CODI 2006 – Salt Lake City (day 2, update 2:30pm GMT)

It’s now 8:30am on day 2 of CODI 2006 in Salt Lake City and I guess most delegates will be breakfasting at the moment.
Let’s catch up with the action…
Over at The Gordian Knot, Susan “suzyq” Johns-Smith has posted her analysis of the opening keynote speeches:
ยป A Cautious Beginning
Ben has confirmed that those librarians were doing the internationally recognisable “YMCA” dance:
ยป CODI 2006 photos (first set) are now on Flickr
And at www.thezbar.net, the anonymous blogger/bloggerette/bloggerino is indeed venting their spleen:
ยป VISIONS OF CODI: DAY ONE
…I remember being amazed at the number of people who sat knitting during presentations at CODI last year. I now have nightmares that one day I’ll do a presentation and the entire room will be filled with people knitting away (clackerty-clackerty-clackerty-clackerty-clackerty…) ๐Ÿ˜€

DUG/HUG 2006 – Day Three

A little later than planned (due to a mislaid memory stick containing the final Powerpoint!), here’s a link to the “Free Software” presentation:
https://library.hud.ac.uk/mediawiki/dughug2006/UsingFreeSoftware.zip
…and here are the photos from the end of day two and from the award ceremony on day three:
http://www.daveyp.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=14
http://www.daveyp.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=15
Grace Bays also emailed her photos through to me, so I’ve added them to the conference wiki:
https://library.hud.ac.uk/dughug2006/DUG/HUG_2006_photographs
…if you have any photos you’d like adding to the wiki, please feel free to email them to me: d.c.pattern[at]hud.ac.uk
A big thank you to everyone who came along to the sessions I presented in — I’m sure you were all sick to death of the sight of me by Friday, but I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to share some of the things we’ve been doing at Huddersfield!
Also, many thanks to David Bigwood, Michael J Giarlo, Luke the Librarian, and Susan Johns-Smith for their Library 2.0 examples.  I just managed to squeeze the Web/Library 2.0 presentation into 45 minutes but, given the chance, I could have happily gone on for another 45.  However, that would have meant missing Professor Bruce Royan’s excellent keynote speech “The Library, The Web, and the Warp Factor“.
Finally, another big thank you to everyone at Lincoln for making us feel so welcome, to the DUG/HUG team for all of the hard work they put into organising the event, and to the staff at SirsiDynix — I can’t wait for the conference next year!

DUG/HUG 2006 – Day Two

The only problem with offering to do presentations is that they don’t leave you any time to blog about the actual event itself!!!
For those who prefer an electronic version, here are the 3 presentations I gave today:

If you have any questions or comments, you can always use this blog or you can email me at:

  • d.c.pattern [at] hud.ac.uk

….right — got to dash off to get ready for the conference meal!!!

DUG/HUG 2006 – Day One

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!
It’s 01:02am and I just spent the last 30 minutes writing up an in-depth blog entry for day one… by the time I submitted it, the University of Lincoln network has timed my web connection out and refused to reload the page containing the text I’d just typed.
I honestly don’t have the energy to type it all out again, so here’s the O’Reilly “DUG/HUG Day One In a Nutshell” edition:
AM: no training sessions, so went to castle.
PM: Welcome speeches, Peter Gethin’s speech, my presentation about HIP tweaks (big thank you to everyone who came along — hope you found it interesting/useful!), evening meal, and lots of good networking!
…so tired, Homer need sleep now!

DUG/HUG Day Minus One

Martin and myself travelled down to Lincoln yesterday (via Sheffield) on a train that seemed to stop at everywhere else in the UK — what is about a 1 hour drive from Huddersfield to Lincoln is a good 2ยฝ to 3 hour train ride along bumpy winding country tracks.
No sooner had we checked in, we were back at “the shed” — one of two pubs within a stagger from the conference venue:


Yep, your eyes aren’t deceiving you – that’s David “Mr CODI” Schuster sampling the best that “the shed” has to offer!
After popping into another pub, we joined Jim Fraser (from Angus Council) and headed off for a curry at the Royal Tandoori (118 High Street). A fantastic curry, loads of chapatis, a cup of coffee, a complimentary glass of brandy, and all for less than a tenner each… life is good! ๐Ÿ™‚
There’s a few more pictures here, including some shots of the “Glory Hole”.

looking for Library 2.0!

I’m giving a presentation about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 later on this week at the DUG/HUG (UK) Conference 2006 and I’m wanting to demo some of the great things libraries have done with Library 2.0 and Web 2.0.  In particular, I’ve got one slide that has two spare bullet points of space left and I can’t decide what to put there…
Here’s what I’ve got already:

  • Westmont Public Library – publicises new books using Flickr
  • University of Connecticut – staff documentation & info stored in a wiki
  • Ball State University – recruiting students via weblogs
  • Dowling College Library – podcasts of library and local information
  • Birkbeck College Library – RSS feed of library news
  • Plymouth State University – Casey Bissonโ€™s Weblog OPAC
  • ?
  • ?

I’ve no idea if anyone will read this blog post in time, but if you can come up with one or two more great examples of libraries doin’ it for themselves, please post a reply! You’ve got exactly 12 hours before I need to finalise the presentation and get the handouts printed — the clock is ticking!
I reserve the right to cherry pick two of the best responses (that’s assuming I get any!) and in return you’ll get to have your name in lights …well, projected on a screen during the presentation ๐Ÿ˜€
Cheers in advance ๐Ÿ™‚

OPAC keyword email alerts

One of the medical conditions I suffer from is the common “not-enough-hours-in-the-day-itus” — bits of software and new stuff gets prototyped or developed to the proof-of-concept stage, and then put to one side when something more important comes up.
This is something I originally coded in January 2006, briefly blogged about in mid February, then got slightly miffed when Hennepin County Library went live with something similar, and finally almost managed to forget all about it!
Anyway, I’ve dusted off the code and plugged it into ye olde OPACeth.  All I can do now is sit back and see if anyone will actually use it!
Continue reading “OPAC keyword email alerts”

It’s July already?!?

I can’t believe how quickly this summer if flying by!
The UK is currently broiling itself under the first decent spell of sunny weather we’ve had this year, and the annual DUG/HUG (Dynix User Group/Horizon User Group) conference is just 9 days away — let’s hope the weather holds until then ๐Ÿ™‚
This years conference is being held at the University of Lincoln:
https://library.hud.ac.uk/dughug2006/
I’m down to do a couple of sessions (HIP Tweaks & Introduction to Web 2.0 and Library 2.0), as well as chipping in with some of the other sessions (Access Control, Email Notices, and Free Software).
Wireless network permitting, I will hopefully be blogging the event again this year. If anyone else is planning to blog, then I’m going to use “dughug2006” as the Technorati tag. Please feel free to use the same tag on your blog posts or Flickr uploads.
Once I get the Powerpoints polished, I’ll also be adding them to the blog.
Hope to see some of you in Lincoln next week!
p.s. if you’re going, but you’re not on the attendees map yet, please get in touch!