One Big Library.

For the second straight year, I won't be at Access, the best damned library conference anywhere. Last year I was busy with a project deadline. This year the event is too close to the jewish new year holiday, and if it weren't, I'd still have a conflict, because later that week I'll be speaking at MLC's annual meeting in Lansing, MI.

/me sighs deeply...

Something's terribly wrong when I can't make it to Access. I've never missed a Hackfest before now.

I will be very sad on Wednesday. And Thursday, and Friday...

One of the cool things about having both audio available (via podcast feed or the official page, sans feed) and the results slides online along with the whole list of project suggestions is that now you could play the results report on your speakers and follow along in the actual slides at the same time. All 25 suggestions, 13 slide shows, and 90 minutes of reporting, that is, to be precise.

(And don't forget, for the more in-depth story from Hackfest participants during the event, give the recent Library Geeks episode 006 a listen.)

Now that's media saturation!

Three cheers to the Access folks who managed to pull off the whole event, and to record good audio, and to Ryan Eby for pulling the feed together.

Last week's Access conference provided many opportunities for an eager 'caster. If I'd slept at all I would have taken advantage of more of them. Still, I managed to turn the mic on a few times, and today's episode is the first of those.

Ross and I introduce the annual Access Hackfest preconference, and discuss some of the details of how it works. Following this are a series of Hackfesters discussing the projects they've chosen and the progress they've made, including advice to future Hackfest hosts from the current hosts and reflections from a first-time 'fester. (Hmm... maybe "'fester" isn't the best term.)

I've tried for years to communicate how well the Hackfest encapsulates everything great about the Access conference - that it's a chance to engage in a kind of librarianship we don't often get to engage in, without long-term commitments, politics, departmental rivalries. Unless you're actually there it's hard to see just how much fun it is, how much you can learn, and how refreshing (and tiring!) it can be to work so hard on something somebody else suggested and even pay for the privilege. Since you can't all be there, maybe listening to Hackfest participants tell you about it will be the next best thing to being there.

To listen, follow the links at left for the feed or iTunes subscription.

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.