As the founder, curator, and voice of “LIVE from the NYPL,” an innovative series of public talks, debates, performances, it is Holdengraber’s responsibility to “think up programs that will stimulate intellectual fervor, inspire discussion and dissent, and create forums to bring books and people together.” He defines what he does in two words: “cognitive theater!” He has interviewed, moderated or, as he prefers to say, instigated—conversations with writers, artists, world leaders, humorists, cooks, psychoanalysts, and filmmakers from around the globe. In a passionate and engaging interview Erik Boekesteijn will goad Paul Holdengraber and have him reveal why he believes that public conversations are one fundamental way to make libraries irresistible to ensure their everlasting importance for the future.

There’s no denying that the internet and social networking trends have had a great influence on the information behaviors of digital customers. In order for organizations to successfully adapt to these new trends, it helps to formulate some strategies that can provide a digital “eeedge.” Join our forward-thinking speaker for an engaging discussion on how to build and incorporate new strategies for digital natives that take advantage of social media trends. Ideas apply to digital natives in all types of libraries.

New technology tools and techniques are changing the way users think about and interact with the websites they frequent. Businesses that recognize the radical shift in customer expectations know that usability isn’t enough and are increasingly obsessed with building websites and applications that deliver great user experiences. King explains the concepts behind designing experiences on the web, emphasizing current best practices in three key areas: structure — creating better experiences by improving a website’s ease-of-use; community — memorable experiences and conversations created via online participation and community, the essence
of Web 2.0; customers — learn how to stage experiences online that are guaranteed to surprise and delight customers. Filled with practical tips on turning potentially negative experiences into memorable ones, this session provides lots of ideas to try on your website, no matter what type of library environment you work in.

Since the invention of Google, documents can exist in a “cloud-type” environment. Google has even involved itself in scanning all books in the public domain to be accessed by anyone all over the world. Going beyond this, could we move a library collection to the Google environment? Weldon shows the migration from an off-the shelf environment to the Google document library based on your organization’s email domain. The end results are less dependency on the IT department, more control in the librarian’s hands, and stress reduction in the workplace. Learn how to convert your library to a Google environment that would include online reference interviews with patrons. The second presenters realized that 69% of technology consumers classify themselves as either “connected but hassled” or “inexperienced experimenters.” In their community with a “mature” population, TechChat was developed to allow users an opportunity to see, touch, and learn about everyday gadgets such as cell phones, iPods, digital cameras, and GPS navigations systems. A wiki was chosen as an innovative and effective way to share institutional knowledge throughout the Bedford Public Library System using a combination of cheat sheets, FAQs, online tutorials, product reviews, and practice quizzes. Hear how Novalis and Day focused on learning how to use Web 2.0 tools to educate staff and community.

Libraries have traditionally had an emphasis on the physical storage, preservation and access to books and other materials. With increasing costs and the necessity of expanding/renovating physical libraries, it’s necessary to find other places and ways to store items that are not used frequently. Off-site and high-density storage are options, but one library looked at a newer type of alternative storage, a robotic automated, high density storage and retrieval system (ASRS). The system was a catalyst to the evolution of their philosophy of library services and access and allowed creation of innovative spaces and services—an interactive learning center with a variety of learning spaces and many new services and collaborations. Speakers discuss how they engaged support from their communities, criteria for determining what components of the collection would be placed into the robot, how it should be configured to meet your needs, how to select an ASRS vendor through a public procurement process, lessons learned, and how to optimize the opportunities this new paradigm offers in the evolution of library design.

Hear how a new building brought more than just a cutting-edge physical space. Library services were redesigned around outreach, virtual users, and the library’s ongoing commitment to extreme customer service. Blyberg talks about SOPAC 2.0 and how it has grown and changed since implementation, its impact on services, library members, and the growth of the development community. Hams shares how she incorporated early literacy development into both the virtual and physical design of Children’s Services and wove technology into a largely traditional area while building dynamic programming and an original organizational scheme for children’s books. Ludwig has created a teen program that uses social networking, technology, and gaming to bring teens into the library for more than just their homework. Sheehan provides an update on reference services without a reference desk, strict Dewey, or traditional staffing model. The new Darien Library provides research assistance with roving librarians in a collaborative learning environment blending in-person and remote assistance. Hear about their strategies, innovative practices, and impact on the community.

Open source software (OSS) that is free to reuse, study, modify, and distribute is quickly being adopted by libraries today. From office productivity suites such as OpenOffice to library-specific applications such as ILS programs, next-gen catalogs, and Firefox extensions, the open source movement has a lot to offer libraries. This session looks at the many types of OSS available and how libraries are making use of them.

