libcampoz the national library unconference which kicked off in Perth and has been held in Adelaide and other States is making its way to Melbourne. I would encourage you to put the date in your calendars.

I recently attended Libcampoz (Perth) and had a great time. Participating the unconference was invigorating.  Benefits include:

• flexibility (choose on the day the sessions you want to attend)
• networking (you can network your socks off)
• topics voted on by participants (on the day we decide what to talk about)
• create your own session (you can create a session for the day – if the people want it it will be in)

It will be free and will be held on the day after VALA2012.

News

• Date – Friday 10 Feb
• Location – Melbourne
• Venue is yet to be confirmed

The website for the last library camp has been archived and the new logo is ready. So watch this space as more information comes to hand. We are calling on local library folk in Melbourne to join the un-organising group. If you have some time we would love to hear from you. Contact me and we will get you signed up for the wiki. To all those lovely interstate people who have indicated your interest in un-organising we will be in touch soon.

Sharing the Library Love

As I was walking to work today I was thinking about a metaphor to describe #blogjune. For me reading the blogs is like popping in to visit neighbours and catching up with friends. Many of the people blogging are part of my PLN (Personal learning network) and for those I haven’t met virtually or IRL (In Real Life) it is an opportunity to get to know new neighbours.

I must confess that since I have become a twitter convert, I use my PLN to filter the interwebs for me and I rarely visit my blog feeds. When I do I usually to mark all read and move on. So it is a real challenge for me to read through so many blogs but it is always fun to catch up with old friends and neighbours and make new friends.

Monday’s Meme

@malbooth joined the meme with the seven things meme started by the Bun-toting Librarian, Fiona. She has promised a meme for every Monday of the challenge.  Librarian in the mirror, Blogfest at Tiffanys, Ruminations also joined the memey goodness. For all those that have visiting NYC on their to-do list – I will be there on Saturday!

Outed

Sophie outed herself as a Harry Potter Fangirl. I wouldn’t be surprised if there a lots of Potter fangirls and boys in this challenge.

Recipes

• roasted rhubarb (Ruth)

Music

Corin listed 12 songs that changed his life an excellent meme which I think I will use soon. There is definitely a strong 80s influence in his list.

Home

• Sardonicsmile shared some of the home improvements she has made recently
• Over on birdeystreet you can read about the armchair that keeps coming back
• Across the ditch where there was a public holiday Paul Hayton worked his socks off around the house

Play

• Morgan uses Tagul tag clouds (see Peta’s post) to explore two different periods of his life. The tag clouds show that he has become more focussed in his blog posts. If you have been blogging for a while I recommend having a go and comparing different periods of your life
• Over on Angels have the phone box find out about the Wordfoto app
• @Gigglesigh shares her words with friends addiction
• Softies are taking over at Katie’s workplace

Reflection

• Justgirlwithshoes is thinking about where to next with her career
• Fiona ponders the merits of interfiling the Australian literature collection in the 800s (I agree by the way)
• With Great Power – considers donating his X-men books to the Library after seeing the latest installment of the X-men movies and battles with autocorrect
• Katie talks about how relationships have changed since Jeremy passed away
• Kris posted a great video about cake or death feat. lego and Eddy Izzard!

Now I feel like tea and cake maybe on my next round up when I visit again. I will leave you with this question from Michelle the Connecting Librarian:

If you were asked to write one sentence to a child, about the importance of libraries, what would it be?

Peace out

Some of the Day 3 Panel: @missophiemac, @michaelmace, @thelib

It’s been two days since I returned from Information Online and I woke up from a dream about writing a blog post so here it is. My takeaways from the conference are:

1. Break the rules @thelib – Sarah Houghton encouraged conference participants to be prepared to break some rules in order to deliver the services that clients want. She used the example of implementing social media. They didn’t get permission. They just went ahead. Her terrific presentation is available on her blog.
2. Heat maps of eye-tracking and clicks look very impressive. I was encouraged by the number of libraries testing usability of their websites and services. There were a number of papers that had some impressive heat maps. They certainly add a wow factor to presentations.
3. Seb Chan told us about some of the incredibly impressive work of the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and how they are getting people to visit their collections online. These include WordPress plugins, Flickr Commons and the amazing mobile story game – China Heart.

I was also thrilled to participate in the Conference Mentoring Program being piloted at Online by Naomi Doessel the winner of an ALIA study grant. I offered to be a mentor and it was a rewarding experience. I met two amazing young librarians.

