Library Web Chic

I arrived safely in Washington DC for Computers in Libraries. The flight was uneventful and it didn’t take long to get from the airport to where I was staying. The highlight of the day was running into Marianne Eimer from SUNY Potsdam and Jill Hurst-Wahl from Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies on the subway into town. It is ironic how small a world it is. I still keep in touch with people I work with. In fact, I’m going to the conference with a former colleague from SUNY Cortland. But I left NY a little over six months ago and unintentionally I keep running into people from that world. Not that this is a bad thing, it just throws me for a loop sometimes, particularly since I haven’t completely adjusted to being somewhere else.
During the evening, I had the pleasure of hosting a CIL dine-around at Thaiphoon. I probably talked a little too much about what I’m doing at my job, but its difficult not to share. The food was great and the conversation lively. I crossed pathes with another colleague who I’d met virtually when I worked at Cortland on SFX. Talked to some ladies who work for the Minuteman Library Network or belong to other consortia in Massasschusetts. It was nice to hear about consortia that work well and truly benefit their members. I’ve been thinking a lot about the arrangement between the libraries in the UH system and how it doesn’t really work because it isn’t a true consortia. Besides sharing a catalog what do we have in common? What’s our motivation to cooperate and act collectively and collaboratively? I wish that things could be different and more functional. Otherwise I really don’t see the point. Having a shared ILS doesn’t seem to be enough to hold libraries together in a meaningful way, particularly when the catalog/ILS is just one facet of the library.

Tomorrow is my first presentation and I’m really excited about talking about open source software and how it can be used as part of library websites. I’m also looking forward to the other part of the talk which will be about AJAX. I don’t know a lot about that topic and really am looking forward to learning more. Particularly since I think we want to use it extensively in the Libraries’ new content management system. Glancing at the program there seems to be several other things of interest. In addition to going to presentations, I’m hoping to meet (in person) Meredith Farkas and Jenica Rogers if I can. All of this and the Dead Tech program in the evening will make for a busy day. I’d better rest up!