It's been a hectic autumn, with travels to London, Trondheim and Berlin. (Never finished my blogpost from Berlin. Must see what I can do about that!) When I went to Berlin, I was pretty sure that it would be my last travel this year. But as usual, going to seminars and conferences away from home often makes me feel inspired and more energetic, so before I knew it, I was on my way to London for the second time in less than two months.
Internet Librarian International is a conference I've been to 7 times now, being a speaker myself 4 of the times. This year, however, was just fun and learning and listening to others. It is a great conference to be at, with lots of time for networking if you want to. This is my very short summary of my two days at ILI 2012. (And I won't even mention all the hours spent at airports because of delayed flights!!!)
Keynotes first. The first keynote was a pre-recorded video. David Lankes had to cancel his journey because of health problems, and the video was seen as the best solution. It worked surprisingly well. Lankes is a great speaker and had no problem sharing his enthusiasm with us. The title of his presentations was "Stop lending, start sharing" and this was based on the idea that "the more you share, the more you have, whereas the more you lend, the less you have". I have a feeling, his presentation was especially directed at public libraries, but he had a lot of interesting thoughts for all of us.
The second keynote was held by the new Chief Executive of The British Library, Roly Keating. The title of his speak was "The journey to digital at the British Library". This was a presentation of all the great stuff the BL has been working on over the least few years, and I must say I'm impressed. As a keynote presentation, I had however expected more edge and sparks perhaps. I didn't feel the topic inspired a lot of new thoughts and discussions.
Apart from these I managed to listen to an impressive 21 talks during these two days.(Not much time for shopping, in other words!) I would rate 13 of these presentations very good, with the rest being ok. No disastrously bad speakers this time, I'm glad to say. With three tracks, you always wonder if you chose the right ones. I think I did this time:)
Slightly to my surprise, the speaks I liked the most was very quick and not really pedagogical, but still inspiring. Maybe it was because I immediately knew this was stuff I could make use of when back at the University Library of Tromsø. I hesitate to mention names here, because I will certainly leave out others that truly deserves mentioning. But - Phil Bradley and Arthur Weiss (went to both his presentations!) really gave me a fun and useful glimpse of so many things I didn't know about. Similarly, Hugh Murphy and Karen Marie Øvern gave short, but enthusiastic presentations of very concrete projects they've been working on, and which can easily be adopted by other librarians.
Going to conferences, it is also very important to socialise and make new contacts, talk to people all over the world about their library practices and other important issues, be it vegetarianism or the Channel Islands:) Thanks to Rurik, Brian, Dave, Ed, Hugh, Marie, Mary, Tony, Suzy, Kiera, Asgeir, Anne-Lena (apologies if your names are incorrectly written) and many more for absolutely lovely company at the Olympia (and at Wagamama and The Hand and Flower). Hope to see you again:)
tirsdag 6. november 2012
tirsdag 9. oktober 2012
Emtacl 2012
Fell asleep on the plane from Trondheim to Tromsø, exhausted! In other words: it was a good conference. For the second time in history, the library at NTNU (+ friends) invited the world to EMTACL the first days of October. Emerging Technologies in Academic Libraries, in case you wondered.
The best thing about Emtacl, compared to some other library conferences, is that even though I'm basically a technical illiterate, I feel I am among like-minded people here. I've met so many brilliant and nice people, all seemingly interested in making libraries a wonderful place to work and study not just today, but in the foreseeable future.
A couple of talks, I must admit, was a bit too technical for me. Not that I mind. One can't always remain in the safety of what one knows. (Legendary library saying, invented just now!)
There were also talks where the presentation technique could be slightly improved. (Which I minded a bit, but which you can't avoid in a conference like this.)
I liked the futurology-inspired talks by Eirik Newth and Brian Kelly. They didn't really talk about the same things, but sparked similar ideas in me. Visionary without loosing touch with reality. The past and the present as ingredients in the stew that will become the future. A pleasure to listen to, besides.
Karen Coyle also needs a mention. It's actually the first time I've heard someone question the Alphabet in a library-related talk! And why not? That's what thinking differently means.
My own library has (finally) started to think about the way our own organization is structured and managed. Rudolf Mumenthaler's talk on innovation managment was therefore a natural stop on my way through the conference programme. I think he gave us many good points on how to bring innvoation into the library, and how necessary an innovation culture is within the organization.
Then I need to emphasize Andrew Whitworth, also known as the 'information obesity-man". (Check out his book from 2009.) If pressed, I'd have to say that this was my favourite talk of the conference. Not just because he talked about one of my own speicalities, information literacy, but because his presentation was really well done. (His prezi is available on the conference website, as are most of the others.)