For me the main benefits of attending Online were:

• Networking opportunities
• Catching up with some library rock stars
• Meeting some rising library stars
• Spending face-to-face time with my twitter PLN (personal learning network)
• Crafting with fellow librarians at the lunch time Stitch’n'bitch

R2D2 and cup cake amigurumi

I have attended quite a few conferences in the last two years and I am beginning to wonder if the current format is sustainable. I for one would like more opportunity to engage, interact and discuss the content/ideas. Maybe we need to consider an unconference stream running along side more traditional streams (as was trailed at ALIAAccess in 2010).

I also presented a paper at Online and I have decided that from now on I will co-present and I am already discussing an abstract for VALA2012 with a colleague.

I would be really interested in hearing about your takeaways, the benefits and whether you think the traditional conference format is sustainable.

Please leave a comment.

Louise Pieper from Gold Coast Public Libraries talks about why  abook club blog can build community and reduce social isolation. Public library users often resistant to more formal instruction in information literacy.  Customers don’t want to lose face or to be seen as ignorant or illiterate. They don’t want to be at school.

Louse suggests that libraries: Be covert. be viral. Let information literacy seep through. Don’t call it information literacy, as it can be off putting. Look at ways of using web 2.0 to build information literacy skills covertly.

Their blog: Book coasters is a way of fostering lifelong learning skills virally. The online book club can:

1. promote reading and informal learning
2. allow people to develop new transliteracy skills
3. builds community

Day 1: ALIA Access Conference (Brisbane)

Information literacy with Christine Bruce:

• Shift of focus from libraries to a much more global scale
• How do we make it relevant?
• How can we bring transformative power of information use to peoples lives? (Pat Breivik) Empowering!

Experts on information literacy:

Dr Lana W Jackman www.infolit.org – paradox don’t assume that all learners have access. What about the digital divide?

Patricia Senn Breivik – peoples need for abilities that empower them

Diljiit Singh – no paradox we need information literacy and web 2.0 to be effective in this world

Lin Ching Chen (Jean Chen) – how can we harness Web 2.0. We have a responsibility.

Shelia Webber (Uni of Sheffield) – Web 2.0 information literacy skills important.

Andrew Whitworth - knowledge never static; text is dynamic in Web 2.0

Sharon Weiner (Purdue Uni) – not a paradox. Need Web 2.0 to teach and learn about information literacy.

David Loertscher (SLIS) - power of Web 2.0 to build collective knowledge. Tools and power.

Mandy Lupton – Web 2.0 making it possible to learn through the process of content creation. Work collaboratively through using/creating info

Mary M Somerville - Web 2.0 makes it possible to work with and transform understanding of different cultures

Dr Hilary Hughes – novel info sources & learning opportunities; provocation to explore, experiment, evaluate and evolve with developing technologies

Ross Todd – focus on user and content creation

Clarence Maybee – a future with a different understanding of knowledge and making

Susie Andretta – transliteracy across different platforms; transliteracy – transport abilities across different media; what a librarians doing; how do we create the spaces/places that allow people to develop transliteracy skills

Annemaree Lloyd – Web2.0 changes the way we interact with information

Louise Limberg - material/physical aspects how to do help people to understand different media (virtual v. physical information)

Christine Bruce

• We need to think differently about information literacy? How can we support it? What is the transformative nature of information literacy?
• People work differently with information in a Web2.0 environment.
• Our role is to provide environments that help people to become information literate

From the floor

• give people the tools and a little bit of training and they will create content and engage with information
• web2.0 tribal – cliques with gate-keepers

Friday again featured a number of memes.  Morgan asked 20 questions on day 20 so I thought I would ask you a few more:

1. Who said don’t be afraid to change direction when she reflected on why she became a librarian?
2. Who described her life according to They Might Be Giants and The Cure?
3. Whose son passed a milestone getting his P-plates?
4. Who is an RSS evangelist?
5. Who is participating in the 10,000 steps challenge?
6. Which school librarian watched students dance for joy?
7. Which blogger answers her own question about why she became a librarian?
8. Who quotes Lord Byron?
9. Whose blog featured a couple of furry friends?
10. Who spend a lovely day on her own in Daylesford?

Only four days to go. Keep them coming people.

For many a long weekend awaits and 30 posts in 30 days is taking it’s toll. Keeping up with posting yourself plus reading and commenting on blogs is time-consuming albeit fascinating.

