Not Your Momma's Library! - Sonya True, Professor/Digital Initiatives Library Director, Vanguard University

This was a great session going into detail about how mobile devices and our hand held electronic world is affecting our thinking process and in some cases our brains themselves.  Notes would not make up for the session, but if this idea intrigues you, then we need to talk it’s too deep just for notes.  This was really one of the best sessions at this conference and maybe one of the best I've ever seen.

Other reviews are here:

http://www.libconf.com/2014/10/27/mommas-library/

One of the videos she showed is here

http://conferences.infotoday.com/documents/204/D101_True(1).mp4

• DON’T GIVE A CHILD UNDER 2 A TABLET
• Brains have neural plasticity, which means that synapses grow
• To key to growing new synapses is to get to a cortical resting state, which means, get away from the computer, this is when the brain recharges and repairs.
• In the cortical resting state the brain is not being crammed with new information, this is where the problem solving process takes place.
• People remember less if they think that they can find it elsewhere, if it’s on Google I don’t need to remember it.
• IF SOMEONE SENDS/READS IT IN AN EMAIL THEY THINK THEY DON’T HAVE TO REMEMBER IT
• The Hippocampus and the olfactory system are the only places where new neurons are created.
• This is why smells have such a strong memory response
• Due to excessive use of internet mobile devices our brains are not powering up
• Mirror neurons allow use to mirror other people’s actions and allow us to have empathy
• Excessive focus on mobile devices and disconnecting from other people prevent us from being able to grow/create mirror neurons in the hippocampus.
• Selfies drain mirror neurons and we lose empathy
• People are no longer present when given mobile devices instead they are perceiving the world through smart devices, think about people watching concerts through the small screen because they are filming them.
• Library Canine Therapy:  At some colleges they have dogs come in just to calm the people down, dogs are more responsive to the emotions of the person and can mirror them.
• Library gamification
• Neomorphic Environment-  The environment responds to the person.  Such as colors and sounds changing based upon the actions of the person in the space.
• Librarians are the most trusted professionals except for nurses and firefighters

Opening Keynote: Driving Our Own Destinies ❱ Brendan Howley

• Libraries are cultural entrepreneurs and they should center on culture.
• Center around the local culture
• Use community storytelling to make maps
• In this regard actual physical maps developed from cultural information rather than just geographic information
• Contextualize community data (beneficial to the library) in a way that controls the dialogue
• Libraries can show the why of how people congregate
• Again, utilize the cultural information of the community to show why people go to where they are
• Libraries can be the place that publishes local art
• Didn’t really explain how to do this
• Library archives of images and art and community generated creative projects can be rented to local businesses
   
• LIBRARIES ARE A PLACE OF RESPITE AND CARE

BASE Guitar?

It's taking a lot of strength not to walk out in disgust

Why I hate Apple

This is how I'm having to take notes.

Irony

I'm sitting here in this amazing speaker and I'm noticing that there seems to be an ironic theme running throughout this Internet Librarian convention, the theme is pointing out all of the negative consequences of technology.  It feels like how Oppenheimer rebelled against the atomic bomb, which was of course his creation.

Nietzsche's writing ball

Today's keynote speaker mentioned Nietzsche's typewriter.  So I had to google it to see what was special about it and it's worth checking out.

http://www.malling-hansen.org/friedrich-nietzsche-and-his-typewriter-a-malling-hansen-writing-ball.html

"The Internet of Things and what it means for librarians"

Presented by Lee Rainie, Pew Research Center Internet Project

The Internet of Things (IoT) is defined as the development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data (OED definition). This allows smart machines to communicate with each other even without human intervention.

Examples he gave of current or future appliances and other "things" that can use the Internet: wearable baby monitors, smart dispenser caps for medicine, pill sensors (that detect when medicines work in your body), monitors for family members.  Smart devices can include thermostats, electrical outlets, home sensors (are repairs needed?), plant sensors (detecting when water or fertilizer is needed), and trash bins (that notify waste management when full). IoT can provide data on available parking, pollution warnings, track water, help protect wildlife, and detect mudslides.

