Morning Keynote:  Future of Search  -  Danny Sullivan, Editor in Chief, Search Engine Land  www.searchengineland.com

• Two things have happened with search: personalized search and ”blended” search

Search:

• Google Universal Search (blended) – bringing specialized search results being brought to the first page of results
• Ask 3D (blended) – relevant search results presented in three panes
• Live (Microsoft) and Yahoo – some new features to search

Danny Sullivan felt that personalized searches will continue to be a part of the future of searching.

Games, Learning & Libraries – Jenny Levine, ALA (www.shiftedlibrarian.com)

• Gamers don’t fit the stereotype of the teenage boy in the dark basement playing video games
• There are more women 18+ playing online games than 17 and under boys
• Average age of a gamer = 33
• Gamers see themselves as heroes on a quest
• Gamers have an inherent distrust of bosses – the boss is usually the villain in games

Why gaming in libraries?

• Gaming is content and narrative for kids
• Literacy – language on a Pokemon card is more complex than a 3rd grade textbook
• Rapid Information Acquisition (if anyone has even watched a video game you know this is a must)

Libraries – 75% support gaming only 40% are doing gaming programs

Final Keynote:  Gaming, Learn & the Information World- Liz Lawley, Director, Rochester Institute of Technology

This session was excellent.  She discussed the importance of making things engaging and fun whether it is everyday tasks (like chores), training and tasks at work.  We need to look toward gaming to see how this can be done effectively.  She had us look at both World of Warcraft and Second Life to see how these engage the user, make them feel successful, that they are progressing and how they keep them interested.

Check out Chore Wars (www.chorewars.com) – I think my family might try this one!

Tonight I am getting my stuff ready to leave early tomorrow morning.  I have so many thoughts and ideas!  I am going to need to reflect for awhile.  I will be back in the office Friday!

• Keynote:  Future of Search – Danny Sullivan, Editor-in-Chief, Search Engine Land
• Sessions:  Gaming & Libraries, Search Engine Strategies, Tech Tools and more
• Closing Keynote:  Gaming, Learning & the Information World – Elizabeth Lane Lawley, Director, Rochester Institute of Technology

As I am looking at the program today I am noticing that the majority of the sessions I want to attend will be in the “no wireless zone.”  So I will try to update you at the end of the day for sure, if not before.

And yes, there was an earthquake (close t0 San Jose, about a 5.6 at 8:40 last night).  I would have known nothing if they had not announced it at the conference last night.  From what I have seen on the news the damage has been minimal.  Some of the wireless networks were interrupted.  Very interesting for a Midwest girl.

The second part was great.  The guys from the Delft Public Library finished their Shanachie Tour (www.shanachietour.com) at the Internet Librarian Conference.  They were able to show us parts of their interviews from the libraries they stopped at along their tour.  At each stop they asked librarians and library students what the future library would look like and what the future holds for librarians.

The interview with our own Barb Peterson was previewed.  There were cheers from the crowd when Barb talked about working with and receiving grants for the library.  When asked about her work with grants for the library she said (hopefully I get this quote close) “The money is going somewhere and it should go to the library.”  I definitely cheer for that too!  There are more movies and information about their tour on their web site.

Highlights:

• Second Life Stats – 10 million avatars registered
• A new place for libraries to provide services
• Shawn McCann discussed his position as Immersive Librarian for McMaster University
  • He has traditional library duties, but is also responsible for looking at gaming and virtual worlds and how to use these in higher education.
• Jeremy Kemp discussed San Jose Universities Second Life campus and how it is being used for distance education

It was very interesting to see these virtual worlds in action.  So how many of you have avatars in Second Life?

I also attended several sessions on E Learning.  All had great ideas and tools for delivering workshops and training to librarians and students.

