Want to sharpen your web search skills? Find information in the real-time collaborative and social web? Learn from the experts? Join search veterans, speakers, and authors to learn the latest strategies and techniques for searching online. This fast-paced, newly updated, day-long event allows you to interact with the experts, who share their searching secrets and expertise as they focus on the most-current practices in the field of web research. There’s always something new to be learned from these leading-edge panelists. Participants should have basic experience with web searching, but even searchers with an extensive searching background will find tips to polish and advance their skills and will come away with new resources and tools. Academy topics include the following:

• Hidden Tools & Features of the Major Search Engines: Learn about the new and little-known search features of the Big Three.
• Desert Island Databases: What online resources would you consider essential if you were stranded on a desert island?
• Cost-Effective Searching: Online strategies/practices for tough times to get the most for your search dollar and your time
• Searching the Social Web: Find out how to tap into the social web to glean intelligence
• Subject Search Round-Up: Hear from experts on the specific tools and resources for searching in a variety of specialized topics

User expectations of what a good website is and does are higher than ever. Users expect high-quality information and services to be available to them whenever and wherever they are, be it via their desktop, mobile device, or via social media channels. Administrators are increasingly seeking both qualitative and quantitative data from libraries to justify expenditures and focus. How can library web managers satisfy all of these demands? This workshop explores ways to take your website to the next level, turning it from a menu that leads users into a disjointed set of content repositories and services, to a unified service delivery platform which creates, deploys, and repurposes high-impact content and uses analytics to identify “friction points” on any website and in social media channels. Learn to deliver content and services to users beyond the library website through other channels like mobile and social media. Get tips, techniques, and strategies to help create a seamless and “frictionless” web experience. Learn to create, deliver and repurpose high-impact content. Know how to evaluate and measure the strengths and weaknesses of your website and social media and be prepared to positively face off with both users and stakeholders!

This interactive and hands-on workshop provides a complete overview of mobile technologies, discusses the concept of the mobile revolution, and shares the potential applications to libraries. This tailored learning experience includes expert guest speakers presenting ideas originally shared at the online Handheld Librarian conferences. The workshop outlines the major mobile technologies available for libraries and exact methods for applying them with strategies for success. It focuses on interactive discussions enhanced by the mobile tools themselves and features immersive hands-on learning and playing to deliver specific take-aways that attendees can immediately apply to their libraries. Bring your laptop/notebook/ mobile device/tablet!

Learn how and why to create positive user experiences in your interactive digital spaces. Work with two experts in library web design and user experience design to learn some tips, tricks, and best practices that you can implement immediately. Discover best practices for designing interactive digital spaces: websites, catalogs, mobile devices, and even managing web presences we have little control over (like database interfaces, ebook interfaces, and social media sites). Come and learn to do the following: improve the overall usability of your digital spaces; design to meet user needs and goals as well as your own organizational objectives; improve the elegance and beauty of your designs; reduce the number of steps users must take to meet their objectives; reduce excessive features that do not meet user needs; and create manageable project plans to implement user experience design at your library.

Being an effective manager or supervisor and team builder is both incredibly challenging and rewarding. From the time you accept the new position, you need to adopt new thinking, skills, and approaches. This interactive workshop, invites you to work on these approaches and skills,becoming a pro by focusing on the P’s: priorities, politics and planning; the R’s: responsibilities and respecting perspectives; and the O’s: open com-munication and overseeing without overwhelming. This workshop is alsouseful in preparing those who want to move up to management. It illus-trates all those good practices necessary to become a good manager.

HTML5 and CSS3 have been released and are changing the way webdevelopers work with geolocation, native video, offline storage, semanticmarkup elements, canvas elements, drag and drop, opacity, gradients, andmore. With wide support in mobile browsers and the latest browser releases from Google and Firefox, HTML5 and CSS3 are poised to be the new technologies to build the next version of the web. Clark, who builds digital library applications and sets digital content strategy, looks at some ofthe possibilities, trends, and enhancements that HTML5 and CSS3 enable, talks through specifics of implementation and how you can get startedusing HTML5 and CSS3 in your apps today, suggests ideas for library applications, and shares tips and techniques for using the full power of these new tools.

This workshop explains what mashups are, how they can be used, and shares examples from libraries around the world. In the first half of this workshop, attendees will learn about some of the tools they can use to mash up library data with content from the web to reach more patrons.  Examples include using maps to enhance library data, using Flickr for digital collections, and creating library websites with data from several information sources. After learning the basics and seeing examples from other libraries around the world, attendees will have a chance to create a website pulling data from several sources on the web. After attending this talk, librarians will be able to define what a mashup is and identify mashups on library sites and the web; find tools and APIs to gather datafor their own library sites; and pull data from other sites into a website

If designed well, games can be a motivating tool to teach and to entertain. One of the challenges of being an instructor is avoiding the traps of presenting slide after slide from a PowerPoint presentation or demonstrating the same tired searches while attendees look on, bleary-eyed This workshop shows a wide variety of activities to get audiences energized and engaged. Come with an open mind and willingness to participate as this workshop is run in the style of the NASAGA (North American Simulation and Gaming Association) conference: low on PowerPoint and high on engagement. Participate in Jolts, Icebreakers, Roleplays, and Simulations; debrief what happened in each; and explore how these might be applied in different training and teaching situations.

Data deluge, data farms, data mashups, data mining, census data, metadata, Data the android—it seems like discussions of data are popping up everywhere. Librarians have always felt comfortable with words, but how about data? Brandt has spent several years discussing data with a variety of people, from 10-year-olds to 70-year-olds, from humanists to technologists. In this Data 101 workshop, he looks at the data landscape and covers a range of data concepts, terminology, and applications so you can be more data savvy (and hold your own with your colleagues and grandchildren). Where is your data? Where should it be? What should you be archiving? In addition to looking at personal data and the data our libraries are using and creating, Brandt thinks dealing with data in our worlds should be fun, not scary!

