Librarians Matter

My co-facilitator of the two “Being Seen and Heard” workshops in Brisbane next week, Molly Tebo, explains how you can join in from home.

When your PLN is buzzing about a conference not being there sucks. You know you’ll be able to follow much of it through Twitter, but it’s not the same as being there in person and getting to meet people and be inspired.

We know it’s not a good time for budgets. Your library might like to send you but won’t pony up and your personal funds won’t stretch that far.

Lucky for you, we want to give you a chance to be a part of our workshops spanning the two conferences. To be seen and heard by other participants. We are making a video and you can be a part without needing to be physically present in Brisbane.

If you are a new librarian, have a think about some questions you might want answered by people who have been in the profession longer than you. It could be anything from “If you were my manager, how could I impress you?” to “What extra skills do you look for when hiring?”. We’re sure you have some burning questions to ask.

You can tweet these questions to us using the hashtag #seenandheard or for bonus points, have a go at filming yourself asking the question (a smartphone will do fine) and tweet us a YouTube link. Keep an eye on the tweets from the account @seenandheardlib. At the end of this post is a widget with all the tweets from the account as they happen.

If you’ve been in the profession a while and would prefer to answer the questions, hang out until Feb 11 and keep an eye on @seenandheardlib for a link to the question video. When we release the video, pick a question and answer it. Once again, you can tweet us an answer using the hashtag #seenandheard or video yourself and send it through.

Don’t forget to keep an eye out for the #seenandheard hashtag during our sessions on the 10th and 12th of February to get some ideas of what others are asking and for the final video that we’ll be releasing on YouTube later in the week. We’ll also be capturing tweets via storify and posting them to this blog after the sessions.

You can watch the work in progress by checking out our page for the workshops. Movies will be added as they are created.

We hope you can join us virtually and if you ask or answer a question you may find yourself in the video! See you online.

Tweets by @seenandheardlib

I am running the workshop below as part of the Sixth New Librarians’ Symposium. If you are a participant, please read the separate page that outlines what you have to do before the workshop and a link to a survey to complete before the workshop.

Get your hands dirty and build your own WordPress website. 9 February 2013

• DATE: Saturday 9 February
• TIME: 9am to 5pm
• VENUE: Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point Campus
• REGISTRATION: Sixth New Librarians’ Symposium
• DESCRIPTION:
  • One of the best ways to show a potential employer that you understand about online identity management and that you can technically create a web presence is to build your own professional ‘home’ site. To achieve this is simple – buy web hosting and install WordPress. Participants have homework to do before the workshop – buy hosting at bluehost.com and choose a domain name. The setup will cost around $110 up front. Instructions will be provided, but it is essential to complete this a couple of days before the workshop.
  • By the end of this workshop you will have built an attractive, elegant and well-organised home site. You will understand more about the settings you need to adjust when installing WordPress, how to make the site look good using themes, how to make it do more by using plugins and how to add bling with widgets.

… and after a hiatus that I hope will be the longest that happens after six years of writing this blog.

The URL for librariansmatter.com was not redirecting to librariansmatter.com/blog. After poking about and talking to my very nice and patient friend Blake, I found that the .htaccess file had been altered to point somewhere else and that the installation had some very suspicious files injected into it. I spent yesterday backing it all up, blowing away what was there and re-installing WordPress.

My life, similarly, has been feeling a bit hacked in the last 12 months, but I am hoping that in 2013 I can focus a little more on doing some of the things I prefer to do – like blogging here and at FQ.

I am facilitating three workshops and am chairing a panel at two conferences in February in Brisbane next year, so I hope to provide more details in separate posts over the next couple of days.  Given that the day-long workshop is all about installing and using WordPress, rebuilding my blog was a (great? welcome?) opportunity to take some screenshots of how to install and tweak a WordPress site…really, thanks hackers…

I am also hoping to start another Flickr project for the new year. Having done a daily image for 2009 and then again in 2011 I am aiming to take an image each day in 2013 of things that make me happy… so if you are in my Flickr contacts and were part of the Daily Image project in 2011, you may be getting an email from me soon…

(I’d like to say thanks to Melanie in Germany who took time out when she received an automatically generated “hello world” post in her RSS feed to find out what had happened and send me an encouraging email).

.. you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Mal Booth and I are teaming up to keynote the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference at 21:00 WST on Thursday 4 October.

Here is a summary of what we will say:

TITLE: Creativity and libraries: You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means

 tl:dr summary: Creativity. Kathryn will talk about how libraries and researchers talk about it. Mal will talk about how UTS library does it with flair.

 Abstract: Libraries often claim to increase the creativity of their communities, with an implication that this is an important role for our future. “Creativity”, however, is defined by creativity researchers in many different ways. Kathryn Greenhill’s section of this keynote will give an academic’s point of view, looking at how libraries use the term “creativity” and whether different definitions of creativity can help us be more precise when we talk about it, measure it and use it to justify our futures. Mal Booth will take a practitioner’s view and discuss the exemplary initiatives and approaches to creativity implemented by the University of Technology, Sydney.

 This conference runs non-stop for 3 days, presenting continuous sessions of up-to-the-minute issues in libraries from practitioners around the globe. 150 sessions with 10 keynotes. FREE!  You can see the schedule using Perth Western Australia time here: http://www.library20.com/page/library-2-0-schedule-gmt-8-1 .

You can browse the topics here http://www.library20.com/forum/categories/library-2-012-accepted-conference-presentations/listForCategory . Topics  are as diverse as:

•  library services to youth in prisons
• digital storytelling for information literacy development
• ebook delivery models
• outreach using mobile apps
• recruiting library volunteers
• social media tools for job searching,

Here is some more information about the conference.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

The Worldwide Library 2.012 Virtual Conference is next week, and kicks off early Wednesday, October 3rd. We have an amazing (and packed!) global schedule of 150 accepted presentations and 10 keynotes that will challenge your ability to get any sleep during the two days of the conference.
1. The full hour-by-hour schedule for the conference has been posted, with instructions on connecting and participating. http://www.library20.com/page/sessions-and-schedule. Once on this page, choose your time zone, and click on the links to the individual session titles for more details and, starting on October 3rd, the links to the specific virtual room for each session.

2. We still need volunteer moderators! You don’t have to be a Blackboard Collaborate expert, but if you are, or you take the one-hour training, then you are qualified and we could really use your help. Please see the information for volunteers (and join the volunteer group) at http://www.library20.com/group/volunteer-group-library-2-012.

3. Spread the word! Library 2.012 is free to anyone to attend, so please let others know about the conference. Last year we had almost 10,000 attendee logins, and we’d love to see even more people become aware of the conference and the terrific community. Logos you can use for blog posts, emails, etc. can be found athttp://www.library20.com/page/2-012-press-media. At the bottom of this note is a short text message you can use as well, especially for emailing. Please take the time to send to your colleagues or community.

Thank you, and see you online!

Steve

Steve Hargadon
Co-Chair, Library 2.012
http://www.stevehargadon.com

I am at the State Library of Queensland, talking at their “Libraries in a Google World” conference. My slideset with audio is being published at 10am in a separate post.

Here is a CoverItLive window displaying all the tweets from my @libsmatter account and those with the hashtag #LiGW2012.