Conference notes, part 3

The stupidest thing is gotta be a librarian (“paying attention to detail”) misreading their conference schedule and missing the beginning of the morning’s keynote. Fortunately I wasn’t too late, for Joe Janes’s talk (Reference 2.0: Ain’t What It Used to Be… And Never Will Again) was terrific!

His points reinforced my belief that for me, coming out as a gamer / librarian is the right thing to do. There’s so many changes taking place in how people get to and use information. Gaming is not only a way to solve problems in a way that’s fun, it’s also (for the most part) inherently social. Even online games incorporate ways for players to interact with each other, and that’s often more fun than the game itself. (That’s the case with World of Warcraft, for sure.) Now is a good time to educate those who might not know that about games, and since librarians are all about educating their public, I think being a gamer / librarian makes a good partnership. It might also help fight the image problem librarians have. But I’m digressing…

The Virtual World & Libraries talk was very interesting, although hurried (3 speakers, 15 min each). Lori Bell (Director of Innovation, Alliance Library System), Shawn McCann (Immersive Learning Librarian, McMaster University) & Jeremy Kemp (Assistant Director, SL Campus, San Jose State University) mostly talked about Second Life. I definitely need to poke around in there.

Meredith Farkas (Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University, VT) & Helene Blowers (Public Svcs Technology Director, PL of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County) talked about training people in web/library 2.0 stuff (Promoting Play Through Online Discovery: Lego Building) – useful and inspiring. And more digging to do!