Aimed at librarians and information managers who are trying to educate others about what copyright means when using content in all forms, this workshop examines various examples of copyright education. It provides a handful of ideas to implement immediately in your workplace, some proven practices you can use, as well as strategies to help your community to lower the risk of copyright infringement.

QR codes are emerging as a mobile technology to bridge the digital and physical worlds. This workshop covers the basics of QR codes—what they are, how to make them, how to use them, what resources are necessary, etc. It then moves onto creative ways communities are using them to engage their audience within and beyond libraries—scavenger hunts through town, learning to use the academic library, marketing, and information delivery. It covers the new opportunities for libraries that QR codes represent: expanding concepts of resource discovery, facilitating patron use of mobile devices to connect with the library and its resources, and renewing/re-imagining uses of library space. Join our active QR gurus and learn everything you need to know about QR codes and libraries: their applications, the practical steps and concerns, and the technical aspects of leveraging this exciting new technology.

Online tutorials can be extremely time-intensive to create. Screencasts offer quicker ways to create informative tutorials that demonstrate online library resources or anything else on the web or your desktop. New tools make it quick and easy to create screencasts and host them online. Explore using free and fee software such as Jing, Camtasia Studio, and web-based services to quickly create online tutorials for your users. Compare hosting options at Screencast.com, YouTube, Blip.TV, or Freescreencast. In addition to gathering proven tips, techniques, and tricks to quick screencast creation, see examples of advanced editing features such as call-outs, transitions, zooming, and highlights. Bring your own laptop to check out sites that are discussed. Show and tell the easy way!

A recent report from the University of Washington Information School showed that nearly one-third of Americans older than the age of 14 accessed the internet at their public library in the past year. In hundreds of media items that followed the report’s release, the nation learned that those 77 million people are using these public computers for making social connections, job-seeking, doing homework, getting help from the government, and finding health information. Speakers from the U.S. IMPACT study that produced these staggering numbers discuss the practical implications of the data and how your library can better serve its public computer users and help them achieve their goals. They help you develop a better understanding of the needs and pursuits of different types of patrons coming to the library to use the public computers or wireless networks and how library policies and programs affect outcomes for public computer users. Using case study scenarios, participants learn how and why community characteristics impact programmatic and policy decisions for public computing services and how the U.S. IMPACT study can be used to help make better decisions. Take away practical and constructive approaches to align policies, programs, and staff and patron training that will improve outcomes for patrons.

Continuous access to information is a near reality. Smartphone and mobile devices are the tools that make it all possible. Providing content to these tools and devices presents interesting design and development challenges. Lost connections, limited battery power, smaller screens, touch interfaces—these factors create a new way of thinking about web development and design. This workshop looks at trends in mobile interfaces, mobile sites vs. mobile apps, emerging conventions for mobile design, best practices for mobile development, wizards, tools, and code templates for mobile site development. Come learn how to start creating mobile sites at your library.

The commonly accepted definition of open source software is software that is distributed with human readable source code in order to allow the user freedom to run, review, alter, enhance, and modify the code for any purpose. But open source is about so much more than just the code behind the software, it’s about community, collaboration, and innovation. The library community is abuzz about open source software, but many librarians have no idea what open source software actually is or what it means to use the software and participate in the community around open source. This workshop provides the 101 for using open sources in libraries: What will open source mean to our libraries? Why would I choose source? How do I get started? Do I need more staff? Will the transition be hard? Are there open source applications for my library? Engard provides facts, dispels myths, emphasizes what open source means for libraries, and shares a toolbox of at least 50 freely available open source products to use in your library. Includes demos, discussions, and more.

If you want to lead the pack, you need to be planning for lots of different technologies, challenges, and issues. Our leading thinker and practitioner challenges you to think about building strategies and plans for both nearand long-term technology challenges and opportunities. In this interactive workshop, Tennant describes a variety of technologies (e.g., mobile computing, electronic books, data visualization, etc.), illustrates how they impact libraries, and supplies library examples where they exist. You’ll leave not only with some tools for planning for technological change, but also with a sense of where things are now and where we are headed.

This workshop addresses key issues surrounding the creation, maintenance, and cultivation of digital repositories. Drawing on the latest literature, case studies, and personal experiences, speakers lead a discussion covering planning the digital repository, selecting a methodology for its establishment, populating it with content, marketing it to the library’s constituencies, and meeting the various challenges and questions along the way. Share your own experiences, engage in group discussions regarding how to get the most of a digital repository, and leave with lots of ideas and strategies for dealing with digital repositories.

On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog. Is that really true? Everyone leaves a paper trail, but it’s not the same trail for everyone, nor is it equally available. This workshop demonstrates the paper trails, documentation, and records left by people and organizations. It provides guidance on staying current with the shifting environments of public records access, an in-depth look at what is knowable about a person or organization, where you can find it, why you may not be able to, and how not to be misled. If you do research on individuals, this workshop is for you!

Join our gamers and gadget lovers for an evening of fun and playing. Bring your latest games and gadgets and try out each other’s. See if you are a guitar hero, winning Wii bowler/golfer, or rank as a dancing DDR expert. Led by gamer/gadget gurus Amy Buckland, McGill University, Scott Nicholoson, Author, Everyone Plays at the Library, & Aaron Schmidt, D.C. Public Library, this evening is filled with fun, networking, and of course, learning and laughing. Don't forget to bring your latest gadgets to share and explore. Refreshments included.