#libcampsw
On
Saturday I went along to Library Camp SW, a conference all about libraries. Not
having been to one before (and there are several around the country) I really
didn't know what to expect. The format of the day was an
"unconvention" with people pitching ideas for sessions when we
arrived. This sounded like it could be a bit chaotic but worked really well.
There
were sessions that seemed a bit specific to librarians (& information
professionals) but plenty of sessions that as a non-librarian I was both interested
in and felt I could contribute to.
I went to
a session about e-books and learned a lot, also told everyone about Bow at
REACT http://www.react-hub.org.uk/books-and-print-sandbox/projects/2013/digitising-the-dollar-princess/
who I've been recently speaking to about doing something for the festival of
literature.
I then
went to a session called "are libraries obsolete" which was fairly
heated. It seems that libraries are always changing and obsolescence is pretty much always being called for
things. I made the point that 20+ years ago when I did publishing at Uni the
big question was "Are books dead" and yet more and more are published
every year. Libraries are about so much more than books and fulfil a key place
in the community I would think they'll never be obsolete. Different to what we
knew them to be in say the 70's & 80's for sure but will they disappear? I
hope not, and don't think they will.
The next session I was
at was "What's your perfect library" where we split into teams and
tried to think of all the things that would go into a perfect library if money
was no option. The main thing I learned from that is that there is a lot of love
from librarians for Cardiff Central library, which I now want to visit.
After a rather
marvellous lunch (everyone brought stuff) we reconvened for a session on
collaboration (very interesting & one that seemed the most relevant to me)
and another on Apps. Which soon became a session about everyone saying what
their favourite apps were, wrote a bunch of them down...
I met a bunch of
interesting people, talked about some interesting stuff and came away happy
even though it was bucketing it down when I left and I got very wet going home.
A trip to the local Indian soon sorted me out though.
You can see pictures of the day here (I neglected to take any!!):
Also noted down the following useful/interesting websites:
and another blog about the day here:
http://duck-in-a-dress.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/library-camp-south-west-books-picnics.html?m=1
Yesterday, in sunnier
circumstances I went to the harbour festival, which seemed to have grown since
last I went and is now seemingly more spread out. Lots of cider in the sun and
some background music. Saw these guys: http://boxcaraldoushuxley.co.uk/
who did a great set, although the crowd was mostly indifferent.
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