Am I the only person finding many fewer recognizable names on the Council Ballot this year as compared to last year's? How am I supposed to select 34 people from a list of 93 unknowns in some sort of reasonable time span? Especially when everyone has the pro-library platform. Oh, so you "plan to support initiatives to increase funding for libraries?" Funny, so do 92 of your closest ballot compatriots. What an unbelievable coincidence! "ALA should be a strong advocate for libraries." Wow, controversial and edgy. Really taking a stand. "Better salaries for librarians." Well, at least you're talking to me, rather than at me.

In the end, I'll probably just repeat last year's methodology: public librarians rule. If name recognition has any bearing on the election (and I find it hard to imagine that it doesn't), I'll bet Michael McGrorty has a legitimate shot at election. Which reminds me, I need to send him a library card.

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.

OK, as promised, a laundry list of experiences, reflections and comments from my recent adventures in D.C.

Preface: Conferencing is all about networking and I met some amazing people at this conference. I've mentioned before that after almost a year in the blogosphere, I'd never met a single one of my online acquaintances. Can't say that anymore and I couldn't have been more pleased to share company with all of my cybercolleagues.

So without further adieu, an extended recap of the first day of CiL.

Opening keynote by Clifford Lynch touched upon a number of interesting topics centered on a theme of the "unintended consequences" brought on by technological development. One of the more provocative ideas he mentioned was a recognition that not all things written are read by humans (consider search engine crawlers as an example). He asked us to consider how publishing and writing might change if it is done with machine reading and automated fact extraction in mind.

After searching in vain for the library blogger contingent before the keynote, I stumble across Steven (already an old friend, even if only in cyberspace) and Jenny. Happy to have finally made some connections, I follow them to the first session where I have the privilege of meeting Michael, Aaron and Andrea.

First session is very inspiring. David King of the Kansas City Public Library discusses the conversion of his library's collection of Internet links to a series of subject guides in the vein of About.com. He showed how a search for Harry Potter would pull up a page containing not only catalog holdings, but relevant web links, library and local events, etc. Unfortunately, it's not live yet, but the user-centered focus on aggregating local resources was a compelling approach.

Next session covered federated searching, sometimes known as metasearching. So many good reasons to consider federated searching, which, for those unfamiliar with the term, allows a user to search multiple heterogeneous resources through a single search interface. The presenter discussed how federated searching addresses the issues of "prior knowledge" (where the user must know how to choose resources to be effective) and "multiplicity of effort" (where the user must replicate the search repeatedly in different databases). Using a single interface that produces a list of results from different databases also facilitates resource discovery. The most promising revelation from this session was that this technology is already in use at King County Public Library. Why not at mine?!?!

Lunch time means a trip to Pennsylvania Avenue for a meeting with Blogdigger's Greg Gershman. He's an interesting guy and the stuff he does has enormous potential. Steven and I have been particularly intrigued by his Blogdigger Groups, which allows creation of a group blog by aggregating feeds from the sources you select. For an example, check out Steven's Librarian Blogs or my Indiana Blogs! page. Greg has been very receptive to feedback and I've enjoyed being a small part of the development of this particular tool.

After lunch, I went to a session that dealt with usability testing. Not too much here, but a few things that reinforced what I already know. Jargon is bad and it's even worse than most think. Just remember that "library catalog" is incomprehensible to a large percentage of users and you'll have the idea. I was mostly interested in the methodology they (being the Penn State University Libraries) used in testing their site. They did a task-oriented comparison of different site arrangements and navigational structures. Capture software was used to record mouse movement, keyboard strokes and running audio of the user's experience. They conclude that site navigation systems are at the core of site efficiency. Nothing too surprising about that.

