September 19, 2006
More than 250 public librarians from South Carolina (and a few of our GA and NC neighbors from the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County) gathered in Columbia on Wednesday, September 13, for the State Library’s first Technology Institute, affectionately known asTechExpress. Jenny Levine, Stephen Abram, and Michael Stephens spoke on Library 2.0, millenials, blogs, being user-centered, and other topics on the future of libraries. South Carolina Educational Television filmed the speakers so that we can make the presentations available aspodcasts at a later date.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far, and we thank all of you who have taken the time to email us personally about your experiences. We can’t help but crow a little and share some of the comments with all of you:
“What a great day!!!!! I can’t remember when I’ve been both so challenged and enthused. We can’t wait to get into this.”
“This is one of the few workshops I’ve been to where I didn’t want it to end!”
We’ve also seen some great things written by our speakers on their blogs, like,
“Everything was planned and orchestrated so well… I just have to say thanks to all involved down in South Carolina!” from Michael Stephens on Tame the Web
Jenny Levine wrote on her blog, The Shifted Librarian, “Wow, do these folks get it.”
As much as we love the praise, AND WE DO, the experience wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun without our great speakers, Jenny, Stephen, and Michael, and we can’t wait to find a reason to have them all back again! (Thanks to Michael Casey for posting this great photo of our speakers.)
We’re working to get the presentation slides up on our website. SCETV is working on the editing of the audio and video as we speak. We’re also working on finalizing the date for TechTracks, the followup workshops that will show how to put the Library 2.0 principles into practice for your libraries. We’ll keep in touch here, but in the meantime, let’s continue the conversation. We’d love to read your comments.
September 19, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Thanks to TechExpress, I just added your new blog to my new Bloglines page. I’m getting there slowly, Deborah!
September 19, 2006 at 2:43 pm
Hooray Sarah!! Stay tuned we will be offering hands on training to some of these technologies later this fall. Deborah
September 19, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Thanks SCSL for allowing us here at PLCMC to participate. IT was a great day and it offered so much to think about!
September 20, 2006 at 9:29 am
One of the best events I’ve ever attended! I especially loved Abram’s idea of marketing the experience of the library. This is so important and requires that we start looking at all of the new technologies out there to find creative ways to implement them in the library. Great job everyone! I can’t wait for next year!
September 20, 2006 at 2:53 pm
What a great presentation! I haven’t seen so many librarians at one time since … since Boston in March! All three speakers were great in their own ways and I never lost interest for one second. We were lucky to find a table near the front, though. I don’t think it would have been nearly as mind-blowing to the people in the peanut gallery. I noticed right away when we came in that you couldn’t read the print on the screen from way in the back, so I clawed my way to the front. It was well worth it! Thank you!