At libraries, Rainie believes that the IoT will affect people (changing our roles), place (library space and media) and platform (the role libraries play in communities).

Rainie drew his conclusions from Pew's surveys of the future of the Internet, focusing on its social impact. Pew has been doing the surveys since 2004, and they have predicted such trends as the rise of cyber attacks. the move to mobile-preferred connectivity, degradation of traditional publishing/knowledge businesses and growing concerns about privacy.

Survey respondents (scientists and other subject experts contacted by Pew) believe that the Internet will become like electricity, less visible yet more deeply embedded in people’s lives.

Upsides: Enhanced health, convenience, productivity, safety, and vastly more useful information
Downsides: privacy challenges, over-hyped expectations, tech complexity, lagging human adaptation to new realities (things will break and we won’t know how to fix them), possibility of greater digital divide among the rich and the poor

It will affect the insurance industry: Allowing sensors to be placed in their cars may lower customers' insurance rates.  Allowing sensors to be placed in their bodies could lower people's health insurance rates. 

Rainie has ambitious hopes that in this envisioned future, library staff can become tech experts, master teachers in an age of lifelong learning, visionaries for the knowledge economy, experts in sense-making and context, and curators of most relevant and useful material. He believes that librarians will be vital in helping people deal with the cultural disruptions that IoT will bring.

He sees the library as a platform (similar language from the session on start-ups) and a community resource.  He hopes that libraries can be trusted institutions and privacy watchdogs; advocates for free and open resources and for closing digital divides; data and collections repositories; entrepreneur enablers; civic specialists and gap fillers.

"Building a 21st-Century Library"

Presented by Travis Duncan and Jeremiah Walter, Pikes Peak Library District

Their 14-branch system acquired a huge new building and subsequently started a new library that's designed to be a "3rd place" community space and which focuses on content creation as their model of service. Their programs and services include:

Tech eBate Program: $50 given to staff members to purchase tech gear or take online tech classes, provided the staff members do 10 activities related to library tech.

Video production center where library staff work with patrons to create video recordings, podcasts. 
"I love the library' photo and video contests, with submissions posted on social media, that both engage patrons and market the library in the community

Programming such as Food by the book, BBQ demonstrations, wine and chocolate pairings, Step into your imagination (green screen technology – putting yourself into an existing photo and then sharing it on social media), teaching computer programming from Scratch or using Lily Pad, allowing community experts to put on classes such as 3D printing, a mini maker fair

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Their large space allows for a cafe, significant meeting room space and an onsite copy center.  Businesses can use the meeting rooms without charge as long as they offer something free of charge to the public in return.

They have a Promethian Board in the children’s area, a 3D scanner, a sewing machine, gaming areas for adults & teens, a video studio, a training lab, and an eHelp room.

For funding, they have such things as a capital campaign going on and donor plaques (similar to the San Diego Zoo or Safari Park).

"Customer Service & Service Excellence"

Presented by Moe Hosseini-Ara, Culture Services, City of Markham

This presenter shared his experience of seeking a "customer service revolution" at his library, with "massive change" as the long-term goal.

He suggested empowered staff by having them understand the reasons for policies, to get staff engagement and buy-in. 

He mentioned the possible need to change staffing structures based on desired goals.  For example, if we ask librarians to be out in the community, are we giving them off-desk time to do so?  His institution trained all staff to answer basic questions on desk, with librarians being called out to answer more complicated queries. 

He stressed the importance of training, providing staff the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and competencies as the result of teaching practical skills and knowledge.  Staff can’t/won’t be willing to change if they don’t know how.  His library changed hiring practices from requiring library experience/degree (for front desk staff).  For example, they considered experience from improv or working in Starbucks as giving some needed skills, with training provided on others.

Touchpoints to consider in providing customer service: Where customers find you, how they interact with you, signage, website accessibility, even cleanliness of washrooms. 

