Internet Librarian International 2010.
To be perfectly honest, there’s not much in the way of facts from ILI2010 left in my brain! They went in my ears, and straight out of my fingers on to Twitter. Yes, I ignored all the good advice I gave myself about taking more time to reflect and listen, and not just pour out a stream of tweets. A combination of dedicated tweeting and reliable 3g (after hearing the complaints about the wifi I didn’t even try to connect) means I was able to spam entertain my followers with huge numbers of tweets.
Tweeting seemed like the entirely natural thing to do – so much so, that when I was sat on the platform listening to Tony Hirst and waiting for my turn to speak, I was tweeting. Reporting Tony’s session on Twitter actually really helped me: it helped me to feel ‘normal’, and not just a bundle of nerves; it made sure that I had to be listening to Tony (which is always worth doing), and not just running my talk over and over in my head; in short, it helped me to stay relaxed and focussed. I was slightly concerned that the audience would think I was rude for tweeting from the platform, but I misjudged the ILI crowd – only one person commented on it, and she said it was brave 🙂
So, my talk. May as well get this over with now. It went well – very well. (Possibly slightly too well! Have I set a standard I can’t live up to?) The audience was lovely – although it did throw me off when people actually laughed at my jokes. Not a big laugh, but as I was expecting polite smiles at best, it was a bit of a shock. Anyway, the scripting and the practising and the agony paid off – I found myself more confident and comfortable than I’d imagined I could be. Slides are available at slideshare and authorSTREAM – though they don’t make much sense without the text! This should be appearing somewhere (probably here) soon.
So, what – apart from sore thumbs and an inflated sense of importance – did I take away from ILI? One a practical level, the MARC-> RDF mapping from the PODE project, which is very useful when I’m considering the Copac data for the LOCAH project. On a personal level, I got to meet some tweeps I’ve been wanting to for a long time – notable Hazel Hall and Phil Bradley – as well as some lovely new people.
On a professional level, I was struck by how many themes kept recurring in different sessions. These are speakers from different countries, sectors, and career stages, talking about very different topics, yet they had similar themes running through them. A lot of people were talking about edges and interstices – places where the digital and physical libraries overlapped. I love the example from Barbro Wigell-Ryynanen from the Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture, who said that when people bring laptops to the library, they are ‘bringing the virtual library inside the physical library’. That gives me a lovely image of library within library within library – doesn’t matter how far you go – it’s libraries all the way down 😉
People are also starting to design the physical library to interact with the digital library, which is another fascinating idea. This was highlighted by Ebsen Fjord describing the cool developments at Gladsaxe public libraries, including a drawing machine for children, a chair specially designed for listening to music, and an interactive floor. I really like this recognition that the digital library and the physical library are just two parts of the same whole, that should work together and complement each other.
Another idea which struck me strongly was the point that we need to focus on the content, not the container. This came from the closing panel, and was based on the idea that ebooks are letting people get closer to interaction with the pure text – and that it’s this text, and this interaction which is important. Libraries have so often been focussed on the container – to the extent that it is hard to define what a book is: is it the container, or the thing contained? Is it the pages, or the ideas in them? I hope we can make the shift away from our preoccupation with the physical medium, and move to a more ideas-based model.
This recurrence wasn’t just happening within ILI – Lukas Koster was at #openculture2010 that day, and tweeted several times that similar themes were coming up in the two conferences.
I thoroughly enjoyed ILI! But what did I really learn? That the Novotel don’t trust librarians with sharp objects. Or they just really like giving us challenges (“Before you, gentlemen, lies a crusty roll, some butter, and a fork. You must use the materials provided to create a nourishing and delicious meal”).
16 comments
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October 21, 2010 at 12:57 pm
thewikiman
That is a beautiful slide-deck, lady!
October 21, 2010 at 1:23 pm
woodsiegirl
Was about to say the same thing myself – super pretty slides! Looking forward to seeing the accompanying text 🙂
October 22, 2010 at 11:30 am
bethan
Thanks both! I really enjoy doing those sort of slides 🙂 but Lorcan Dempsey said the ‘found flickr’ style of slides is dead… what to do? (apart from make sure I never present to LD 😉 )
October 26, 2010 at 12:30 pm
thewikiman
I’m intrigued by this – what did the Lorcanator say exactly, and did he offer an acceptable standard for presentations from now on..?
