Closing Remarks

By far one of the best conferences I've been to. I was able to take something away from every single session. The problem now becomes deciding which of those ideas to act on.

So let me start with some themes I noticed throughout the conference:

• Open Source is awesome. So many librarians have completely embraced open source software and love being able to get a tool on the cheap and use it immediately. Web hosted software means you don't have to get permission to load it on the server or ask IT to do frequent updates. Internet librarians love fast and free.
• Self-taught is the norm. Nobody took a whole class or read an entire book on Meebo or Pbwiki. Internet librarians get their hands dirty and learn on the fly.
• Play time's a must. Internet librarians allow themselves to experiment and to use new tools on projects or interests they already enjoy. They're genuinely excited every time they learn about something new and cool and can't wait to find a way to use it.
• Training for staff and the public should be done thoughtfully. First of all, it should be done. And when training sessions are done, they should be done respectfully in an environment that fosters excitement and experimentation.
• Our borrowers are also creators. People increasingly expect to be able (with ease) to share their thoughts, opinions, and experiences.
• Internet librarians love Macs. I can't count the number of MacBooks I saw. A lot of us work in a PC world, but this was one Apple-lovin' group of librarians.
• Monterey is pretty. (Well, it is!)

So what's next?

I think the first step will be to put all great ideas and inspiration I came away with into one of two categories

1. for the public
2. for the staff

Then I'm going to see if there's anything on the list that would help us meet our current goals. I'll then work on implementing whatever intersects. The next step will be to start thinking about my goals for the next year and where there are opportunities to introduce a little 2.0 into 2008.

Even though I'm back from the conference, don't think it's 2.over. In fact, I think it's just the beginning.