Rune Martin Andersen also did a good job with presenting his project Bartebuss, a bus service app for Trondheim. The same must be said for Jens Vigen, the head librarian at Cern, whose enthusiasm was contagious. A very good keynote-choice.
Half the fun with Emtacl is of course mingling with the other delegates. The conference programme gave us generous breaks with plenty of time to discuss relevant (or less relevant) topics. And the food! So many lovely cakes and fruit smoothies. And the dip that was served in the break was quite obviously spiked with some sort of drug that made you want more and more ... After the conference dinner (which included brilliant entertainment from Skrømt) there was also a prominent delegation who refused to go to bed and continued all the important discussions in the bar. (There was some talk about Viggo Mortensen and John Simm. Wonder if they are library users?)
The best thing about Emtacl, compared to some other library conferences, is that even though I'm basically a technical illiterate, I feel I am among like-minded people here. I've met so many brilliant and nice people, all seemingly interested in making libraries a wonderful place to work and study not just today, but in the foreseeable future.
A couple of talks, I must admit, was a bit too technical for me. Not that I mind. One can't always remain in the safety of what one knows. (Legendary library saying, invented just now!)
There were also talks where the presentation technique could be slightly improved. (Which I minded a bit, but which you can't avoid in a conference like this.)
I liked the futurology-inspired talks by Eirik Newth and Brian Kelly. They didn't really talk about the same things, but sparked similar ideas in me. Visionary without loosing touch with reality. The past and the present as ingredients in the stew that will become the future. A pleasure to listen to, besides.
Karen Coyle also needs a mention. It's actually the first time I've heard someone question the Alphabet in a library-related talk! And why not? That's what thinking differently means.
My own library has (finally) started to think about the way our own organization is structured and managed. Rudolf Mumenthaler's talk on innovation managment was therefore a natural stop on my way through the conference programme. I think he gave us many good points on how to bring innvoation into the library, and how necessary an innovation culture is within the organization.
Then I need to emphasize Andrew Whitworth, also known as the 'information obesity-man". (Check out his book from 2009.) If pressed, I'd have to say that this was my favourite talk of the conference. Not just because he talked about one of my own speicalities, information literacy, but because his presentation was really well done. (His prezi is available on the conference website, as are most of the others.)
Rune Martin Andersen also did a good job with presenting his project Bartebuss, a bus service app for Trondheim. The same must be said for Jens Vigen, the head librarian at Cern, whose enthusiasm was contagious. A very good keynote-choice.
Half the fun with Emtacl is of course mingling with the other delegates. The conference programme gave us generous breaks with plenty of time to discuss relevant (or less relevant) topics. And the food! So many lovely cakes and fruit smoothies. And the dip that was served in the break was quite obviously spiked with some sort of drug that made you want more and more ... After the conference dinner (which included brilliant entertainment from Skrømt) there was also a prominent delegation who refused to go to bed and continued all the important discussions in the bar. (There was some talk about Viggo Mortensen and John Simm. Wonder if they are library users?)
tirsdag 28. august 2012
Det straumar på!
På tide å heise fagreferentbloggen min opp av dvalen. Det er mye som forsvinner når man tilbringer et helt år i permisjon. Hjernecellene er forhåpentligvis ikke blitt borte, bare litt på ferie. Men det meste faller på plass igjen litt etter litt. Er egentlig litt overraska over hva som fortsatt sitter i fingrene. Bibsys, for eksempel. Skulle tro jeg ikke hadde gjort annet det siste året enn å søke, bestille og klassifisere i Bibsys. Men slik blir det vel når man bruker et verktøy så og si hver dag i 16 år!
Interessant nok så er den første debatten som møter meg spørsmålet om vi i det hele tatt har bruk for universitetsbibliotekene. Debatten ble startet av professor i informatikk, Kai A. Olsen, og han gjør riktig i å sparke litt i gamle institusjoner. Det er nødvendig for at vi skal beholde evnen til å fornye oss og fortsatt være nyttige for samfunnet vi serverer tjenester til. Jeg skal ikke kommentere innlegget direkte, annet enn å spå at vi nok får lov til beholde UB ennå noen år framover.
Høstsemesteret er full gang og til tross for god bemanning (= to kompetente bibliotekansatte) bak skranken i kjerneåpningstida er det til stadighet kø foran skranken. Mange har tilsynelatende bruk for oss. Og det er ikke bare trivielle spørsmål om bussruter og nærmeste toalett vi får. De aller fleste trenger hjelp til å finne litteratur, både i papirformat og digitale varianter.
Jeg tror imidlertid at de fleste som er innom biblioteket ikke oppsøker oss i skranken. De fleste lån går via en av utlånsautomatene. (Trur eg. Har ikke tallmateriale for å sammenlikne skranke- mot automatutlån.) Og svært mange er innom UB uten å låne noe som helst. Hva er det så de bruker biblioteket til? Det har vi ikke undersøkt grundig. Men tilfeldig observasjon fra tilfeldige skrankevakter sier meg at disse deler seg i to hovedgrupper.