He suggested that libraries avoid creating rules designed for the small % of people who abuse the system if these rules diminish customer service for many more patrons. 

They decided to take down most signs, for example dealing with behavior (loud talking) rather than posting no cell phone signs.

Their staff went through and rewrote policies to have a different focus: this is what we’ll do for you, and this is how you’ll interact with us. As an exercise, they held a Manager’s Hotseat where staff members would mention issues and managers would try to solve the problems using the new policies. This helped all staff in learning how to troubleshoot challenging situations.

They went so far as to write a Charter of Failure… “We recognize the right of all staff to fail in the name of innovation with our full support and without penalty…”  Their public taglie was Imagine – Learn – Grow, and they even modified it to an internal staff tagline of Imagine – Fail – Learn – Grow.

They use a service called Yammer, similar to Facebook but closed to public, where staff can have online discussions about new things they could try, or things happening in the world. 
He suggested creating a Stop Doing List, business-as-usual things they were doing that weren't really necessary (no one actually noticed or cared about), for example doing away with paper pathfinders and putting them online.

According to his institution's surveys, their customers are happier with these changes.

"Engaging Stories Info Blitz"

This program featured four presenters, each sharing briefly about their library's tech programming.

Gabrielle Doyle shared how Calgary Public Library used a software program called CoderDojo to teach coding to kids in 6 to 10-week sessions, with parents observing and volunteers assisting.  Some online resources for learning coding are codecademy, codeclubworld.org and Learning Labs, but they stressed the importance of the face-to-face learning.

Bonnie Lafazan from Berkeley College in New York talked about technology literacy programming for students (and staff), such as using different browsers and their tools and add-ons, free productivity websites and apps, how to share and save in the cloud, 3D printing, and eBooks.

Lauren Stokes from Las Vegas Clark County Library District gave an overview of the programs at their multiple-branch system.  The majority mentioned we have at RCLS; there were a few that we don't currently feature such as one-on-one tablet training, downloadable movies, tech art studios and a DJ @ the library studio. To promote the library to Las Vegans, they created online Digital Dashboards that show library statistics in a more visual format.

David Durante from Pierce County Library System built an interactive discovery platform for their five branches, initially to provide online activities for their teen summer reading challenge, later expanding when they received a substantial grant. For libraries considering creating this kind of service, he suggested a team of three staff members: an administrator, a creative person, and a technical person.

"Gizmo Garage: Closing the Digital Divide One Device at a Time"

Presented by Jezmynne Dene, Portneuf District Library

Dene's is a small, rural library where most patrons do not have computers or the Internet, and the library's Internet is extremely slow.  Her library had a lack of identity when she started 5 years ago, as compared to the other two area libraries: Idaho State University and another, traditional public library. They decided to change to "break the rules" and redefine services.

One new resource they used were four Gizmo Garages paid for by a grant and belonging to the state of Idaho. Each Gizmo Garage was used in a different part of the state and featured 15=20 devices such as eReaders, tablets, scanners, and mini-projectors.

Initially they checked out devices to staff for a few weeks, to take home and treat as a personal device. Staff were expected to link to library materials and return the devices with a report of the pros and cons of that device.  This increased the familiarity and confidence of staff with the devices.
Next they provided patron training, from which they learned and shared a number of lessons. "On the fly", user-driven group sessions and one-on-one training were found to work better than a structured curriculum.  They created groups such as Silver Surfers, a discussion group where patrons could bring their devices and talk or ask questions, and Lunch Time Bytes, similar discussions over lunch.  They will try teaching 45-minute classes at local businesses.

One interesting idea is that they give out a bookmark to patrons that has a list of local places with free Wi-Fi.

One concern we might consider: do we have liability if we provide hands-on help to patrons for their devices (for example, responsibility for resulting problems affecting financial data?)  They are considering having patrons sign a waiver for assistant in order to protect staff.

