50 Feet From the Cutting Edge in the Northeast Kansas Library System
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It’s March 19th! I’m here in Manhattan, KS for our first Kansas Library UnConference, which we’re calling Library Camp Kansas. Approx 100 people signed-up and we’ve got a great mix of people… from academic libraries… from public libraries… from special libraries, too.
See the Flickr photos from the event!
Read blog posts from the event! A few posts about the event include:
Think some of the most valuable and most productive sessions at conferences are the hallway and dinner conversations?
Want to get to know some of your forward-thinking Kansas library colleagues better?
Join us at Library Camp Kansas: the first Un-conference for people interested in customer-friendly libraries, library 2.0 and thinking about how we can all improve our services and organizations to meet the needs of our communities.
This is not a conference with experts behind a podium. It is an opportunity for dialogue and conversation. Sound good to you? Join us on Wednesday, March 19, at K-State’s Hale Library!
Details:
Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (Registration starts at 9 a.m.)
Hale Library, Hemisphere Room
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
A complete agenda and links to lunch options, directions and parking information are available on the unconference wiki at: http://librarycampks.wetpaint.com/page/Unconference+Details.
Topics:
The participants of Library Camp Kansas choose the topics to be discussed the day of the conference. Potential topics can be posted ahead of time to the wiki: http://librarycampks.wetpaint.com/page/Discussion+Topics.
Registration is free. Visit the “Invitation to Participate page” to register online:
http://librarycampks.wetpaint.com/page/Invitation+to+Participate
If you need a parking permit, you must register by Friday, March 7.
Due to space limitations, overall registration is capped at 100 participants.
What’s provided:
Free wi-fi. Some laptops are available for those who can’t bring their own. Flip charts and meeting supplies will be provided as well. Snacks and drinks thanks to K-LIRT. Parking permits thanks to NEKLS.
What you should bring:
Great ideas, great questions, an interest in collaboration, laptop with wi-fi (if possible), and money for lunch.
For more information, check out the Kansas Library Camp wiki: http://librarycampks.wetpaint.com/
To see how other library camps and unconferences have worked out in other states, see http://www.blyberg.net/?s=unconference&submit=GO
and http://librarycampnyc.wikispaces.com/Program.
Questions? Please contact:
Brenda Hough
Technology Consultant, NEKLS
bhough@nekls.org ~ (785) 838-4090
Hope to see you there!
A PBS documentary airing this month, Generation Next, may be of interest to you, especially to those of you working with young adults.
On a related note, I am very excited to announce that our NEKLS Tech Day 2007 speaker will be Mary Madden, a Senior Research Specialist with the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Her research centers around teens and technology. NEKLS Tech Day 2007 will be held in Topeka on August 2, 2007. More details will be announced later in the year, but save the date. We’re going to try to make this the best Tech Day yet!
It has been 2 1/2 weeks since NEKLS Tech Day 2006, so I feel like I have had some distance and space to think about things and start to plan for next year. It has been thrilling to see the response from some of the attendees. We had eval forms and got some good feedback on those, but even more telling has been the response in the “blogosphere.”
Thank you everyone for being there and for sharing your ideas and excitement on your blogs! If you have ideas for next year’s Tech Day, please share them with us. Liz and I will both be going to the Internet Librarian conference in October and we’ll be scouting out potential keynote speakers there.
Mark your calendars! I’m excited to announce that NEKLS Tech Day 2006 will be held on Thursday, August 10th. Details are still, of course, being worked out, but our keynote speaker will be Michael Stephens, author of the Tame the Web blog. His presentation topic will be: “Toward Library 2.0 — Planning, People, and Participation”.
In the “Yellow Moon” group, we had representatives from large library systems and small libraries (where the representing librarian is the only librarian). So our discussion, led by Diana Weaver, approached the topic of “How can we keep up with new technology” from a variety of viewpoints.
Question 1. We came to the conclusion that if our libraries are going to have blogs, we need to publicize the blogs, talk about them and get them into the public eye. But more importantly, we need to make sure we have the technical knowledge to create and maintain blogs. Not everyone in our group was familiar with the technology, and although they were assured that it’s easy to create a blog, they made an excellent point: talking about blogs and seeing presentations on blogs is no substitute for real-time, hands-on instruction on how to create a blog. Smaller libraries don’t have anything like a web content team to handle a blog, and librarians at smaller libraries don’t always have the time to learn about and maintain a blog.
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Man oh man! Tech day was a blast… keep watching here for the next few days to catch some of the Tech Day 2005 excitement… we’ll be posting photos, video of the keynote and some of the sessions, all of the powerpoints from the day, and additional resources for all of your consumption.
I think all of our minds were expanded by Jenny Levine, the Shifted Librarian. There is much to be done for Kansas libraries and blogging/rss/wiki/folksonomy. A world of conversation between our patrons and the library awaits us, all we have to do is harness it. I think that soon we’ll be having a workshop for “introduction to blogger” but you didn’t hear it here.
Remember that you can get ahold of your friendly NEKLS tech staff through MSN messenger (more services coming soon) by adding lrea@nekls.org to your buddy list (we like to hear from you!) or bhough@nekls.org. Send us a friendly message!
We’re also opening up comments on this blog, so we want to hear what you think! Comment! We like it when you do!
Come one come all to NEKLS Tech Day 2005!
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