shinylib

I was really looking forward to this session for a number of reasons. I wanted to see Joe Murphy speak (we met in Anaheim at one another’s poster sessions) and I’m resolutely convinced that txt reference could really fly at PCC. By this point in the conference I was really understanding the distinction between chat [...]

The plenary panel, for me, was the highlight of the entire conference. Granted, I have always been overly excited by the theory behind our profession, but I think it is so important to consider the big picture now and again. My notes are probably fairly jumbled, as I was so entranced I forgot to to [...]

I was hoping that the first presentation, on providing library services at Multicultural student services centers would help me figure out the next steps to take with a virtual outreach project I am trying to coordinate via the library website, involving student services providers at PCC. It did not, but did at least give me [...]

Lots of talk of that QuestionPoint qwidget going on at this conference. I didn’t realize how many folks were into this vendor-chat thing. Overall I think I’m more interested in bringing IM to our virtual reference offerings. We participate in L-net and I firmly believe in the importance of the service, but I do believe [...]

Another session which really illustrates the differences between chat reference and IM reference. Interesting that M. Kathleen Kern reports patrons choose IM over vendor-chat 7 to 1. I understand the limitations of most of the existing IM services, but I’m not sure I see why they developed their own client. I suspect that they were [...]

I suppose I hadn’t really grokked the difference between “chat” and IM reference before this conference. Chat reference is used to refer to using some software suite such as QuestionPoint that offers services such as archives/transcripts which can be emailed to the user, some statistics on usage, co-browsing, etc. IM is the use of one [...]

This group of presentations was the first of the sessions I attended. On the whole I didn’t find anything that I can really apply to my environment. I was pleased to see an example of how another library has used video teleconferencing to provide reference service. This has come up a few times now, but [...]

David W. Lewis of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis was the keynote speaker for the Reference Renaissance conference. His talk was good, but didn’t inspire me the way I was hoping. Perhaps it was the style of the address: mostly using a lot of quotes from other notable thinkers in the field. I was hoping for [...]

Arrived in Denver with significantly less drama than was involved in getting to Anaheim.* The Reference Renaissance doesn’t actually begin until tomorrow but today held registration and a reception, replete with mediocre snacks and pricey booze. I digress, the snacks are not the reason I’m writing.
You know I seldom wax personal here at shinylib, but [...]

While I was at ALA I attended the BIGWIG unconference and had a great conversation with David Lee King and other unconference participants about the ideas of experience economy and community development within your digital community. For example, consider the idea of Build-a-Bear (those creepy overpriced bears that you stuff on your own). It costs [...]