So Friday is the day of the meme and photo. There are a number of memes doing the rounds:

• Book meme passed on by @flexnib
• Television meme started by @malbooth
• Traversal meme started by @snailx
• Show us your home screen meme started by @jenelle
• About you meme passed on by @gigglesigh

It is a great way to find out more about fellow bloggers. I know now for example that there are a number of Doctor Who fans amongst the group.

UTS bloggers @malbooth and @misssophiemac continue to challenge librarians/libraries to be more creative. Drawing a link between creativity and innovation. I must say that I agree without innovation we will stagnate and lose relevancy to our users. It can be risky thinking outside of the box and pushing boundaries but the benefits for an organisation are worth the risk. Which ties in nicely with the post by New Technologies Interest Group on the Empowering Change report – a call for open government, social media use and innovation in the public service. It is important that libraries keep an eye on what is happening with Gov2.0.

There was also some prolific blogging from @snailx who is reviewing films from the Sydney Film Fest.  I have already started a list of must see films.

Photo posts included Con with pictures of her chis and Kate shared stories about her dogs Daisy, Memphis and Edie. Our other Kate posted some terrific photos of shoes and craft.

Have a lovely long weekend to all those fortunate enough to have one.

The challenge continues and more people have joined #blogeverydayofjune. Thirty at last count. This tweet pretty much sums up the feelings of those participating:

bonitoclub RT @nomesd Does anyone else find that all they’re doing now is reading blogs? #blogeverydayofjune <– yes, but it’s great fun!

Those of us participating in this challenge are not necessarily blogging on professional topics. Of those that aren’t – do you feel constrained in anyway not to speak out on professional topics? I am not saying that you should professionally blog- just wondering if perceptions of risk to career colour that choice. Of those that do post on professional topics- have you ever felt it threatened your career?

Of those taking part in the challenge most work in the information industry. Many of the blogs are personal in nature such as SkinniBitch who is sharing her weight loss journey and FromMelbin who has blogged about grief. There are those who started off with purely professional blogs like Creative Circ who says in her comment on Suelibrarian’s post:

I thought I would #blogeverydayinjune on professional topics, and have found it very exciting to be discussing circulation again. It’s not a hot topic with my peers : – ) However as I read everyone else’s topics I wanted to get more into my own thoughts and discussions.

Being a part of this challenge has made many question their digital identity and reputation management. As a blogger you may decide to have separate identities or not, the decision is yours and it will depend on many factors including your workplace social media policies (if they have one).  Whatever you decide authenticity and having your own voice is important.

However, from all the posts I have read over the last four days I can say the following:

1. The profession is full of many terrific, articulate and thoughtful writers.
2. People who work in libraries are a diverse bunch with many different passions – from  kitchen appliances to retro art/collecting.
3. Blogging for 30 days straight is a real challenge and;
4. Reading 30 blogs a day is time-consuming but fun!

There will be no spoilers in this post.

Last week I was privileged to get an opportunity to be an extra on the set of The Librarians. They are currently filming series 3. I spent a total of ten hours on set over two days to film two scenes.

Being an extra is not the most glamorous of jobs. If any of you have seen the wonderful Ricky Gervis in The Extras you will know that there is a lot of waiting around and a bit of jostling to get the best position to ensure you get on camera.

The first day I was on set most of the day. I was unable to tweet, read or crochet and I found it really hard going but the second day was fantastic. If every day was like the second I would seriously consider giving up my day job.

The cast and crew were fabulous and I was impressed with how well they all worked together. Logistically there are so many variables in filming but they took it in their stride. The real extras I met where friendly and welcoming. There were approximately fifteen “real librarians” on set over the two days. The Directors Wayne Hope and Tony Martin made a real fuss of us. At one stage Wayne said that we were out acting the paid extras.

We were also given a guided tour around the set by Andy Walker one of the co-producers. He mentioned how thankful they were for the loan of equipment, shelving and other props from local Victorian libraries. It definitely paid off. The fictional Middleton Library was perfect and the attention to detail spot-on. In fact they had people coming into the Melbourne Show Grounds wanting to borrow from the library.

I didn’t watch the first two seasons but I will be definitely be watching season three. Even if I don’t get my fifteen minutes of fame I will enjoy seeing the wonderful people I met on set and believe me the scenes that we filmed are pretty funny!