Den første gruppen er de som kommer for å bruke PCene vi har tilgjengelig for publikum. For noen år siden utredet vi et eller annet (som vanlig) der man analyserte seg fram til at vi ikke trengte så mange PCer på UB lenger. Dette fordi man mente at de fleste studentene etter hvert ville ha egen laptop med seg. Det har ennå ikke vist seg å stemme. Heldigvis bygget vi ikke ned PC-tilbudet til brukerne den gang, for de rundt 30 maskinene som befinner seg på min avdeling er i bruk store deler av dagen. Det er ganske sannsynlig at de fleste studenter har egen PC, men det er nok mange grunner til at den forblir hjemme på hybelen.
Den andre, og største, gruppen er de som bruker UB som lesesal/møtested. Det sitter flust med studenter rundt omkring på UB. I fjor oppgraderte vi leseplassene og studieområdene fordi vi så at dette var et populært arbeidssted for våre brukere. De sitter i grupper og diskuterer eller trekker ut mot de mer tradisjonelle lesebåsene.
Etter mange års varskurop om bibliotekets undergang virker det som om vi har flere brukere enn noensinne. Det er altså på ingen måte slik at UB er et spøkelseshus for gamle bøker og tapte tradisjoner. (Foreløpig.) Det yrer av liv her. Og til tross for ekstremt dårlig og til dels meget selektiv hukommelse vil jeg påstå at det vrimler mer mellom reolene i dag enn for ti år siden. Og da snakker jeg ikke om bokmidd. (Om det er noe som heter det.)
Interessant nok så er den første debatten som møter meg spørsmålet om vi i det hele tatt har bruk for universitetsbibliotekene. Debatten ble startet av professor i informatikk, Kai A. Olsen, og han gjør riktig i å sparke litt i gamle institusjoner. Det er nødvendig for at vi skal beholde evnen til å fornye oss og fortsatt være nyttige for samfunnet vi serverer tjenester til. Jeg skal ikke kommentere innlegget direkte, annet enn å spå at vi nok får lov til beholde UB ennå noen år framover.
Høstsemesteret er full gang og til tross for god bemanning (= to kompetente bibliotekansatte) bak skranken i kjerneåpningstida er det til stadighet kø foran skranken. Mange har tilsynelatende bruk for oss. Og det er ikke bare trivielle spørsmål om bussruter og nærmeste toalett vi får. De aller fleste trenger hjelp til å finne litteratur, både i papirformat og digitale varianter.
Jeg tror imidlertid at de fleste som er innom biblioteket ikke oppsøker oss i skranken. De fleste lån går via en av utlånsautomatene. (Trur eg. Har ikke tallmateriale for å sammenlikne skranke- mot automatutlån.) Og svært mange er innom UB uten å låne noe som helst. Hva er det så de bruker biblioteket til? Det har vi ikke undersøkt grundig. Men tilfeldig observasjon fra tilfeldige skrankevakter sier meg at disse deler seg i to hovedgrupper.
Den første gruppen er de som kommer for å bruke PCene vi har tilgjengelig for publikum. For noen år siden utredet vi et eller annet (som vanlig) der man analyserte seg fram til at vi ikke trengte så mange PCer på UB lenger. Dette fordi man mente at de fleste studentene etter hvert ville ha egen laptop med seg. Det har ennå ikke vist seg å stemme. Heldigvis bygget vi ikke ned PC-tilbudet til brukerne den gang, for de rundt 30 maskinene som befinner seg på min avdeling er i bruk store deler av dagen. Det er ganske sannsynlig at de fleste studenter har egen PC, men det er nok mange grunner til at den forblir hjemme på hybelen.
Den andre, og største, gruppen er de som bruker UB som lesesal/møtested. Det sitter flust med studenter rundt omkring på UB. I fjor oppgraderte vi leseplassene og studieområdene fordi vi så at dette var et populært arbeidssted for våre brukere. De sitter i grupper og diskuterer eller trekker ut mot de mer tradisjonelle lesebåsene.
Etter mange års varskurop om bibliotekets undergang virker det som om vi har flere brukere enn noensinne. Det er altså på ingen måte slik at UB er et spøkelseshus for gamle bøker og tapte tradisjoner. (Foreløpig.) Det yrer av liv her. Og til tross for ekstremt dårlig og til dels meget selektiv hukommelse vil jeg påstå at det vrimler mer mellom reolene i dag enn for ti år siden. Og da snakker jeg ikke om bokmidd. (Om det er noe som heter det.)
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