Main Points That I Went Away With:

• Reference is changing – need to look at the world as digital
• Searching is changing – horizontal, federated searching
• Niche – need to strengthen what we already do and figure out how we fit into the new environment (we being librarians)
• “We all just want to be heard.  I was here.  Remember me.”  – this is why users are using social tools and creating content online- this is similar to the content that is in our libraries now
• Social tools (Wikipedia, LibraryThing…) – the outcome is participation not an end result
• Second Life and Virtual Worlds – it is all about creation – librarians can help them add usablility to their creations

My Favorites:

• “Get out of the library!  OK, now be in the library!  Every library has to be some where and every where.” said by Janes.
  • The concept of the library is more powerful than the library building

Janes gave me a lot to reflect and ponder about libraries, library services and generations working together.

There will be more on Second Life later.

My son actually was the catalyst for this reflection.  I was walking back to my hotel and called home to say good night before my kids went to bed.  As I was talking to my son the sea lions in the bay became quite noisy.  I held up the phone and told him what they were and what I was seeing.  A sigh came across the line and he said “You don’t have a camera on your phone do you?”  I was then told that if I had a camera or our digital camera he could see it.  I told him that I would get some pictures with the camera (yes the kind you have to actually put film in).  There was silence and he changed the subject.  So here is my thought – my son’s first thought was I could have delivered the information he wanted to him over my phone in seconds but I did not have the tech that he expected me to have.  He knows about it, uses it and expects me, his mom, to have it.  And he is 7.  So when experts (and our patrons) tell us that people want information when and where they are, we in libraries should listen.  Especially when the patrons know they can’t get the info from their mom!

Here are some of the sessions schedule for today.  I noticed that most are in rooms without wireless so I will try to do my best at keeping up !

• Reference 2.0
• Virtual Worlds & Libraries
• Library 2.0 Planning
• Tech Training
• E-Learning

Here is a web site for my son about the sea lions in Monterey.  It is the best I can do until the film is developed – http://montereybay.com/creagrus/MtyBayseals.html

I have to admit when I got back to my hotel I had to try a few.  I am looking forward to the next too days.  Hopefully I can work around the rooms without wireless and keep you posted!

This session covered so many “cool tools” to use on your web site!  I will try to list a few:

• sketchcast.com - blogging thru sketches (interesting but scary for me - I can’t sketch/draw)
• www.kerpoof.com – create stories, movies and pictures – get when working with kids (I emailed one I made to my kids for Halloween!)
• www.picnik.com - online photo editor
• www.slideshare.net- share powerpoint presentations online – others can view and comment

Web Design on a Dime – Sarah Houghton-Jan, San Mateo County Library – LibrarianInBlack.net

Highlights

• stressed the importance of explaining to leaders in our libraries the importance of the eBranch and the libraries presence on the Internet
• eBranch – most important library face, the library’s web site is what most patrons will see
  • patrons will want the same services online that they can get in the library
  • want the services when and where they are
• Increase visibilities of many services
  • databases (and don’t call them databases – use the same terms users would)
  • eBooks – patrons want downloadable (list them in your catalog)
• Make your catalog pretty (ie. LibraryThing)
• “Make RSS Your BFF” – use RSS in many ways (ie. what’s new, calendars…)
• Give a face to the library – uses pictures and images (flickr)
• KEEP EVERYTHING CURRENT (this was the most important thing!!)

Highlights (not all 30)

• customizegoogle.com - a Firefox extension that let’s you customize your search by adding or taking away features
• Google Experimental Search – www.google.com/experimental - see results in different ways (ie. timelines, maps, key dates…)
• Snap Search – www.snap.com/search.php – can preview web sites from your result list on the right side of the screen
• Page Bull – www.pagebull.com – a results are shown as visual images of the page – no text (I kind of liked this one – visual)
• Factbites – www.factbites.com – delivers sentences that are relevant to your search from the sites

Social impact of the Internet

Highlights

• 93% of teens use the internet and 73% of adults
• Everyone has the chance to be publishers, movie makers, storytellers
  • 55% of teens have created content – see social network sites (MySpace and Facebook as the “social dashboards” for their lives
• Americans are customizing their online experience using 2.0 tools
• 49% are of the low-tech group – so there is a lot of people not using technology to its fullest

Take the Typology Quiz on the Pew Internet Project’s Site to learn what tech group you fit into – www.pewinternet.org/quiz/quiz.asp  (I took the quiz and I was an Omnivore)