What: Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo Where: The Presidents’ Quarters on the third Floor
When: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
In about two hours the Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo will begin upstairs on the third floor. A longtime favorite, this evening session is open to all attendees and provides an evening of fun and playing meeting your fellow attendees before getting down to the serious learning that will come Monday morning.
Bring your latest games and gadgets and try out each others. See if you are a guitar hero, winning Wii bowler/golfer, or rank as a dancing DDR expert. Led by gamer/gadget gurus Amy Buckland, McGill University & winner of the Internet Librarian 2009 Battledecks Competition, and Royce Kitts, Director, Tonganoxie KS Public Library, this evening is filled with fun, networking, and of course, learning and laughing. Refreshments included.
Photos on Flickr from prior Petting Zoos are shown below:
Hundreds of librarians, info pros, and ‘net savvy specialists will soon be heading to Monterey for the 13th annual Internet Librarian conference. The buzz has already begun with our twitter stream (the tag is #IL2009), the new conference wiki, and several wonderful videos. Last year Sean Robinson started filming in his IL2008 session and produced this video. Recently the Shanachies produced this video. AND, speakers David Lee King and Michael Porter will be unveiling a new video at the conference next month. Exciting.
The conference program this year features lots of familiar favorites as well as new exciting features:
New LibraryCamp Monterey at the Monterey Public Library, Saturday Oct 24th, 9:30-12:30.
Saturday & Sunday Workshops: The popular Searchers Academy and Web Managers Academy — full day content-refreshed workshops along with new workshops on how to understand client’s preferences and behaviors through focus groups, screencasting, getting the most for your library with Twitter or Storytelling (yes those are two different workshops), practical cloud computing, and more.
Popular Sunday evening networking at the Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo with lots of gamers and gadget lovers sharing, playing, learning and having fun! Join hosts Aaron Schmidt, Jenny Levine & Erik Boekesteijn and network with old friends and new acquaintances.
Terrific sessions around themes: Information discovery & search, Social media & leveraging Web 2.0, Learning, Digital library practices, Web presence & experience, Mobile trends & practices, Digital services, Tough times tactics & tools, Content management, Cultivating innovation & change, Digital culture. Our experienced speakers share so much practical information that you will be able to apply in your environment as soon as you return from the conference.
Fun Tuesday evening event — Rockin’ Battle Decks: Dealing with Digital Now & Beyond. Enjoy presentations by experienced speakers who have never seen the slide deck they are speaking about until they take the platform. Hear some terrific music, including the famous “23 Things” song from Richard Geiger & Tim De Wolf. Listen to the judges response to the Battle Decks’ presenters and find out who they think is the top performer.
Networking informal dine-arounds with colleagues.
Cybertours in the exhibit hall where many library suppliers happily share their products and services.
Wonderful views of the Pacific Ocean, Monterey Bay, and the unique flora, fauna, animals and birds as well as walking trails, outdoor activities (kayaking, whale watching), and retail therapy!
Hope to see you there.
Jane Dysart, Internet Librarian 2009 Conference Chair
At 3:45 Wednesday afternoon, a big group of hard-core conference-goers settled into the comfortable Steinbeck Forum for Internet Librarian’s closing keynote. Once again, Liz Lawley, director of RIT’s Lab for Social Computing, delivered the show’s final thoughts. Her topic was Learning and Play in a Social and Mobile World, and she talked about lots of gadgets, crafts, and how they engage people both in person and electronically.
Lawley ran through a number of wild and crazy new gadgets, such as the Nabaztag rabbits and "Home Joule," which montiors home energy usage. There were too many to list here, but you can find them all on this site. The one that stood out most to me was Botanicalls, a small electronic device with attached probes that you stick into the soil of a household plant. The probes monitor soil moisture and the device will call or twitter you when the plant needs to be watered. Interesting? Sure. Necessary? To me, personally, this one was a bit much. I figure that if a person wasn’t so busy with electronic gadgets, he or she might be able to remember to water their plants all by themselves. But hey, that’s just me.
Then she talked more about crafts, and how people came together through creating things, both in person and online. Even online shoppers want tangible things, handmade items, and she cited sites such as Etsy, "your place to buy and sell all things handmade." These sorts of sites, she said, work "to bring people together in a physical, geo-local sort of way," and she wondered why libraries weren’t doing more of this. Why not open rooms to knitting clubs? Why not open rooms with wi-fi and lots of outlets for group activities? Why not offer more cafes where people can come together and eat or drink without leaving the library building?
She talked a lot about knitting and crocheting, too, asking the audience how many did such needlework. I was surprised by how many responded (myself included). In fact, I was sitting near one perfect example of what Lawley was discussing — one attendee who was very engaged in the presentation had a laptop in front of her and was knitting at the same time. wow!
People want to be involved in all three ways — technical, tangible, and social — and libraries can do more fun and interesting things to fulfill those desires.
Taking advantage of the many workshops on Saturday and Sunday in Monterey at Internet Librarian 2008? Then for sure you’ll want to attend the Sunday evening program — Gaming & Gadgets Petting Zoo in the conference center in DiAnza 1. Join our gamers and gadget lovers for an evening of fun and playing. Bring your latest games and gadgets and try out each others’. See if you are a guitar hero, winning Wii bowler/golfer, or rank as a dancing DDR expert. Led by gamer/gadget gurus Aaron Schmidt and Erik Boekesteijn, this evening is only filled with fun, networking, and of course, learning and laughing. Refreshments included.
