So, I’ll admit it… I was trying to be the last person to post about Internet Librarian 2008. I’ve been holding out. But finally, I can’t stop myself…. must…. blog…. about IL.
Internet Librarian was like coming home. Everyone was as techie (or more) than me. We all had our gadgets, our online presence, our favorite things to share and play with. It was great!
In contrast, all too often in libraries I’ve found there is little emphasis on, or appreciation of, technology– and while I am the first to admit that technology must have a purpose, it must make life easier, to be hostile to technology in a library today means that you are distancing yourself from our users in a way that could quite possibly threaten the existence of libraries in the future.
But I am more optimistic than that. I believe that libraries will adapt, grow, change, and empower our users to learn about and make use of information technologies in all their forms. That will (hopefully) always include books, but it will also include art, games, story-time, community gatherings, video workshops, podcasting, and….. well, we’ll see about that. =)
After Internet Librarian, it was quite a shock two weeks later to attend the Colorado Association of Libraries conference. While IL had blogger’s table at the front and back of every room, and it seemed like everyone was carrying a mobile device of some kind (see the photo below), I saw none of this at CAL.
Thanks to Laura Crossett for the photo (http://www.flickr.com/photos/newrambler/)
I find this odd. Colorado is one of the leaders in technology adoption. In a recent opinion poll done by The USA Today/Claritas it was found that 4 out of the 25 top counties for “early adopters” are found in the front-range of Colorado. The Boulder County area is known as the “Silicon Flatirons” because of the number of tech companies located here. I don’t have to tell any library folks the importance of understanding, and reflecting, one’s community. All of us– public, academic, special, understand this as crucial to our mission.
So I have to ask…. what happened? Colorado was once a leader in library technology.
Well, it’s not all that bad…. There is a lot of support in the area for change and development in our libraries. One of our outstanding library technology leaders is Sue Staples of the High Plains Library District who has done a fantastic job of transforming her library’s online presence and encouraging technological exploration and innovation with the Colorado library community.
Steve Lawson of Colorado College and Joe Kraus of DU have gotten together a Web 2.0 & Libraries Round Table under the auspices of the Alliance.
The Colorado State Library has done a little work at exploring whether the development of an Open Source ILS project similiar the Georgia’s Pines program is viable. This was one of the projects I highlighted as part of my poster presentation at CAL 2007 on “Open Source and Libraries”.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention the efforts of one of my fellow CAL Leadership Institute members, Victoria Petersen, who is doing some really cool stuff not only in leading CAL’s Second Life Interest Group but just generally being fabulous down in Mancos.
And of course, he hardly needs mentioning, but who can possibly not be impressed with a library director like Jamie LaRue who not only is willing run Linux on his own machine, but was willing to try adopting open source software on his library system’s public workstations as well. Jamie is definitely an example of someone who is pitching in and lighting fires in Colorado’s library community.
These are only a few examples of the great work being done in Colorado currently (and many apologies to the MANY I left out), but I hope we see more.
So, Colorado peeps…… who else is doing the cool stuff? And where do we go from here?
THAT will be the subject of a post soon. HINT: If we have all this tech knowledge and enthusiasm around– why don’t we use it?
Comments (5)
I too noted the lack of technology at local conferences this year. I attended two stat conferences, at the first in June, I was the only person I saw with a laptop at any of the sessions and at the second in October, I did see a few people, but there were no accommodations for laptop users and I think maybe 10 people blogged the conference.
I know those of us who go to IL are the techie type, but I still think there would be a few more laptops at state conferences especially the big ones. I wonder if its that people just don’t have them or it doesn’t occur to them to bring them? I know when I blogged one of the conference sessions the presenter later emailed me, surprised that I had. I’ve also had a few non library types contact me about my blogged conference posts, and they too seemed surprised that someone was blogging notes from a conference session. I thought it was pretty much standard any more. I guess its just us tech nerds
nice
and thanks for the mention… note in January High Plains will start a pilot of checking laptops out to the public that have internet access active and live within the unit. These are not for use in the library but to take away and use as needed. 5 day checkout. really hope this pilot goes well….think it may be a big benefit for the community and those who don’t have computers and/or can’t afford internet access…helpful for those looking for jobs..etc
Matt
Interesting reflective post especially as Colorado sounds like an happening place for IT. IL is often a world away from where many of us work — 2000 librarians all interested in what technology can do for libraries. And many of them are gadget adopters and enthusiasts. Loved the photo from Laura.
Darlene
Hi again Bobbi!
Yeah, I had intended to live blog a session at the CAL conference this year and was actually asked by the presenter to not have my laptop out because it would be distracting. I ended up keeping it in the car the rest of the weekend!
Hi Sue, Thanks for dropping by. Several people have told me I need to meet you, but I just haven’t had the chance to catch up with you face-to-face. That’s great to hear about the laptop checkouts. We do that at CU for students and they seem to be popular, if somewhat plagued with problems (battery life and remembering to save files, etc.). I can’t wait to hear how your pilot goes!
That reminds me that a friend at Adams State College in Alamosa is doing this for public patrons. So far it’s been very successful. You may want to contact Paul Mascarenas down there and see how they’ve done things…