CiL Day 1

Oh, where to start?  Last night I slunk up to my room early, tired, socially overwhelmed, and wanting to go home.  Today, I'm back in the groove and very much appreciating the Computers in Libraries experience.   Attended two sessions that gave me lots to chew on and one that had me cracking up the whole time. The chewy ones were: a) how the New York Observer overhauled its website from straight-up news reporting to become more of an online community, using open source and social networking tools; and b) a quick, but dense overview of how mobile search and searchers are different, with a quick overview of bunches of search mobile-specific search apps.  I will wait till I can get my hands on full-sized keyboard before I tackle those notes.

The presentation that had much of the room in stitches was the Library Society of the World panel discussion and demo.  All I'm going to say about it right now is that it was a powerful, if silly, example of community-building via social networking applications (with bonus Rick Astley soundtrack). Outside of making me laugh, I was particularly pleased at being given an opportunity to do some outreach before the session. I was headed into the room when the door monitor stopped me and asked, "are you one of the bloggers?" As I proceeded to give her an entirely too-complete answer, she politely stopped me, dropped her voice and confessed that even though she had a blog, she didn't understand RSS. I gave her as brief a jargon-free tutorial as I could. After a couple minutes, her eyes lit up and she finally understood what RSS was. She had more questions, all of them very basic stuff, so I gave her my email address and said I'd be happy to help her along. It was a great interaction and an excellent reminder of how the patrons I provide service to daily aren't necessarily looking for the newest and hottest stuff. It's good to be mindful of this as I run around the CiL candy store this week.