The best part of using an open-source browser such as Firefox is having the ability to create add-ons and extensions to handle a myriad of tasks and applications. From library toolbars, OPAC searches, and right-click context menus, innovative libraries can offer patrons added functionality through these simple Firefox extensions. This session focuses on Firefox and other open source browsers and their possibilities for libraries.

The latest trend in conferences is to hold an open “camp” or “un”-conference in which the tone is informal and the program is determined by the attendees. Our panelists have all had experience organizing and hosting such events and talk about the process of coordinating a library “camp,” compare them to traditional conferences, and highlight when these camps are most effective.

The speakers discuss getting ready for a Koha implementation and share their learnings from the evaluation and planning stages. From both the librarian and IT perspective, they discuss why they were comfortable moving to open source software for their catalog, the steps mapped out on the road to migration, and how money was freed up for migration by staggering the process and provide good resources for more information.

The two main strategies of the Open Access (OA) movement, which strives to make scholarly literature and other resources freely available online to all readers, consist of green OA, involving the self-archiving of materials in digital repositories, and gold OA, which includes open access journal publishing. Salo discusses OA from the green side, including both institutional and disciplinary repositories. Buckland tackles OA from the gold side and looks at Public Knowledge Project’s Open Journal Systems and how academic libraries can support OA scholarly publishing at their universities.

Keeping up with the ever-changing web could be a full-time job. Save yourself the work and come to this session which highlights websites and tools that you can use to connect with your community, make your website better, and make your job easier and more fun.

With the ever-increasing extension of our libraries’ (and our own) presences throughout the web, including on social networks, we need to find innovative and efficient ways to manage our social network identities. Schwartz highlights tools for managing your online presence
increasing your professional credibility, and marketing your skills. The panel then provides tips and strategies for building a consistent, meaningful online identity, and share personal and professional experiences with the tools.

Do you think that your staff and customers understand Web 2.x? Are customers coming in and knowing more about it than your staff? Or does your staff know about it and the customers are still confused? Learn how you can present programs on Web 2.x technology that
meet the often unique but similar needs of your customers and staff. Our experienced speakers discuss the trials, tribulations, and celebrations that come from training anyone. Ask them what Web 2.x sites were used to not only to connect on this presentation but how they marketed their classes (to staff or customers).

The proliferation of Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Enterprise 2.0, and other 2.0 technologies is nothing short of astonishing. These technologies seemingly spring up overnight, demanding our attention and immediate adoption. Individuals can meet this ultimatum for agility; libraries
usually cannot. If they are to be part of “creating tomorrow” within their work environments, information professionals must evaluate the technologies and services in light of their organizations’ goals, expectations, and culture. What is actually of value to our users? We need to guard against adopting and promoting technologies just because they are new, shiny, and cool. What problem will these technologies solve? Or are we tempted to embrace a technology while looking for a problem to solve? Beyond that, how do we convince management to allow us to implement these technologies? Getting buy-in from IT is far from a trivial concern, since those professionals worry about losing control and about security. This session will give some practical tips about evaluating, recommending, and justifying today’s and tomorrow’s 2.0 tools in library settings.

“Pecha kucha” is Japanese for the sound of conversation and represents a fast-paced series of presentations. Each panelist has 6 minutes and 40 seconds along with 20 images to express his/her opinion about 2.0 strategies and practices in their libraries. Each takes a technology—blogs, MySpace, wiki, Flickr. See if they can do it, and then join the conversation about social software tools, tricks, and practices.

New technologies are offering incredible opportunities for enhancing reference services. Presenters from Yale and the 10th Circuit Courts Library share their experiences at creating and managing virtual reference services, recommending strategic choice of screen names, integrating IM with traditional and virtual library and social networking services, sustainable management structures, managing buddy lists, maximizing widgets, and training to help librarians feel comfortable with the language and culture of IM. At the Congressional Research Service, new tools have eclipsed the need for complex software to analyze raw data. Now reference librarians use visually compelling tools that allow patrons to quickly see and communicate relationships between diverse events, such as the correlation between sales of ice cream and the incidence of burglary. Johansson demonstrates three new web tools at CRS and the efforts to extend these across a federal research community.

Brigham Young University’s Harold B. Lee Library has experimented with and used virtual reference services since 2001. It has found the technology has influenced both virtual and faceto- face reference. Whitchurch explores the changing nature of the reference desk; the personnel; and the technologies, e.g., IM, texting, screencasting, etc., used to provide reference services. And Anderson discusses how many library patrons, as well as librarians, often forget that there is a living, breathing person on the other side of the computer screen. He gives tips and tricks for online etiquette, friendly communication, relating to virtual patrons without being robotic, and dealing with problem patrons online, whether on textbased reference chat or virtual worlds such as Second Life, There.com, and Lively.