October 26, 2010 at 12:50 pm
bethan
Lorcan was talking to @joypalmer on Twitter, and pointed her to http://orweblog.oclc.org/archives/002142.html
He said ‘I increasingly find it tiresome, even when done well ;-)’ (http://twitter.com/lorcanD/status/27740524769). I’m not sure what the alternative would be! Maybe he’s just seen too many presentations…
October 26, 2010 at 1:00 pm
thewikiman
Wow, you awesome reference finding helpful person, you!
I think that’s interesting, certainly. Basically the caveat ‘if done well’ can apply to anything, and I still think a flickr-found zen deck beats a normal PPT hands down. It certainly has issues in terms of being a legacy of the presentation to read online, but your first priority is your in-the-room audience. And you (one) tend(s) to present better when a slide relates to a single point which you then expand upon, rather than reading a bunch of bullet points off the screen. Anyway.
That said, I used to think zen-style decks were the gold standard, until I saw this site: http://noteandpoint.com/ – now I think they are the silver standard. Woodsie and I may well cook up something non-flickr-based for the SLA event that you’re also presenting at, so be warned, it’ll be Lazer Pointers at 10 paces. 🙂
October 27, 2010 at 2:23 pm
bethan
Yes, I agree – slides online are a nice added bonus – they’re not who you’re aiming at. And if you can put your transcript/notes up with them, then the whole thing becomes just fine 🙂 I think Lorcan did agree with Joy in the end that it was about storytelling, and that if you told the story effectively, then it didn’t really matter what medium you used.
Those slidedecks are nice! We’ll certainly have to try and trump that for the SLA E event. I do have JoBo presenting with me, so maybe a little live-action hooping? 😉
October 28, 2010 at 12:43 am
lorcan
Hey .. I didn’t say it was dead 😉
Merely that the distraction it sometimes sets up if not done (very) well rather defeats the purpose.
October 28, 2010 at 11:48 am
bethan
I did write that with only the memory of your conversation with Joy – sorry for misrespresenting you!
I agree that it can be distracting – but it can also serve as a good way to draw people in, be an accessible entry point, and perhaps soften a difficult subject. I don’t think anyone’s ever felt overwhelmed by a presentation that included pictures of puppies 😉
October 22, 2010 at 8:20 am
jessicaM
Dear Bethan, I was at your talk at ILI 2010. It was inspiring. You actually brought a tear to my eye when you said that you entered the field knowing nothing but the trials and tribulations that we see today, and yet you still feel inspired.
My sentiments exactly.
You are a great speaker! –Jessica
October 22, 2010 at 11:33 am
bethan
wow, thanks Jessica! That’s really lovely to hear – I’m absolutely delighted that you enjoyed it. I find myself constantly inspired by the fantastic things I see fellow professionals – and especially fellow new professionals – doing. Their hard work and dedication keeps me going, and it’s really great to be able to tell them so 🙂
October 25, 2010 at 2:52 pm
Marydee Ojala
Hey, Bethan, thanks for your contributions to the success of #ili2010! Much appreciated!
October 26, 2010 at 12:50 pm
bethan
Thanks Marydee! was great fun 🙂
October 28, 2010 at 7:07 am
Kendra
Hey Bethan,
Just linked here from thewikiman’s blog to see how you are getting on and I now have you to blame that it’s the end of the day and I am going to miss my bus because reading this post has sparked a million ideas in my mind 🙂
I am frantically drawing pictures of libraries and laptops from your comment about the “library within library within library”.
I am questioning if I am setting my students up to fail in the way I teach the skill sets required to navigate the physical library and virtual library as two different entities – one where we have a set place on the shelf for everything and everything in it’s place, and another world where we have searches and links and subscriptions and embargos and different databases and platforms. Is there a better way? What does it look like?
Not sure how much sense I am making but boy you have fired me up!
It is good that term ends here tomorrow so I can make some sense out of this over the summer – Thank you for dragging my thoughts from reading lists back to the bigger picture 🙂
p.s. “the content, not the container” will have to wait for tomorrow!
October 28, 2010 at 12:02 pm
bethan
Hi Kendra! Nice to hear from you 🙂
So pleased it’s inspired you! It was a great conference, and I came away buzzing. I think you’re right – we might be doing users a disservice in teaching them to regard the physical and the digital library as different entities, instead of different parts of the same whole. I’d be really interested to hear what you think about new approaches! You should totally blog about it 🙂
ps summer? so jealous…
November 9, 2010 at 2:04 pm
Libraries & Stealth Advocising! « thewikiman
[…] images, one point per slide, the image being a visual metaphor of some kind for that point) is dead or dying. Then I saw NoteandPoint, a site devoted entirely to showcasing lovely presentations. The slide […]