EULA will protect you from the devil

I subscribe to XKCD because it’s so darn good. (Stick figures rock.) After posting the link to Reasonable Agreement, I really must share Randall Munroe’s take on the End User License Agreement.

Last day of IL2008

A few more sessions to go before the end of the conference. I’ve been much more inspired by sessions where I learn new things (naturally!) from people who do different work than I.

There’s definitely a point of information saturation, so I took part of our lunch hour to get out of the conference center and take a close-up look at the Pacific.

My travel home will span two days, so I have time to process what I’ve heard and plan a few projects to complete by the end of the year. The first is one that I’ve wanted to do for a couple months: create a Firefox add-on for searching the library journal holdings (by title) and the catalog (probably by keyword).

The second plan is actually a revision of a plan I emailed to my boss on Friday before I left for Monterey: instead of waiting a few more months to assess our Ask a Librarian discussion forum in ANGEL, I want to start assessing the service right now. It’s been up for almost three months, and there’s already data I can use. I don’t need to wait.

Routers, routers everywhere

I typed Northfield too quickly in my registration form.

The internet connection here at IL2008 has been bolstered by a bunch of additional wireless routers, and I can safely write this AND post it without getting kicked off the connection (I think).

It’s near the end of the day, and I’m in the E-Copyright: Online Tools session that I thought would help me understand what my colleagues in the graduate school have to deal with when obtaining copyright permission for readings that aren’t part of the library’s collection. And I am learning a bit, things I didn’t know before, but I don’t expect to have to recall much of this because my colleagues use an external company to handle copyright clearance. And I’m a little more grateful for that because this stuff is daunting.

Great sessions so far. I learned a lot of tips and tools for improving websites, and I look forward to launching into a couple of new projects this year.

More later. For now, check this out (it makes me smile): http://www.reasonableagreement.org

Off to Monterey

I’m almost set for my trip to the Internet Librarian conference. The one thing I’m missing, though, is this:

I should have made this last week so I would get it in time for the conference. Oh well.

Internet Librarian schedule

Most of the sessions I plan to attend on the first day of the Internet Librarian conference fall in the Web Design track:

• Designing the Digital Experience Presentation
• Fast & Easy Site Tune-Ups
• Cool Tools for Library Webmasters
• Facebook & Libraries: An Ethnographic Evolution

I’m drawn to one of the Information Discovery & Search sessions, Search Widgets & Gadgets for Libraries, because the speakers will discuss learning management systems. I’m also going to check out E-Copyright: Online Tools from the Digital Libraries track; copyright clearance is not part of my responsibilities, but I’d like to have a better understanding of what my colleagues in the School of Graduate Studies deal with.

On day two of the conference, I’ll focus mostly on the Learning track:

• LOL @ Your Library: Live Online Learning
• Streaming Media & Re-Tooling Library Services for Online Learners
• Blending Technologies for Library Promotion & Instruction

The Solving Problems track has an interesting program on Solving the Money Problem, and I look forward to hearing ways we can improve our library website.

I’m torn between two sessions that happen at the same time. One is Embedding Libraries/Librarians in Learning in the Innovation & Change track. It’s scheduled at the same time as another Learning track program, Podcasting & Video Tutorials: Designing, Creating, & Making Them Work. I might try to scoot from one to the other.

I haven’t quite figured out my schedule for day three. I like the sound of Crafting the User-Centered Library from the Planning track. There’s a session about Twitter that would be fun to go to (that’s in the Social Media track). After lunch, I’m torn between three simultaneous sessions:

1. Web 2.0 Tools for Online CM Workflow & Intranets (Digital Operations track)
2. Making Movies: Cameras, Lights, Action (Social Media track)
3. Pecha Kucha — Conversation Face-Off! (Planning track)

Before the closing keynote, I’d like to attend Information Visualization Tools (in the Digital Operations track), which will I think will be particularly helpful in my undergraduate instruction sessions.

I’m excited about the program because it touches on many aspects of my job: working with online and on-campus learners, synchronous and asynchronous library instruction, tutorial design, web design, and using web 2.0 technology to benefit students and intra-library communication.

Internet Librarian conference

I’m excited to attend the Internet Librarian conference next month in Monterey. The program looks great, and I’m excited about the daily keynotes.

Same old conference dilemma, though: a few sessions in different tracks look equally interesting, but they’re at the same time. Being a first-time attendee, I’m curious to see how information will be provided after the conference. This is clearly a tech-savvy group that will upload their slideshows, and I see that presenters and attendees are encouraged to tag their presentations, photos, and blog posts as IL2008. I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to catch up on sessions that I’m unable to attend live.

This is my first trip to California. I don’t know how much free time I’ll have in Monterey, but I’ll ask my sister about nearby can’t-miss sights (she studied at the Defense Language Institute in the 90’s). Your suggestions are welcome!