They also partnered with Wal-Mart and Staples to have the vendors show devices and answer questions in a petting zoo format, with library staff talking about the services they provide.

The library currently owns iPads and Android devices that they circulate. 

Don lost in Rock Paper Scissors lizard Spock

So he has to take the notes for the sessions we're in together.  Always go Spock!

Best session of the whole conference

Aaaaaaand of course the printer at biane dies and I have to deal with that.  Don probably took amazing notes though.

"Adapting Libraries to the Internet of Things"

Presented by Channing Wong, Marin County Free Library

The Internet of Things (IoT) is made up of sensors (on physical devices like appliances) that connect to a computer platform that connect to apps on portable devices. Examples from science fiction are Star Trek devices and computer, or in 2001 where one person & a computer flies a spaceship.

Real life examples are pacemakers that can access a cellular network, small businesses doing credit card processing on devices, smart trash cans that send a message to waste managers when they're full, smart appliances that make coffee, turn on lights, etc. to wake you up, and bicycle helmets that tracks
biometrics. 

iBeacons were mentioned - small, inexpensive Bluetooth transmitters that can track you and send messages (e.g. items on sale), could turn on lights as patron approach, or perhaps could become a replacement for RFID. 

Suggestions for librarians: incremental changes – stay one step ahead.  Workshops for patrons on topics like cybersecurity, creating a secure password, who owns your data in the cloud, and online privacy.

There will be the need to upgrade infrastructure (increased demands on computer networks and Wi-Fi) and security systems.

Although there was some interesting information presented, I was disappointed that this presenter only used about half of his time and did not focus much on issues specific to libraries.

Keynote: “Radical Transformation & Co-Created Magic!”

The Day 2 keynote was presented by Nina Simon, who has been the Director of Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History for 3½ years. When she started, the museum had the twin problems of money (none) and relevance (many people in community who didn’t know about the museum).  Web 2.0 is software that gets better the more people use it (e.g. Google searching).  She asked: How can our work at the museum get better the more people participate?  She used three strategies:

1. Participation, such as crafts for all ages, seeking comments, a memory jar exhibit, programming featuring patron participation facilitated by local artists or historians.

2. Social bridging. She compared bonding (social experiences with people like us) and bridging (interaction with people not like us).  The museum's programming was designed to be intentionally bridging. (For example, having a knitting expert & graffiti artist together or a musical program with both opera and hip hop musicians, bringing together unlike audiences into one program.)  Exhibits featured opportunities for strangers to interact with 2 seats at every activity.

3. Experimentation – they featured a fire artist event. They engage in prototyping, putting out a minimally viable product and learning from what happens (repeating a theme from yesterday's session on start-up thinking).

The results: attendance doubled in first year, the cash situation improved dramatically, and they received positive feedback.
Things they learned:

Note 1: A revolution is not an exercise in concentric circles. The museum's mission and audience expanded but also changed and repositioned.  A few people in the original circle (audience) left but most stayed as many new people became museum visitors. They believe that the museum is for everyone: although not everything in it will appeal to everyone, there should be something there for you. The mission change has required some changes in attitude of Museum Board members.  They've used pop-up museums: for example, a Valentine's Day program (in a bar!) where people bring an object from a failed relationship and talk about it. 

Note 2: Invite meaningful action at all levels. For example, they email museum goers with wish list of items they'd like donated (e.g. cardboard boxes, old cds).  It gives people a chance to support museum, patrons who would like to but perhaps would not otherwise know how to support it. The participatory nature of the museum's mission involves trusting people, and patrons appreciate that trust.

Note 3: Be rigorous.  Be sure you know how and why you are moving forward on your goals: a) Who is the community of interest? b) What are their needs and assets? 3) Find projects and seek collaboration. The museum's strategies are bridging and empowering, with the goal of making the community grow stronger and more connected.

