Quick notes from Access 2006
Calvin and I are crashing at a Comfort Inn up Rue Rideau after a fun day seeing Parliament and the National Gallery of Canada with Karen. We're both wiped out, especially after devouring the combo platter at Horn of Africa. Oh, and after watching THE DETROIT TIGERS WIN THE ALCS ON A BOTTOM-OF-THE-NINTH HOMER.
But enough about the PENNANT WINNING DETROIT TIGERS. For now.
Here are some random bits about the conference. I'll be posting much more from it soon.
- Access is the best library conference in North America. Don't let anybody tell you anything different.
- Hackfest went well again, even with 55 (!) people and two locations. See the suggestions and report presentations at this temp location.
- Ross and I will package up the HMS Presentr app we wrote based on last year's HMS (Hackfest Management System). There were some valid gripes but considering we spent one person-week on this and that there were 55 people reading suggestions and thirteen different presentations written, edited, and presented completely from scratch in less than 24 hours it worked pretty damned well if I do say so my damned self.
- It was a bit freaky taking pictures using photo booth but it was fun posting them to flickr in near-realtime, especially while sitting up front. :)
- Calvin and I just set up a flickr group called "accessconference". It's public. If you have Access photos from 2006 or any previous or future year (though I'd like to see your code if you can accomplish the latter) please consider joining the group and adding your photos.
- I've recorded three separate upcoming episodes of Library Geeks at the conference - they'll be posted in turn in the next few weeks. I think the combination of all three will give a much better feel for the character of the conference than just a blog entry and some photos can.
- I'm *tired*.
- Like after every other year I've attended I have about six new project ideas.
- It was great to see such big staff turnouts from OSU and SFU, my favorite three-letter libraries. :)
- Friday afternoons in #code4lib are still the best.
- Talk of the year for me was, hands-down, the "Stella, the German library bot" talk. Does anyone have a link to her slides? I wonder if we could do something similar with jess or something like it.
One of the mini-thunder talks I gave had the theme "green librarianship." I meant it to be half-funny and half-serious, but the more I think about it, there's more than meets the funny bone. Asking "what's your information footprint?" can lead in lots of interesting directions. Try it out! I'll write more about it soon.
David Fiander (not verified) on October 15th 2006
art (not verified) on October 15th 2006
Anne Christensen (not verified) on October 15th 2006
dsa (not verified) on October 16th 2006
I had meant to ask you about this very Thunder topic you raised. I wasn't sure whether you were serious, and, if so, in what sense you meant things like "green" and "information footprint." I look forward to hearing more and would be more than happy to jump in at some point. - Dale
dchud on October 16th 2006
What, you think I would get up in front of 250 people and say something that wasn't serious? :)
I was definitely hoping it would cause a few laughs, but I really did want people to think about it on their rides home. There's a whole marketing opportunity here, and a way to rethink the choices we make in delivering library services.
I'll admit to not having come to any major conclusions, but, there's a lot of fertile ground to mine if only as a possible long-term strategic exercise. In a few days I'll try to post at greater length.
It was great to see you again, Dale!
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