 1, I attended the following presentations, mostly in the ‘Information Discovery and Search’ track.

Super Searcher Shares 30 Search Tips
Mobile Search
What’s New With Federated Search
Text Mining Open Sources
Library Staff Training: High Tech & High Touch

The keynote address on Day 2 was presented by members of the Shanachietour, a group of dynamic Dutch librarians who traveled the USA in 2007 seeking best practices in libraries.
http://www.infotoday.com/mls/mar08/Boekesteijn.shtml# http://www.shanachietour.com/

The rest of the day I attended the following sessions:

Next Generation Library Interfaces
Transparency, Planning, & Change: See-Through Libraries
Libraries as Laboratories for Innovation
Facebook Apps & Libraries Friendly Future
Video, YouTube , & Libraries

On Day 3 the Keynote Speaker was Elizabeth Lawley, Director, Lab for Social Computing, Rochester Institute of Technology. Ms Lawley spoke of the library as a “Center of Happiness”. She said we must put the ‘fun back into functional’ and said ‘virtual is not making tangible go away’. Gaming was a big part of her presentation, as well as a major component of the conference. I didn’t attend any of the sessions on ‘Gaming and Virtual Worlds’, but it does play a major role in how people, especially of the millennial generation, learn and presumably retain information.

Sessions attended on Day 3-

Speed Searching: Tips & Tricks for Speeding Up the Search Process
One Click Ahead: Best of Resource Shelf
Google Tracking: What’s New at Google & It’s Competitors
What’s Hot in RSS & Social Software

I’m not sure if I can or want to ‘aspire to be a node in peoples’ social networks’, but I was glad to see what other library systems and individuals are doing to make their services more innovative and open to the new technology and it’s applications that we must learn to adapt to, to remain relevant. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX0-nqRmtos

“15 Insanely Useful Websites” (from Steven M. Cohen’s presentation).

Audiobooksforfree.com
Buyitlater.com
Executiveplanet.com
Gethuman.com
Gpoaccess.gov
Infomine.com
Citeseerx.ist.psu.edu
Metacarta.com
Mobileleap
Vtuner.com
Publicradiofan.com
Cooliris.com
Lyricwiki.org
Mortgageprofessor.com
Opencrsnetwork.com
Retailmenot.com



Michael Marx