UKSG 2013

Should have done this earlier. Impressions and memories are already fading, so I only have a few notes to help me remember. Some things are not easily forgotten, however. This year's highlight: The bumper cars:) This year's disappointment: The food:(

And what about the rest? As usual UKSG is a wonderful conference, which I truly recommend to anyone working in libraries. I'll be extra bold and claim it's the best European library conference I know of. I've been twice now, and the quality and relevance of the presentations are usually of a slightly higher standard than I've seen anywhere else.

This year's opening session however, failed to impress me, with one of the speakers being both dull and uninteresting. But from then on everything got better. My favourite on day 1 was Laurel Haak from ORCID, speaking about connecting research and researchers. In addition, Brian Kelly deserves mention for his talk about "Spotting tomorrows key technologies" and how we need to base our decisions on evidence.

Day 2 got a flying start with very good presentations by Lynn Connaway and Joshua Harding, both focusing on students and their expectations of libraries. If you have time, watch Hardings presentation on YouTube! He might not represent your average student today, but maybe tomorrow!

Of the break-out sessions I particularly liked Liz Waller and Sarah Thompson who talked about the work that has been done at the University Library of York to enhance user satisfaction. "Great expectations: how libraries are changing to meet student needs" was the title of their talk. (Couldn't find it on SlideShare.)

I also enjoyed several sessions on metrics (and altmetrics). Linda Bennett, Paul Groth and Mike Taylor all gave illuminating talks on the topic.

Day 3 had to be cut very short for my part in order to catch the direct flight from London to Tromsø, but managed to be present at the first couple of hours before rushing to the train station. After Simon Inger it was farewell to Bournemouth from me.

There's more to UKSG than just the presentations. The fact that this is a conference for both librarians and publishers makes it stand out from the rest. I like that we are presented with other viewpoints than just the librarian's. And I like the way these two different cultures come together at UKSG. Yes, they are constantly trying to sell you their products, but they are also showing you the information world from their point of view. Which can actually be useful for libraries.

As always UKSG is a very social conference. There are plenty of networking opportunities, and best of all: there's always dancing after the conference dinner. (For any foreign readers: no one dances at Norwegian library events!) Every year has its own theme and this year's was 'fun fair'. I truly hadn't suspected that they'd actually create a fun fair at the dinner location, but they had. With rodeo bulls and bumper cars and what not. My initial skepticism to the bumper cars evaporated fairly quickly after the first ride, and I laughed and screamed through several more:) In another room, a grumpy DJ played old and new classics and provided a bit of exercise for dance hungry librarians. (He refused to play any of my song suggestions, so I wasn't impressed at all!) Kudos to the Swedish delegation for stamina on the dance floor, by the way:) The quiz night was also fun, but I'm deeply disappointed that the quizmaster couldn't come up with newer artists in the music section than Rick Astley. We're not all half retired, even though we work in libraries!

Last, but not least: I've spent the last 10-20 years trying to persuade people that British cuisine is so much better than its reputation and can compete with the French kitchen any day. But what is wrong with Bournemouth? I've never had so much horrible food at a conference before. Apart from a very nice meal on Sunday evening with CUP, the rest of the meals consisted of cardboard in various shapes and textures. The quiz-food was absolutely horrid! Hope things taste better in Harrogate next year:)

Videos from the plenary sessions are available on YouTube.

PS. Apologies to all the other great speakers who are not mentioned here, simply because my notes weren't good enough!