Note 4: Think platforms (rather than programs).  How to include everyone in participation?  (In ways that don’t require adding staff) One example: a website called One million giraffes that invited people to create toy giraffes, take pictures, and post on Internet.  See PopUpMuseum.org for more info on pop-up museums.

Note 5: Make space (a management strategy) for other people to take risks/to do work that is most important to them and to the mission. For example, they created a program that is a partnership between history buffs and homeless people, who work together to do restoration of an old local cemetery every Monday.  The program is run by volunteers with staff check about 20 minutes per month.  They made space for motivated volunteers to lead this.

Final thoughts:
In our daily work activities, are we spending time on important problems?
Take advantage of being a local institution rather than copying the "big chains". 
Participation is not make and take, but make and share.
Working with an artist allows patron participatory works to be higher quality, something they can be proud of.

Not a fistfight

Waiting for Don to stop hogging the laptop so I can post my notes.

"Website Security FAQ", by Richard Thornchick (SJSU student & Project Manager, VMWare), Tonia San Nicolas-Rocca (SJSU professor) and Athena Hoeppner (Univ. of Central Florida Libraries)

Questions posed: Library patron privacy is important, but is privacy keeping pace with technology adoption?  How can we protect patron privacy in a 2.0 world, from both cyber criminals and government intrusion?  Privacy is not dead but online info is harder to keep private, and libraries are becoming more high tech.

Most Websites have URLs that start with either:
http – used to transfer information over Internet.  Most information sent in clear text, so everyone can read it. 
https – adding another layer to make it more secure.  Encrypting information sent over the Internet. 

Libraries deal with personally identifiable information, financial information, and information about what patrons are looking for.  Anytime patrons enter a user name and password, the page URL should start with https.

Social networks – until recently, some pages of sessions were being encrypted (using https) and other pages were not (using http).  As a result, people's social network accounts could be hacked (sidejacked).  Social networks have since changed so that the entire session uses https pages.

There are other risks involved when using public Wi-Fi networks (they didn't go into specifics).

Best practice, including for libraries, is to have all pages where patrons log in be https. Https gaps put patron privacy at risk.

The presenters mentioned two ways of testing websites to see whether they are secure:
Qualys SSL Labs: SSL Server Test (which is free and is updated periodically for new threats).
www.HTTPSNow.org, which provides a security checklist 

Thornchick's test of his own library's OPAC revealed uneven security - some pages were secure and others were not.

Implications for RCLS: Currently, the ROC is http rather than https. Hopefully this will change when the library catalog is upgraded this fiscal year. As a class exercise, we each tested the security of our own library websites.  www.cityofrc.us did not receive a good grade.  The presenter encouraged us to work with our IS department on security improvements.

"Got Data? Big Data & School Libraries" by Evelyn Schwartz, Georgetown Day School

I attended this program for insight into school-age patron assignments and to see if there were any applications for RCLS computer classes.

"Big Data" is defined by the 3 Vs of BIGness – volume, velocity, variety. It's a new way of looking at information: multipurpose, crowd sourced, accessible, participatory.

Big Data can be used to teach original research and the importance of evidence in argument by having students gathering their own data.  Two sites that were mentioned: Gapminder, designed for teachers to use in classroom, and Google Books Ngram Viewer, which tracks references in literature.

Big Data is also useful for teaching about privacy/plagiarism in their daily lives AND their school work.  Wolfram Alpha shows what information is available to Facebook apps and creates an avatar based on your Twitter posts. For plagiarism, students can consider how they'd feel if their posts on Facebook were plagiarized.

The perils of Big Data: an over-emphasis on data; forgetting that bias and context are still important; remembering stories, not just numbers.

"Polishing Up Your Website", Sonya Betz & Robyn Hall, MacEwan Univ. Library and Tabatha Farney, Univ. of Colorado

These presenters talked about the importance of user testing of websites, observing users to see how they actually navigate online content or run into problems finding the information they need.  User testing can encompass microinteractions, or single recurring tasks.

