Tom and I are pretty excited about this blog thing. We think that there’ll be a lot more opportunities for us to report back on what we’re doing, as well as a lot more opportunities for you to find out about the conference while it's actually happening. We’re also hoping that it will be, well, 'fun'.
One of the most fun things for me will be going to Perth for the first time. I've heard it's a beautiful city. Of course there's a lot to be interested in at the conference - I'm particularly excited about hearing Josephine Bryant speak, who is the City Librarian at the Toronto Public Libraries. I have a couple of friends working at the TPL and know that it’s an exciting and innovative public library system. I think it's interesting that public libraries often 'lead the way' when it comes to providing innovative serivces and facilites for their communities.
As Tom mentioned, we think that 'new ways to communicate with users' will be one of the major themes of the conference. In the Web Services Advisory Group we’ve been talking a lot about the use of wikis, blogs, and rss to communicate with users and also to assist in communication amongst library staff. So it seems entirely appropriate to be writing this blog!
One of the things I’m most excited about are the library visits that Tom and I are going on. Tom is going on a pre-conference bus tour highlighting library buildings and architecture. I’m going on a walking tour of area libraries, including libraries at Dept. of Premier and Cabinet, the Supreme Court, City of Perth, the State Library of WA, Australian Tax Office, Main Roads, Mercedes College, Royal Perth Hospital, Trinity College and the Dept of Health. I'm hoping that my walking team is one of those that likes to stop regularly for coffee. I can just see me shaking my fist at Tom as he goes past in his air conditioned bus. Joking aside, Tom and I are both interested how libraries can be designed to be attractive, multi-use environments. We’re looking forward to seeing how various libraries have designed spaces to deal with changes in technology, information formats and learning.
I just wanted to say thanks to my boss Jen for agreeing to lend me her tablet PC while I'm in Perth. And thanks to my Director Su for letting me go on this adventure!
Sarah
Comments
This is a terrific initiative Sarah & Tom. It would be great if you could give a presentation when you get back. You could really stimulate a discussion on how and why we should manage online interactions with users.
E.g. How do people want to interact with the Library & to what degree are their preferences served by our existing access models?
There seems to be lots of discussion around web 2.0, reengineering Library interfaces & issues surrounding traditional opacs e.g. http://www.techsource.ala.org/blog/2006/03/how-opacs-suck-part-1-relevance-rank-or-the-lack-of-it.html
It would be great to know more about whats happening, what's been tested & most importantly - what has been shown to work. Maybe this could be part of a research activity to support policy development. It would be terrific if the Library could develop a communications/marketing/user interactions policy framework that we could use to inform our technology choices and interface developments.
Posted by: Rowan | August 9, 2006 12:30 PM
Did you catch the Lonely Planet programme on telly last Friday? They featured Perth...I haven't been either, but it certainly looked an attractive place to live and I'd be interested to see if the editing was selective or not ;-)
Will be particularly interested in hearing your and Tom's thoughts post-conference on the 'OPACs are still too old-fashioned' question. I think some of the issues here also manifest themselves in web site and library home page design.
i.e. still looking at things from a librarian's perspective and organisational structure, rather than the user's.
Posted by: Marie-Laure | August 28, 2006 10:10 AM
Speaking as a Perthite (or should that be Perthan?), I agree that Perth is a beautiful city. Although Tom may have a point in terms of its nightlife - but hey you guys are coming over for the scintillating conversation and activities during the daytime, right? :) I am looking forward to meeting you both!!
Posted by: CW | August 29, 2006 11:15 PM