A Quick Summary

Lucy says: EVPL is coming of age. This is my third Internet Librarian. Before hearing Steven Cohen in 2004, I'd never heard about RSS. He's still rattling on about it in 2007; he says the aggregator he used then (my favorite Bloglines) is now obsolete--Google Reader is all the rage. Lots of things I heard about only three years ago have passed into the electronic beyond, and there's still more new stuff crowding in behind. The difference this year? Not only did I understand the jargon, but I actually sat in one session and thought, "We're doing this better." Just one, among dozens of others that inspired me, gave me ideas, and educated me, but . . . we're getting there. And then there was Josh and Maryann's presentation on gaming. I watched two people furiously blog the talk; the questions indicated that people wanted hand-on how-tos, so they're getting there too.

This is not an abstract, paper-presenting kind of conference. It's librarians doing things people outside the profession aren't doing yet--or aren't doing as well. It's sharing ideas and information that will, if we can use them, make libraries viable in the digital world. And it's fun--how many ALA presenters ever appear in costume? Of course, yesterday was Halloween . . .

We'll continue to post to this blog as we put together our reports. I hope you'll add comments and questions--but if you'd rather just talk to us face-to-face, that's fine too. Just don't be surprised if the four of us get unholy glints in our eyes when we talk about what we've learned--this is pretty exciting stuff!

Fun Fisherman's Wharf photos

Avid blog readers,

I leave you with some fun photos of Todd and I exploring Fisherman's Wharf today over our lunch break. Ask us for the complete story once we're back!

-Josh

A fabulous presentation

As you've read in Todd's & Lucy's posts, the presentation went very well. We had several folks come up to us afterward thanking us for the information, including a guy asking if we'd brought any gaming equipment as he wanted to take me on in Guitar Hero. (Of course, we also had the requisite number of ladiez come up, wanting an autograph from me. Ahhhh, the life of a rockstar...)

Below you'll find some fantastic photos taken by Todd. Enjoy!

-Josh

Josh and Maryann Update

Lucy says: I just counted the house--there are over 75 people in the room. Considering the number of conference-goers that have already headed out, this is a great turnout. Josh and Maryann are completely at ease (no surprise), and the crowd is engaged and furiously making notes.

There's been a lot of emphasis on gaming here. It's been my experience, as a veteran of 3 Internet Librarians, that whatever we hear a lot of will be the next widely-adopted thing. As further evidence of that, the closing keynote speaker's talk is titled Gaming, Learning, and the Information World.

Twenty minutes left, and they're still going strong--

BREAKING NEWS Josh and Maryann are presenting... LIVE

EVPL's own Josh Weiland and Maryann Mori are currently presenting their Gaming Insight's to a very tech-savvy crowd. They are discussing the how, why, when and where of video gaming programs. Their presentation is effective because it's providing an easy-to-use guideline for those relucant librarians who are cautious about setting up a gaming program. Everyone will come away from this session with great tips and advise!!

GREAT JOB MARYANN AND JOSH!

Here are some real-time photos:

(pictures will come later, I'm having technical difficulties with the digital camera)

Happy Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

From the Nerd Herd!

OK, you don't have to say who you are

Folks--Katie's out there, and she mentioned that this blog is set up to only allow comments from people with Google accounts. We set it up that way because we thought it would keep out the riffraff; we didn't think setting up a Google account would be that big a stumbling block. Well, if that's what's been keeping you from letting us hear from you, I fixed it. We can now get comments from any and all, without any fuss on your end. Please identify yourselves if you do comment--so we know we're not being stalked!

Happy Halloween--Lucy