For several years now I have observed the increasing success of the Virtual International Day of the Midwife (an online conference for midwives) — Sarah Stewart’s “baby” so to speak.

Now there is one for anyone interested in the library world. Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference October 3 – 5, 2012. It is a free conference held online, in multiple time zones, over 2 calendar days (three if you take all the time zones into account.

It looks to be a much larger affair than VIDM with several strands of presentations being planned. The School of Library and Information Science (SLIS) at San José State University (http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/) is the founding conference sponsor. Opportunities for commercial sponsorship, and conference partner organisations are available.

The call for presentation proposals is open.

Sarah Stewart taking part in last year’s VIDM.

Image : Virtual International Day of the Midwife 2011 by Sarah M Stewart. Reproduced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Heads up for an innovative professional development opportunity – the inaugural Intelligent Information Symposium, to be held in Sydney on 3rd and 4th May 2012.

The 1.5 day program is designed “so delegates can interact with speakers and vendors who have backgrounds in social media, taxonomy, information and records management, research, knowledge management, mobility, information design and architecture. ”

With an organising committee comprising experienced professionals and events organisers – Kay Harris, Melissa Simmons, Michelle Nutting, Linden Fairbairn and Rawdyn Nutting, it promises to be an informative and inspiring event.

Check out the Intelligent Information website for more details and future plans for this exciting new venture in information management.

Yes its back yet again!  Library Day in the Life Round 8, will run from Monday 30th January to Sunday 5th February.

You can share a day, days or your whole librarian week, through blogging, tweeting, pictures, video or however else you are inspired.

To participate, register at the Library Day in the Life wiki and then record your (choose time period) in the life of you as a librarian, for others to discover the joys of how varied work as a librarian is, both here and around the world.

Then watch the same wiki, to learn about what other librarians around the world do in their respective jobs. It is very inspirational!

If you are going to be in Melbourne for VALA, then you have to stick around for Library Camp Australia, which is happening the day after VALA finishes – Friday 10th February.

Registrations are open now, so get in quickly so you don’t miss out on what is going to be an awesome day!

Or at least a venue….

The unorganising committee for #LibCampOz12 would like to welcome and thank The University of Melbourne Library for agreeing to be our venue sponsor.

The University is located on the edge of the CBD. It is easily accessible by tram, train and bus and casual parking is available.  The library is centrally located within the picturesque grounds and we will be providing maps and tram routes you can take to get there.

Hopefully this will be the first of many more exciting announcements about Library Camp Australia 2012.

There is still time to get involved- please contact Kim or myself if you wish to be part of the unorganising team.

Internet Librarian 2011, with the theme “Revolutionizing the Net with Content, Connections & Conversations”, is heading into its last day at Monterey, California – but its not too late to watch the Live Stream (if you’re a night owl), or follow the live action from the participants views on Twitter. (follow the hash tag #IL2011 or #InternetLibrarian)

Much as we would like to be there, we can still get the latest on what’s coming out of the conference through the Conference Blog. Alternatively, the conference is also being well covered by the likes of David Lee King and Librarian in Black, or one of the officially listed conference bloggers.

If you want to see the presentations, you can download them, but have to login. (User name/Password: il2011/il2011)

Don’t forget that Internet Librarian International in London is coming up, on 27th and 28th October, where more great content will be shared.

And once you have been suitably inspired, ALIA Biennial is seeking abstracts for the conference in Sydney in 2012.

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.

Somehow, I nearly missed this!  Today starts Round 7 in the Library Day in the Life Project.

“The Library Day in the Life Project is a semi-annual event coordinated by Bobbi Newman  of Librarian by Day. Twice a year librarians, library staff and library students from all over the globe share a day (or week) in their life through blog posts, photos, video and Twitter updates.” (Library Day in the Life Project)

So why not tell the world what you’re up to today, or this week, as a librarian in the 21st Century. And let us know too via comment. This sort of information is what librarian’s do best and can be very inspirational.

This is great. The Auslan version of Feathers for Phoebe by Rod Clement – made available by the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) for National Simultaneous Storytime 2011 (NSS).

The simultaneous bit starts at 11.00am AEST today.

The 2011 Library Journal Movers and Shakers have been announced.

There are quite a few familiar names spread through the lists of fifty innovators, community builders, tech leaders, marketers, advocates and change agents, who have been recognised for their “extraordinary work to serve their users and to move libraries of all types and library services forward”.

This year, we have our 2nd Australian Mover & Shaker – Ellen Forsyth from the State Library of New South Wales, awarded as Tech Leader for her innovative work with Ref Ex and the 2011 Twitter Reading Group.

All the details of the winners and their innovative work (inspiration for us all) is available at the 2011 Library Journal Movers and Shakers website.

Congratulations to Ellen and all the other worthy winners!