ELAG Experiences

Before this year I’d hardly heard of ELAG but after attending the conference, I’d have to say it ranks up there with Access and code4lib as one of the most useful conference I’ve attended. The conference is a nice blending of technical talks and issues and theoretical talks about how global changes in technology are reshaping libraries and society. In addition, the conference format is terrific. Its single track, which create a sense of camaraderie and allows all the conference participants to have a core conference experience. In addition, there are different 3 types of sessions: lectures, lightening talks, and workshops which keep things unique and fresh.

As far as this year’s location and hosts, I can’t say enough about what a fabulous job the folks at University Library did. Everyone was friendly and helpful and 99% of the time the tech was spot on. My favorite awkward tech moments revolved around different keyboard configurations and OSs in different languages. For me this was made all the more hilarious by the fact the computers were PCs and I’m a Mac user. So I had to resurrect my PC icon and menu memories. The grad students helping me were SO nice trying to figure out how to setup a proxy on my Mac so I could get out to the web.

The two social events (reception and conference dinner) were well organized, had fabulous ambiance, and showcased the culture and beauty of Bratislava. The conference dinner location at the foot of Bratislava castle overlooking the Danube and the city was striking.

Another great part of the conference was the variety of participants. It was great to hear what was going on with library technology outside the United States and find potential avenues for collaboration. I learned alot about the tools which my European counterparts were using and the challenges that they were facing. Ironically, on the most fundamental level, libraries in the US and Europe have the same concerns, questions, and challenges. The main differences seem to be structural and organizational. Libraries in Europe seem to be more centrally organized and have larger efforts at the national level. Also as a colleague noted at the post conference dinner discussion, partnerships in US libraries are highly dependent on the strength of individual personal networks, whereas it seems in Europe partnerships are more formal and organizational based. I’m not sure if one way is better than the other, it is good to be aware of the different possibilities and their strengths and weaknesses.

The worst part of the conference? – The fact I can’t remember names to save my life. In the States, this doesn’t show as much because after being part of the same community for SO long its hard to not remember folks names. At ELAG the only way I could remember people is by what they worked on or where they were from. This created a situation of great personal mortification when I wanted to refer to people I’d met the only way I could refer to them is by their project.  Sigh. Maybe if I go to ELAG a 1/2 dozen times I won’t have this problem anymore. Overall I had a fabulous time. I’m already trying to figure out how to attend ELAG 2010 in Helsinki.