They also addressed the need to weed websites.  Here is the process they suggest: 

Phase 1 is a process of identifying low-use pages with web analytics, bounce rates (people leaving pages in less than 10 seconds), and dates the webpage was last used and last modified. 

Phase 2 of weeding is getting feedback from users of the page (via user testing) and from content creators. (Why does the page exist? “But it always has been there.”  “It makes the administrators happy.”  “Because some user may need it in the future.”) 

Phase 3 is deciding what to weed.  Some pages may be redesigned or have content from multiple pages consolidated into one page.  Seasonal pages can be hidden during "off season".

"Startup thinking at libraries" by Helen Kula, Univ. of Toronto and M. J. D'Elia, Univ. of Guelph

This session provided an interesting comparison and contrast of start-up businesses and libraries.  In the list below, the first option is what libraries typically do, and the second option is what start-ups do:

Test the product vs. test the problem (find the problem first before determining solution, and ask is it worth solving?)  Example - Library catalog – what are people trying to do or solve?  What do they use instead?

Stay in the building vs. get out of the building.  Example - User services review.  Who’s not coming in?  How are they solving information problems outside library?  Check with extreme users and with non-users.

Build it and they will come vs. build it when they come (try on small scale first to make sure there's a demand)

Build for the many vs. build for the few. Not all services need to be for everyone. Smaller groups w/shared needs are easier to define and address.

Learn then build vs. build then learn. Put up quickly then learn from mistakes, rather than doing elaborate study beforehand, building and then never adjusting afterwards.

Pilot projects vs. iterative design.  Example – streaming video service.  Startups better at killing unneeded projects than libraries.  Start with minimum viable project (MVP), which is faster to market and cheaper, and only develop services that are needed.

Collect all data vs. use key data.  Don't get lost in too much data that's not meaningfully differentiated. Dashboarding can track key metrics in a transparent fashion.

Execute the plan vs. adjust the model. Be flexible enough to make course corrections as needed.
Focus on features vs. focus on value.  Example – for instruction workshops, answer the question why should I take the workshop?

Also important to start-ups is the pitch – a concise and convincing summary which communicates value and concludes with a call to action.
- Understand the problem
- Validate the solution
- Communicate the value proposition
- Compel the listener

"Search: Social, Personal, & Everywhere" by Greg Notess, Montana State University

Notess talked about the increasing personalization of search results, and how these results could be used, or avoided, in looking for information.  Some simple ways to avoid personalized results are logging out of Google and checking Google.com/settings/ads, which has settings that will vary on different computers and even different browsers on the same computer.  Browsers also have a private mode that does not retain information

However, there are companies like Rapleaf that track U.S.-based email addresses (dashboard.rapleaf.com/see_your_info_signup) and BlueCava that tracks devices.  There are opt-out options for Google and Bing, and on networkadvertising.org to opt out of tracking on multiple websites at once.

There are also alternative search engines that don't track user information, such as DuckDuckGo.com, dontbubble.us, ix.quickn.com

Facebook allows searches such as "people who like libraries" - the search results will include filters to narrow the list of results.

If you have a shortened link (e.g. bitley/12345) and wonder what page you'll end up on if you click it, try Wheredoesthislinkgo.com, knowurl.com, clyvs.com/urlexpander

For map/geographic searches, Google & Bing Maps have street views and varying results due to different data sources and imagery dates.  There's also the option of viewing historical photos.

"Super Searcher Tools & Tips" by Mary Ellen Bates

You, too, can become a "Google-dork"! Here are the highlights in list form:

Google’s dictionary expands – dictionary cards now have word origin, translate, usage over time

Google Autocomplete - if you type the name of a product or service, type "vs", then stop typing and wait for Google to fill in a list of search suggestions, you'll see what product comparisons other Google searchers were making.

Snipr.com/gdork14 – provides link to governmental warning page, "Malicious Cyber Actors Use Advanced Search Techniques", but it also provides a list of the "dangerous" search techniques that others have tried.

