This was a great trip, not only because of the awesome crowd at my session, but also because I got to see several friends (including Evan Struble, who helped organize the event, and David Lee King who was delivering the keynote speech).  Big thanks are due to Jamie Mason of Rocky River Public Library for helping make it possible for me to be there.

As a side bonus, I got to hang out with my friend Darrin who I’ve known for ten years, and finally got to meet in person — that’s the power of the internet, people!

I was also lucky enough to present at the Your Library, Your Community conference hosted by OCLC.  I really enjoyed listening to the keynote speaker Elisabeth Doucett talk about keeping an eye on trends, as well as the telecast of author Marilyn Johnson giving librarians a great pep talk and a lot of hope for the future! They’ve got pictures up from the event, and I’m told that video may be following shortly.  Until then, you can check out my slides:

First up was “A View from the Trenches: Using GIL-FIND in Instruction, Reference and Marketing,” where I co-presented alongside Lori Critz, Rebecca Drummond and Claudia Shorr, fellow members on the GIL-OPAC committee.  We talked about using GIL-Find, Georgia’s instance of the VuFind open source catalog interface.  We had a great crowd and some excellent questions from the audience.

Next was a great panel presentation on starting up a texting/SMS reference service.  It was a loose, conversational panel presentation with Casey Long, Sarah Steiner, James Stephens, Jeff Gallant and myself.  Again, we had a wonderful group of folks in the audience and some interesting dialogue–it’s always interesting to see what other folks are doing!

Last, I got to take part in the closing keynote!  We got off to a late start (partly my fault for getting my laptops confused!), but Tim Daniels and Buffy Hamilton did a great job.  We all talked about the future directions and possibilities that lay before libraries, and it was very heartening to see that all three of us came to the same general conclusions (we didn’t even share notes, I swear!).

It was a great conference! I got to hang out with old friends and make some news ones. Thanks again, everyone, for making a great COMO!

I’m settling nicely into Atlanta, and enjoying all the exciting work in my new job as the Web Services Librarian at GSU.  We’re hard at work on a new website, so keep your eyes open for the groovy new features we’ll be rolling out in the next few weeks.

In the mean time, here are some speaking gigs I’ve got lined up for this month:

• Wednesday Webinars – The Social Library (Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 10:00am).  This is a free webinar series offered by the Georgia Public Library Service, so feel free to sign up.  I’ll be talking about some of the latest trends in social computing and how you can leverage those trends in libraries.
• Atlanta Emerging Librarians – Say What You Mean: Professional Communication Skills for Librarians (Saturday, July 24th, 2010, 3:00-5:00pm, Dunwoody Library, Dunwoody, GA). I’ll be doing an overview of interpersonal communication skills as they apply to librarians, including: basic communication skills, direct vs. indirect communication, conflict management, and professional relationship maintenance.

I’m really looking forward to doing both presentations, and to taking part in the post-talk dialogue with librarians (always my favorite part!).  So sign up, show up, and let’s have a conversation!

Click here to view the embedded video.

I got to speak on gaming and libraries, something that I had not spoken on before.  Although we do gaming at MPOW as part of our marketing and outreach services, I had never delved into the topic.  Once I got started, I learned a lot and started making some connections between different ideas.  For example, I will occasionally play with social norms, doing such things as breaking the boundary between public and private space, speaking in non-gendered terms, etc. (you know, just for fun!).  These and other ideas are explored in my presentation:

Some of the resources that I talked about that weren’t linked in the presentation include Jason Griffey’s work on ARGs, and various TED videos, including Susan Blackmore on temes and Kevin Kelly.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Greenbriar was super-swanky, I had some great fancy meals, and I got to meet some cool vendors (yes, I did say that) in the “secret” Congressional bunker where the office space is.  Thanks to everyone for showing me such a great time, and I hope to visit again soon!

After that I presented Crafting the User-Centered Library. I recorded myself in the session and have created a slidecast:

After my session, I had a great lunch with friends and spent the afternoon watching the Pecha Kucha session. As always, the conference was a blast, and seeing some of the leading thinkers in LibraryLand was a true delight. Thanks again everyone for a great conference, and I hope to see you all again soon!

If you didn’t go, you missed Jason & Rachel‘s presentation on podcasting for instruction.  Wow.  I didn’t think that it would be possible for me to ever want to do podcasting, but they actually got me excited about it.  Sweet! (and congrats, Jason, on the MLIS and commemorative tattoo!)