100,000 ideas!

I totally failed to spot that the Library 2.0 Idea Generator has now created over 100,000 ideas!
I’ve no idea what the 100,000th idea actually was, but I hope it was “Build an Idea Generator and sell it to Google for $1,000,000”.
Around about 1% of the ideas were of high enough quality that the viewer added it to the whiteboard. I gave up counting how many of them reference Michael Gorman, but here’s a few that caught my eye…
investigate Michael Gorman and use him to replace all of your librarians
closely scrutinize Michael Gorman and then paint him purple
create Stephen Abram just to annoy Michael Gorman
write a song about Michael Gorman just to confuse Michael Gorman
enhance Michael Gorman for the Millennials
repurpose Michael Gorman and then replace him with a robot
replace Michael Gorman using Firefox
add the Netflix model just to annoy Michael Gorman
…poor Mr Gorman — what did he ever do to you?
I must admit, most of my favourite ideas involve the Library 2.0 World movers and shakers…
vigorously shake Lorcan Dempsey and upload the result to YouTube
invert Lorcan Dempsey and then paint him purple
closely scrutinize Leslie Burger and then visualise her as a tag cloud
digitize Meredith Farkas and observe her from a suitable distance (see here for the result)
write a song about Walt Crawford and publicise it on your plasma screen
fall in love with Stephen Abram and embed him into a portal
impress Michael Stephens and upload the result to YouTube
podcast about your podcasts and then blame Michael Stephens when it doesn’t work
unlock the latent forces within Jenny Levine and then run through your library screaming ”it’s all too much!”
If you’ve got a favourite idea from the whiteboard, or if you’ve actually been inspired by one of the ideas, please let me know!

UK Library 2.0 Un-Conference anyone?

All the talk about unconferences over at Library 2.0 Ning got me wondering how many people would come to one based in the UK?
If you’ve not come across the term before, an unconference tends to have a general theme (e.g. Library 2.0) but the actual agenda for the event is decided on the day by whoever turns up. In fact, the people who do turn up are the “right” people for that particular event. There may be a small number of pre-planned sessions (e.g. someone talking about how they’ve used a blog in their library), but the idea is very much that you decide what you’d like to learn about and then one (or more) of the delegates volunteers to talk about it.
All attendees are expected to participate in some way — either by giving a short presentation or talk (vaguely relevant to the theme), or by asking questions during the sessions. Once the agenda for the day has been agreed, there will typically be multiple sessions running at the same time and a “two feet” rule applies — if the session you’re in isn’t of interest or isn’t what you thought it would be, you just leave and join one of the other sessions.
As you can imagine, the emphasis is very much on networking, discussion, spontaneity, serendipity, and the sharing of experiences. In fact, in some ways, an unconference emulates the networking that goes outside of the sessions at a formal conference.
So, if there was such a unconference in the UK, would you consider going?

What a day!

I’m finally back home, 15 hours after setting off at an unmentionable hour to travel down to the CILIP event in London today. I’m a creature of habit, and my habit is to wake up gradually at about 6:45am in the morning — getting up at 5am just doesn’t feel right πŸ˜€
I’m too knackered to write very much, but a big thank you to everyone involved for giving me the chance to show off some of our OPAC tweaks, and thanks to everyone who chatted to me or took one of my moo cards!
It was also great to finally meet Tim Hodson (Information Takes Over) in the flesh. Isn’t it weird meeting someone you’ve never seen before but whose blog you read on a regular basis? It might just be me, but UK library bloggers rarely seem to include a photograph of themselves. If I was to include a picture of myself, I’d choose this picture (which isn’t of me, but I like to pretend it might be because his name is “Davey” too)…

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the speakers today, but (am I allowed to pick a favourite?) I really really enjoyed Antony Brewerton‘s session — I can’t remember the last time I’ve laughed so much during a presentation!
I’ve uploaded the final version of my presentation to https://library.hud.ac.uk/cilip/ and there’s also a few photographs on Flickr (unfortunately I left my rucksack at the front of the room after my session, so I couldn’t take any photographs in the afternoon). If you’ve ever wanted to see what a sunrise over Huddersfield gasworks looks like, then you won’t be disappointed!!!
cilipmarch07_05

CODA 2006 Presentation

I can’t remember the last time I was up and out of bed before 6am, but this morning I’m giving a remote presentation about Web/Library 2.0 to the 2006 CODA Conference in Brisbane, Australia.
Given the choice, I’d much rather being doing it in person… instead of being sat here in Huddersfield where it’s pitch black outside and raining heavily!
SirsiDynix did offer to let us use their webinar software, but we’ve decided to do the presentation using Skype (for audio) and Festoon (to share my desktop).
A few years ago, I’m sure doing this would have involved someone running a copy of the presentation at the venue whilst I spoke over the telephone.  However today, we’ll be doing it with free software and it won’t cost either CODA or myself a single penny/cent/dollar.
Plus, I get to do the presentation wearing a pair of jogging bottoms and an old t-shirt, and unbrushed hair! πŸ˜€

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!!!

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 Bisson’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 πŸ˜€
Cheers in advance πŸ™‚

USTLG Summer 2006 Meeting – Liverpool

I’m just putting the finishing touches to a presentation about Library 2.0 I’m giving tomorrow at the University Science and Technology Librarians Group Summer 2006 meeting.
I’m even beginning to have second thoughts — trying to sum up the last 2 or 3 years worth of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 “stuff” in under 45 minutes (when I could happily talk about any single aspect of it for an hour) is proving a real challenge!
Anyway, once I get back from the event, I’ll update this post with a copy of the presentation.
Continue reading “USTLG Summer 2006 Meeting – Liverpool”