For anyone who didn’t catch my brief bits of blogging last Friday, I went to LibraryCamp in Ann Arbor, MI. I took lots of notes in OPML (also rendered in HTML), tried to take lots of pictures, and posted lots of bookmarks. The event went by in a flash, and the unconference format seemed to go very well. We went from a blank schedule to a full dance card in about an hour, and there was plenty to do and discuss.
I’m a techie and an admirer of librarians - so, I went hoping I could contribute some info and knowledge with regard to things like RSS and social software and anything else I might have to offer. I’ve been following the sorts of things Edward Vielmetti and John Blyberg - so this seemed like a good venue to go meet & greet & catch up with things. I hope I was able to contribute something useful.
I feel like I probably mentioned my books too many times. Although I am overjoyed about being able to self-identify as an Author of Books, I wasn’t trying to brag or sell any copies. It was more like I was intimidated by all the librarians doing and discussing cool stuff. I had a bit of social-phobia triggered and I think I was trying to justify why I was there - especially since I hadn’t really known what an OPAC or an ILS was for, until a few weeks ago. 
But, I figure if anyone’s really annoyed with me, they can let me know.
I’m trying to decide if I have the time to better edit / present my notes. They’re in pretty raw form right now, but they might be useful to someone. I think I missed some significant things here or there in amidst my posting and editing. I hope to get in touch with people I met there to see what they’re up to - I just hope I remember names with faces! A few new Flickr and del.icio.us contacts help with that, though.
At any rate, if anyone who met me at LibraryCamp wants to get a hold of me or has any questions or needs any help - I’m at your disposal!
3 Comments
Librarians aren’t scary. People just don’t know what we do all day, and are startled to find that it’s more complicated than they thought. :)
I’m glad you went to LibraryCamp, and I hope you’ll consider hanging out on #code4lib every once in a while.
I for one am happy you were at library camp! Part of the purpose of the event was to bring together people from both sides of the table (librarians and non-librarians), and I think the fact that you brought some real world web 2.0 experience to the sessions was a wonderful and refreshing perspective.
By the way, if you ever do get involved in your local library I’d like to hear about your experiences. I also wanted to say that it was fun for the rest of us to say that we hung out with an “author of books”. Thanks for your contributions!
I never felt like you were shilling books. :) Nice meeting you, and your notes are handy, because mine turned out to be sketchier than I thought…but I’ll get around to posting about Library Camp Real Soon Now.