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Internet Librarian 2006
by Reeta Sinha, Regional Manager, Collection Management & Development Group, West
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Usually when one hears of Monterey, California, images of the beautiful central coast, whale-watching, golf courses and a world-renowned aquarium come to mind. For a few days every fall, though, Monterey also becomes the site of the Internet Librarian Conference, a conference for librarians and others who are using and developing Internet and Web-based tools and services as they seek, manage and provide information. In general, the conference is comprised of three or four simultaneous tracks, over three days, featuring over 100 speakers and an Exhibit Hall.
The 2006 conference, the tenth Internet Librarian, was held October 23-25 and entitled "Integrated Experiences: Compelling Content Combinations" reflecting user demand for more rich content from multiple sources as they surf the Web or use Web-based applications. Glancing through the program, terms that libraries and librarians are hearing more and more jumped out:
Web 2.0, RSS feeds, mashups, weblogs, podcasts, wikis, folksonomies, social computing, digital repositories, and, of course, search engines.
In the opening keynote, entitled Grabbing Attention: Keeping Pace with Readers and Technology, mystery author J. A. Jance spoke about how she became a writer. Her most recent work, The Edge of Evil, features a character who blogs. The keynote lecture was not the typical Internet Librarian keynote, which usually focuses on trends or emerging trends. Later, I heard a librarian use the word "Oprahlicious" to describe this year's session. After all, it's not everyday a keynote speaker at a information professionals' conference ends the address by breaking into song - especially At Seventeen, that anthem of teenage angst from the 1970s. The audience responded most enthusiastically and perhaps it was needed to fortify attendees for the intense three days that followed.
It would be impossible to give a rundown of all the sessions at this year's conference but here are a few highlights:
Podcasting & Videocasting featured six speakers who quickly gave an overview of the how-tos and then how they were using each in their own libraries. From my perspective, this session epitomized the nature of the conference - multiple speakers, tons of practical information, and a feeling of mental exhaustion on the part of the attendee at the end of the presentation!
In Comparing Book Search Engines, speaker Greg Notess brought the audience up to date on the latest developments and products such as Google Book Search, Amazon's "Search Inside the Book" and various publisher initiatives, describing how each works and any limitations.
Google was ever-present at this conference as it has been before, from its book search engine to Google Scholar. The Tuesday evening discussion panel, entitled Scholarship in Chaos! Flying High on the Web? Or in Free Fall?, gave Google a break, though, also putting Microsoft's Windows Live Academic Search and Elsevier's Scirus under the magnifying glass. Panelists and attendees discussed the future of traditional abstract and indexing services and scholarship in light of Open Access publishing and Web-based access to scholarly content.
Gadgets, Gadgets, Gadgets! was a fast-paced and fun look at new products - many of which seemed to be only available in Japan or the UK, such as cell-phone jamming technology.
On a personal note, I've attended this conference almost every year since the late 1990s. While some things haven't changed-the gorgeous venue and a dizzying array of presentations-I have noticed some differences. Back in the nineties there were more tote bags and khakis, now there tend to be a lot of messenger bags and jeans on the attendees. The number of participants has grown quite a bit over the years. For the first time that I can recall, there was an overflow section where keynote lectures could be viewed on a huge screen. In 2005, one of the standing-room-only sessions I attended addressed library website subject pages. This year there was the session called Innovative Uses of Web 2.0 Technologies. Two comments I heard from participants, however, demonstrated to me that, all in all, Internet Librarian still has the same effect on participants as it has had on me all these years. When I asked two very new librarians attending the conference for the first time what they thought so far, both were enthusiastic and effusive in their praise, essentially saying "THIS" is what they had been looking for: content that related to their day-to-day work in libraries. The other comment came during the session on podcasts, videocasts, and the like. When a speaker mentioned AJAX, someone next to me said, facetiously, I think, "I thought Ajax was a cleaner." I know the feeling. I have one of those moments at each Internet Librarian. It's what keeps us on our toes and informed as to what's happening out there, even though we may not yet see or use these new applications or services in our own libraries.
For more information on the Internet Librarian and to link to selected presentations from the 2006 conference, visit the conference website at http://www.infotoday.com/il2006/
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