Last session of the day was the first (and as fate had it, only) chance to see Steven present, alongside two other experts in the domain of "keeping up": Gary Price and Rita Vine. Rita presented a list of top newsletters for staying current with Internet search, most of which I am already well familiar. Steven ran through his 10 step program for keeping current, and again, I already know his perspective on currency, but enjoyed his rapid-fire presentation manner. And he did mention me in his presentation as co-conspirator on Blogsource, so that was an exciting moment for my ego. Gary talked about a wide variety of resources and demonstrated how he keeps track of over 700 sites using Web Site Watcher. He also mentioned that ResourceShelf now provides a full-text RSS feed and I couldn't help but applaud.

The most telling moment of the whole conference came during the question-and-answer portion of this session. After all of the discussion by both Steven and Gary about RSS, an audience member stands up and asks "What is RSS?" And I'll be darned if half the audience didn't applaud at someone asking a question that they all had been harboring the whole time. Wow. It's easy to forget that not every librarian lives and dies by the same set of technologies. Those who are thoroughly acquainted with OpenURL may never have seen an aggregator before and vice versa. And similarly, you can't assume that just because you've presented introductory material on a topic any number of times, there won't be new faces in your crowd. I learned more in that moment about technology in libraries than in any other time at the conference.

After the session, I introduced myself to Rita and Gary. I don't remember too much of that conversation, except for the moment when Gary thanked me for writing that article I wrote last summer. I didn't even mention it, but somehow he remembered. Amazing individual.

Wednesday evening means the legendary "Dead Tech" panel, which explores dead and emerging technologies in libraries. I had heard a little about this session and was told it was not to be missed. And Jenny was on the panel, so it was a no-brainer. What no one mentioned was how "loose" the presentation would be. I'm talking about panelists with beers in hand and almost every panelist having some sort of shtick related to the theme "Fear Factor." It was pretty silly with a number of the panelists mentioning Steven in some affectionately disparaging fashion. Of all statements made over the course of two hours, none stuck with me as strongly as the declaration by one panelist that Virtual Reference was a dead technology. Hasn't even been born in my library and perhaps it never will be. It was a statement much discussed over the next two days.

The late night activity took place at Zorba's Cafe with some falafel, hummus, red wine and good Hoosier-centric company. A long day that finally ended with some much needed sleep in preparation for day two. More to come...

Folks, I have so much to say about my experience at CiL that it will be hard to find time to say it all. I promise I will put a few thoughts out there within the next week, but with us closing on our house, my transition to a new position (perhaps more on that later as well), and other unexpected social events, I just can be sure when I'll get it all down. Sorry to keep you waiting...

Hey y'all, I'm comin' at ya live from Computers in Libraries 2004 with a quick post from the Internet Cafe in the Exhibit Hall. Day 1 has been a smashing success. Got to meet a bevy of the noted librariati and picked up a few interesting ideas to bring back to the organization.

BTW, welcome to the new Open Stacks here at http://openstacks.net/os/ (feed at http://openstacks.net/os/index.rdf)

More later...

A post on the new NexGen Librarian Blog directed me to the following article:

Hanging Indents and the Reference Librarian: Offering Productivity Software in the Public Library - "This article explores ways to expand the public library's mission, and that of the reference librarian, to include offering word processing on public access computers. The author defines access to and the ability to use word processing software as a form of literacy and links this to the library's established role in promoting literacy. This article also provides anecdotal information about introducing this software at a public library system."

This student-written article draws its title from a provocative statement: ' "I did not go to library school to end up teaching people how to make hanging indents,? said one indignant librarian, as her library prepared to add productivity software to PACs.'

You'll probably not be surprised that I categorically oppose the subtext underlying this narrow view of librarianship, as does the author. Rachel Mendez explores the idea of library as learning center, in all its myriad manifestations. How obvious it seems.

Yet she aptly draws attention to the obstacles that we face internally in trying to pursue this common-sense (for me at least) objective. As Walt is well aware, I buy whole-heartedly into the mission of information literacy for all, but it is far from a common thread amongst librarians. Ms. Mendez's exploration of information literacy in the context of offering education in productivity software is interesting in and of itself. More significantly, it serves as a reminder of the larger organizational inertia that adds challenge to that pursuit.