Wednesday Session Preview

It is already the last day of the conference!  Here are some of the sessions that will be going on today.

• 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.

Tuesday Night Session – Barb Peterson Interview Previewed!

The Tuesday night session was “Gadgets, Gadgets, Gaming!”  The first part of the session filled with great and fun gadgets.

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.

Tuesday Session – Virtual Worlds & Libraries

In this session three speakers discussed the role of Second Lifein libraries.  Lori Bell, Director of Innovation, Alliance Library System – Shawn McCann, Immersive Librarian, McMaster University – Jeremy Kemp, Assistant Director of the Second Life Campus of San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science.

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.