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March 23rd, 2006
06:00 pm - Computers In Libraries 2006 Day 2
The 2 morning sessions were “Digitizing & Creating New Collections” and “Digitization Issues & Challenges”. These were interesting but they were geared toward Academic and very large libraries. I did get some info about software available to assist in putting digital collections into a more easily used format for your website. Some of it was freeware (yea!), and the rest was outrageously expensive I am looking into some of the freeware to assist us with our “Oral History Interview” collection and any other new digital collection we may get involved with.
The afternoon sessions were “New Library, New Technologies, New Services” and “Digital Preservation & The Open Web”. “New Library” was a lot of fun. As you know we are in the process of getting the old Walsenburg High School ready for us to move into. This is going to require a lot of renovation and remodeling. This workshop talked about issues like correct heating/cooling systems like HVAC (Heating/Ventilating/Air-Conditioning) and where and how to set up your wireless access, building wiring to meet IT needs and so on. It was really informative, but, I think our architects have a really good handle on these points so I suppose I will leave it to them. In “Digital Preservation” one of the key areas for discussion was what will be the format used to store digitally archived data 100 years from now, and later. What steps we can take to prepare for and meet the future of digital archiving. Very thought provoking. Well, I'm off to dinner. Have a great evening. Talk to you soon.
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March 22nd, 2006
10:23 pm - Computers In Libraries 2006 Day 1 (part 2)
The afternoon sessions went very well. Although the first one of the afternoon I attended was called "Gaming & Libraries". From the title and description in the workshop handbook, I had assumed that it would be about Gaming, like Doom, Runescape, HALO and other PC games. Well, there's nothing that says I can't be wrong, after all you you know what they say about assumptions. (nuff' said) Anyway, what it was about, primarily, was an interactive, virtual tour of the Eastern University campus and library. It was pretty cool though. They used avatars (3D representations of people) and you see the campus and library as if you were looking at it from a cartoon perspective. Extremely well done. I will try to see if we can get a demo link to it and put on the website. The second one of the afternoon was called "Building your usability toolkit". This one was concerned with Usability Study Analysis and Affinity Mapping to make a website more user friendly according to your patrons requirements. This was done by two librarians from Central Florida University. They took groups of their staff, students, and faculty and had them reorganize the layout of the website using magnetic strips with the names of the webpages on them. They could change them around, rename them, add and delete stuff. When all the groups were done, they analyzed the information, found out what most of the people wanted and reorganized the website to make it better. After I discuss this with Monica and the staff we will see about the possibility of doing a similar study. No promises. I'm out of here for today. Take care and Good Night.
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12:57 pm - Computers in Libraries 2006 Day 1
Well, I'm finally here after many trials and tribulations. The morning sessions went well, a bit crowded perhaps, but very interesting. There are over 2000 people attending the conference this year. Fortunately the different workshops are held in HUGE conference rooms so it doesn't get too crowded. The first was titled “Failing to innovate: Not an option”. It dealt not only with using the latest software ideas, but also talked about keeping up with what the patrons want, and how they want to go about getting it. The second was titled “New Web Site Tools and Technologies” and as you can guess it dealt with new web site tools and technologies. Some very good info, much of it for the Ultra-Geek (whew!! some highbrow stuff on discussion here). And, yes, there are some new things I want to try out on our own web site. I'm at the Conference's Internet Cafe (10 terminals for 2000 people. I'm already getting dirty looks) so I will keep this one short. There is still no wireless internet access available so I'm limited to the hours this is open. I hope to write more this evening to let you all know how the rest of the day went, but no promises. Have a great afternoon.
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March 20th, 2006
12:18 pm - The start of the trip
I haven't actually left yet, I'm still at the library. This morning dawned fair and bright (yeah right!). I have to admit I was dismayed when I saw the cloud cover, and the ground covered in snow. But after checking all possible weather sites I found out that we were sitting on the tail end of the storm and it should pass by us fairly soon. I hope so. It's a long way to DIA. I've done that round trip in blizzard conditions in a car with no heater. (Not fun!) I don't want to do that again. But, it's just after noon and the snow has stopped and the the sun is trying to come out. Here's hoping it continues to improve. I will write more later today or tonight as opportunity permits. Have a great day, and stay safe.
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March 17th, 2006
12:48 pm - The first posting
Next monday evening (March 20th) I leave for Washington DC to attend the "Computers In Libraries 2006" conference. I will be there through Friday and I will try to post entries at least every night after having finished with the days events. If I can post during the day I will, but no promises. I may even have one or more to post before my departure, but again, no promises. The primary reason for this post is to update everyone what's happening IT-wise in the library. For those of you who may not know, "IT" stands for Information Technology, the branch of engineering that deals with the use of computers and telecommunications to retrieve and store and transmit information. That said, I will try my best to keep everyone up to date. More later. Have a wonderful weekend.
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