Libraries and librarians aren’t first on many people’s radar screen when they need information. These two libraries have aggressively sought and implemented new, innovative services that reach patrons where they are. NRC-CISTI partners with Swets and a major search engine to provide direct, deep linking for clients to content in web search results. By allowing discovery to happen in the user’s regular work environment, NRC-CISTI is focusing its expertise on delivery, developing streamlined access to free or paid content. Collins describes the challenges inherent in reformatting metadata for more than 15 million articles, the search engine integration, and the resulting discovery-to-delivery experience with clients. Then Hibner describes Salem-South Lyon District Library’s experiences using tablet PCs and an iPod Touch to provide roving reference with patrons wherever they may be. Hibner also discusses Twitter as a communication tool with library users, chat reference service, and various online tools from Scribd.com, to Slideshare.com, Linkbunch.com, and Delicious.com.

These case studies help filter out the noisy and sometimes deafening Second Life (SL) and 2.0 buzz and describe how these tools are being used for the benefit of students and faculty. First, Buckman and Godfrey (aka Jambina and Danu in SL) share their experiences implementing a reference service in SL for their university libraries, highlighting what needs to be considered when offering traditional services in cutting-edge environments in terms of hardware, software, and “peopleware.” Mairn discusses some Web 2.0 “thingamajigs” and shows real-life examples of these tools in action within Course Management Systems. He shows how to implement an “embedded librarian” resource web page including video, chat, and remote desktop functionality; how to make use of Wikipedia for a forum for scholarship; and shares other ideas that can easily be incorporated into courses to help improve student/teacher communication
and ultimately to enhance learning.

SharePoint Server is a Microsoft product for internal communication, document sharing, and content management. Albert S. Cook Library’s Reference Dept. at Towson University uses SharePoint for a reference portal, enhancing communication and knowledge-sharing among
a growing mobile group of employees. The speakers highlight SharePoint’s features, how they’ve implemented it as a reference portal, and future directions. Frederick County Public Libraries is changing the idea of reference service from one of location to one of activity. These
speakers describe their mobile reference service model that employs hand-held PCs and Vocera communications badges, and advances they’re realizing in a more proactive reference service, assisting more patrons and improving seamless communication across departments. Come hear what these libraries have learned!

Breeding looks at the current automation scene from an international perspective. As a recent senior Fulbright Specialist in Argentina and visitor to many nations during the last few years, Breeding has expanded his research on library automation and shares leading examples set by libraries in North America and other geographic regions. Gain insights as you plan for the future of your library automation.

Information library system vendors exhibiting at CIL share the latest features of their systems and the best practices of their leading-edge clients. Hear how these products are being used creatively in different types of libraries.

To a customer seeking information or support, the library catalog and the library website are one and the same. Historically, because of closed code or limited technical know-how, libraries have managed these two services as distinct products —often living on different  servers, perhaps even managed by different departments and governed by disparate style and design rules. Howard County Library created a new model. The catalog and the website serve the same purposes—they educate customers on our offerings, our collections and our services and both serve to reduce the cost of discover and delivery. This session illustrates how the library designed its website and catalog, gives a tour, and offers links to applets and scripts that other libraries can use.

This session showcases recent successes with open source library software, including the first public library in Maryland to go live with open source library automation software, and another experience migrating to a multilibrary installation. Speakers discuss why they chose open source software, describe what was involved in selecting and implementing an open source library ILS, compare traditional versus open source licensing models, describe what went right, and lessons-learned, and address some of the challenges and opportunities open source software presents in library settings.

With the evolution of the library away from strictly holdings toward the inclusion of digital archives, knowledge management, and shrinking staff budgets, it no longer makes much sense to put all of one’s eggs in a single basket. Traditional vendor ILSs have excelled in some areas and been noticeably weak in others. No single solution should be expected to handle all of the information in a library’s domain. Wallace discusses focusing on open architecture, where the data from disparate sources is accessible via a common gateway, and functional modularity allows development of excellent input/maintenance interfaces and more focused search results. Breeding shares the vision of an open library project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and led by Duke University. The project involves a careful analysis of business process workflows leading to the development of a set of requirements for an automation environment, based on the service oriented architecture, for modern libraries. Though the current project focuses on the development of a conceptual framework and functional requirements, it works toward the opportunity for a follow-on effort to build a system with involvement and support from a community of interested organizations and individuals. Forsman discusses and illustrates with practical examples several services available for libraries to expand OPAC functionality and enhance web pages by utilizing a web service architecture.

Hear from a number of Library Journal “Movers & Shakers” and CIL experts on their views of dead and innovative technologies affecting our libraries now and as we create the future.

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