It was one year ago today that I made the following senseless remark:

"Oh great, another blog.

Oh yeah, he's engaged too.

Well, now he's married, he works and he owns a home. What a difference a year makes. The people I've met and opportunities that I've been offered as a result of my modest publishing efforts here at Open Stacks have far outdistanced any preconceptions I may have had. To those of you who've inspired me, a heart-felt thank you.

So let's honor this anniversary with some good old-fashioned congrunting. Warning: This post published late at night without proper editing. Read at own risk.

Day two at the Computers in Libraries begins with a keynote by David Seuss. Again, the theme is unintended consequences of technological development. His main premise is that technology inevitable has greater impact than the early developers/practitioners ever conceptualize. He uses this paradigm to look at the development of web search technology.

The intent of web search: to make everything accessible from one interface. The unintended consequence: obscenely bloated databases that produce search results of little to no relevance for the user. Priorities for library community (information organization) and search engine community (cash flow) are at odds. Seuss sees the future as lying in personalization of the search engine. Choose your own searchable sources using your own experience and discretion. Sounds good if you have either a) experience or b) discretion. I think that's a lot to ask of the user. [Note: There are microcosmic versions of this approach already in practice, such as the Trusted Blog Search Tool, which allows you to limit your search to the blogs you read.]

During the keynote, I couldn't help but watch Jenny multitask away on her laptop, while never missing a beat on the keynote presentation. We move to the back of the room, so she can plug in during the day's first session (not only was this conference lacking wireless, it was sorely lacking electrical sources). The move to the back of the room is auspicious as it affords me the opportunity to meet Michael Sauers, whose name I recognize from a variety of online encounters.

First session is a presentation of an AI client being used for virtual reference at a medical library (I think, don't quote me on that). Session is a little dry at first, but livens up when the client is put into action. Very cool and much closer to my vision of online reference. Not quite The Librarian from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash, but a step in an intriguing direction.

Second session is entitled "Supporting KM with Weblogs," presented by Michael Angeles of urlgreyhot.com. I always find discussions of blogging at the organizational level compelling, although there isn't too much new information for me through this session. He discusses three different strategies for enterprise weblogging: centralized, decentralized, mediated. He defines these strategies by two parameters: publishing tools and classification/search solutions, which is to say, by methods of input and methods of output. The right choice depends on the size and ecology of your organization.

Sometime during the morning, I meet Will Richardson, but I can't quite place it within my timeline. His presentation on Weblogs in the Classroom looks like it was probably quite interesting.

Lunch with my colleague was a nice opportunity to catch up and digest some of the earlier proceedings.

After lunch, I went to watch Michael and Robert give their presentation under the vague title, "Organization Perspectives." This is not normally the kind of presentation I would have selected, but I really wanted to see Michael speak and I had no idea what was to come. This session was really two presentations in one. The first section, presented by Angela Ballard, discussed technology training as an integral part of organizational culture and needing to be treated as such. She discussed the need for administrators and trainers to stay plugged-in to the impact of on-going training and to prioritize training that meets the organizational mission and goals. She appropriately mentioned the need for trainers to stay current in both the technology AND training fields. One idea that she presented that both my colleague and I appreciated was the idea of presented application software in context. That is, rather than another Intro to Publisher class, teach a class that shows how to create a desk schedule in Publisher. Task-oriented classes with practical applications. Point well taken.

Michael and Robert's presentation is both simple and remarkable. The main theme: Celebrate Staff with Technology. If there's one thing I'd like to see my library try and do (other than Federated Searching and Aggregated Subject Guides), it's use technology to highlight our wonderful staff. How did Michael and Robert accomplish this goal? By creating an absolutely stunning video featuring Madonna's Ray of Light. The video featured footage of every (willing) employee amongst the library's numerous branches. Not just front-line librarians, but facilities, security, cleaning crew, pages, clerks, and, of course, the administration. Every department was highlighted and celebrated. The video received a standing ovation from the staff when they presented it and received accolades from this audience at this session. Some people raised copyright questions about use of the song, but others were ready for it to be presented in front of the entire ALA conference. This video was a marvel, but other libraries could use the same mentality in simpler ways. How about a featured employee on your web site? And again, not just librarians. Celebrate everyone who makes your organization run.

Next session reveals the redesign of the SUNY-Stony Brook Health Sciences Library web site using the Plone content management system. I was hoping this was live, so I could check it out in greater detail after the presentation, but no such luck. I'm fascinated by Plone as it seems powerful, dynamic and highly extensible, so I enjoyed seeing it deployed in the library context. It's probably a bit beyond the current needs/ecology of my organization, but I think it would streamline our efforts at collaborative content creation, so it may be worth a closer look.

I base my final selection of the day on my new role as overseer (for lack of a more official title) of ILL within my organization. This session looks at an effort to unify the ILL efforts of New Jersey's libraries through the creation of a virtual catalog. Kentucky already offers a virtual catalog (thanks Jenny!), so I'll be interested to see if we are taking advantage of this great ILL resource. What seems unique about the New Jersey effort is the creation of a union catalog to accommodate the holdings of smaller libraries and allow them to participate easily in the lending process. The requesting interface is also intuitive and easily used by end-users and librarians alike.

After a long day of learning, I head to the hotel room to decompress, but am distracted by the sight of Gary and Jenny chatting in the lounge. Not wanting to miss a opportunity to chat with those toward whose achievements I aspire, I join the fray. Moments later, we are joined by search engine guru Greg Notess. These three just know way too much about search, so they make for a fascinating conversation.

Eventually I find myself chatting solo with Greg and a few minutes late for the library bloggers dine-around. Running down the hill to Thaiphoon, I see the group has already assembled. I meet some new folks, including the elusive, yet legendary Chris Zammarelli and Fox News librarian Jerry Kirschner. Good times, lively chat (rarely about library blogs) and some tasty food, including some amazingly good post-meal ice cream at Larry's.

Not particularly tired after dinner, Andrea and I retreat to the lounge and discuss careers and life for a while. Eventually, I decide to head up to bed. And then I saw exactly what I had been seeking. Michael Sauers had somehow found his way into a conversation with some of the conference aristocracy, including conference chair Jane Dysart. I had determined earlier that I was not going to pass up an opportunity to get into these kind of conversations while I was at the conference. So remembering that Michael was in the lounge as it is one of the few wireless-friendly locations in the hotel, I approach him under the guise of confirming his wireless success. Seconds later, I was sitting in a circle with Roy Tennant, Stephen Abram, Darlene Fitcher, Frank Cervone and Jane Dysart. This is why I'm loving the conference scene. And they all seemed interested in what I had to say.

At one point, Jane asks if Michael and I could add an RSS feed to her blog. Could we? We'll do it right now. I felt like I was participating in a historic moment. Jane couldn't thank us enough for our help. By the end of the evening, Jane and Darlene are encouraging us to submit proposals for Internet Librarian in November. Food for thought, no doubt.

Well, that was enough excitement for one day and this is enough writing for this day, the one year anniversary of my presence in the blogosphere. Thanks for reading.