If you change the order of search words, you'll get different results.
Ocean fishing acidification
Vs
Acidification fishing ocean

You'll also get significantly different results when using "natural language" queries vs. when you're not:
What is the meaning of life
The meaning of life
Meaning of life

Millionshort.com eliminates the top 100 to 1 million sites so you can see more obscure sites that match your search terms.

Google Now is a phone app that looks at your Google calendar, Gmail, search history on phone and automatically provides: Translations, currency, next appointment, time to drive to office, nearby attractions, weather - trying to predict what you will search for.

Bates asks whether librarians can provide similar information, learning about patrons and giving them what they need before they ask for it, providing helpful and meaningful information?

To find information from trusted sources:
In Wikipedia – look at the external links at the end of articles.
In Bing only, searching for LinkFromDomain:msf.org ebola retrieves pages linked-to from Doctors Without Borders (msf.org) that mention ebola. Bing also lets searchers find pages that link to a filetype: for example, search for contains:mp3, contains:xls

Gwittr.com allows searchers to learn about influencers & their influencers (subject experts – find out who they retweet, what links they share, what they hashtag, how much they share)

To find LinkedIn “hidden” updates, mouse over blue “Send a message” button, then choose “View recent activity”

Tineye.com and Bing’s Image Match allows searchers to look for similar images (to find out: Is anyone using our photos?  Did they pick up on our press release?)

Zanran looks for images on web pages and extracts text surrounding the image (a way to find graphs, etc. with statistical information)

Shothotspot.com allows searches for places to take a good picture

Thingful.net lists where people have tagged "the Internet of things"

Opening keynote: "Driving Our Own Destinies"

The conference has about 900 attendees, about evenly divided between men and women, representing 42 states and 10 countries.

Opening quotes:
“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves” Shakespeare
"The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You do not blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the president. You realize that you control your own destiny." Albert Ellis, Psychotherapist

Opening Keynote: "Driving Our Own Destinies" by Brendan Howley, a Canadian journalist who works with a library in Hamilton, a Canadian city that is a burgeoning cultural hub.  Howley focused on the importance of stories ("data with soul") and their ability to draw people into networks, motivate them and share teachable moments.  Stories document and share experiences, and Howley suggests that librarians share our stories and that libraries take an active role as "cultural triggers that activate networks" - media, literature, art, film, local history, archives, databases.

At the Hamilton Library, he mentions an open media desk (community newsroom) and a makerspace where patrons can create pieces of media & distribute via the library.  Adam and I were both intrigued by his mention of iBeacons, $25 mobile Internet transmitters that could be used to push content at specific locations via Bluetooth to patrons who opted in.  Howley painted a picture of the library as an institution that could provide community mapping, a participatory culture hub, and even a small business development engine that could create useful interactive maps of city (this reminded me of our upcoming partnership with GIS). Overall Howley's vision is an ambitious but exciting one and a thought-provoking way to start the conference.

Things for kids

3doodler

There was some question what the 3doodler that Angelica mentioned is.  This is it, that green pile in the left is my creation.  The 3Doodler is stupid.

Best conference ever

Don's complimentary crab cake at the exhibit reception.  Not pictured, open bar.

Phoenix airport

I guess you leave the kids here when you go on vacation.

Not your momma's library

This video was shown in the above mentioned session, which is essentially about the damage the internet and mobile devices is doing to our brains.

http://youtu.be/dRl8EIhrQjQ

Dear Marriott conference room

Please keystone your projector.

Then I got scolded

The guy sitting in this office scolded me for taking the picture with an iPad.  Oh the irony.

Don told me to take pictures.

Waiting at the Ontario Airport for our departing flight.  The airport website's suggestion of arriving two hours before takeoff turned out to be quite unnecessary.  Of course that particular webpage also talked about "peak summer travel conditions".  Flights from Ontario to Montery have an inexplicable stopover in Phoenix, so we'll arrive around 10 p.m.  Looking forward to Day 1 tomorrow!