… the online home of a librarian in Perth, Western Australia
With Kathryn and Sue, I spoke about the VALA2010 conference at an ALIAWest-organised event last night.
It went well and I was amazed to see the large number of people who turned up.
Photo was taken by one of my colleagues, Molly (that’s madradish to you!) and shows me trying to poke one of my eyes out feeling a bit tired. Well, it had been a long day!
VALA2010: great conference.
Stuff I am pondering:
We in libraries need to learn from other organisations. What can we learn about the organisation of our service points from Apple stores, say? How does the Louvre make its amazing collections available to its visitors?
Our library websites need major overhauls - and we need to think about them from the perspective of the user. Do we understand how people are using the web? Do librarians really know best when it comes to the presentation of information on the web? (Users don’t have to be taught how to use Amazon.com.)
Stop trying to recreate the card catalogue online, already! For me this point also relates to the fact that we need to be out there playing and working in all the new online environments and communities. There is so much we could be learning, and adapting to our libraries.
We need to anticipate and influence change. Grasp the opportunities, dont resist!
On a related note, are libraries are organisations moving fast enough? Is the committee really always the best way to get things done?
What I enjoyed:
The Twitter chatter throughout the conference. Hooray for the hashtag!
Meeting up with lots of people I had only interacted with online prior to this.
Delivering a paper with Suelibrarian. (Just realised this was my sixth paper!)
Being connected via iPhone. This made the entire conference a lot more interactive for me.
Making new friends.
Peta’s reminded me that Educause Australasia will be happening very soon.
I’ll be doing a panel presentation (symposium) with her, Kathryn and another Murdoch colleague, Penny Coutas. Personal learning Environments – What Works for Librarians is on the Monday 4 May, between 1300 - 1500.
Then on the Wednesday 6 May, between 1030 - 1230, I’ll be presenting on Curtin University Library’s Green Library Project.
Neither presentation is ready, yet.
The interesting thing about preparing for the symposium is the fact that Kathryn is going overseas today (and won’t be home until just days before the conference starts), Peta is on the other side of the country, and I have never met Penny before. We’ll be skyping, and, I suspect, using at least a couple more online tools to work together. I love the fact that the technology facilitates this!
P.S. Will post my thoughts on Aurora shortly. 1) I am still working on it, and 2) I have been asked to present something at the management team meeting at MPOW tomorrow, and I don’t want to pre-empt that by posting here first.
