Thursday already?

Really? I was gone 15 minutes? Seemed like I flew down and flew back! I kept waiting for the oft-mentioned break that LiB was promising, but at 2:55 I knew I would have just enough time to get down to the exhibit hall and find out if I won. The drawing was held earlier, but I hadn’t made it to that and they were only holding the iPod until 3 for the earlier winner. At 3 the reps were going to have a drawing of those present to give away the prize. The earlier winner never showed, so the Mango reps took our names and put them in a bag. I never win things—I almost didn’t even go because, really, the chance to hear the Librarian in Black is a once-in-a-career thing and I never win drawings, but I NEEDED an iPod. My name was called, and I did the happy dance, but I did hear murmurs of ‘There are more of us than there are of her” so I left the hall quickly to return to the program. I think the LiB would completely understand. So, sorry, librarian Linda who didn’t show up to claim the iPod, but I will put it to good use. I will load things like this to watch:

That is a drill team from another state's conference. Lot of variety there!

Earlier in the day I went to hear Michael Stephens again. I know, I know, this might count as stalking, but I did sit toward the back and avoided direct eye contact. In my defense, it was a completely different program than the day before. Again he only had an hour and fifty minutes, but he made great use of the time. I have to say that of the presentations I attended, I agreed with some, which made me question my choice—who wants to hear their own thoughts repeated back to them? Not me. I was excited about Michael Stephens because sometimes, dear reader, I wonder what planet he is on. He has the gift of inspiring or infuriating me, depending on the day. I have vowed never to read his blog again at least once.

But I always go back.

Here is why: he discussed: Technolust, technostress, technodivorce, and technoshame. We have all encountered one or all of these. And it is important for me to remember that these are things ALL institutions deal with. There are so many technology decisions to be made, that almost everyone gets technostress at least once a day. I suffer greatly from technolust—although I have to say that has abated slightly ;-) now. Technodivorce is difficult and we face this both at work and at home—but it is ok to let it go if it isn’t working for you. Technoshame is probably the most common and I feel that about 70% of the time it is needless—you know more than you think, plus we all move at different speeds. The problem is that there are so many names for things, that we can never know them all. Or all the different ways to do something. Or the reason to do this instead of that. So very quickly, because I know Amanda is aching to get her next installation going. Here are 10 Technologyies and 10 Ideas to Improve Library Productivity, by M. Stephens:
1. Blog as platform 2. CMS—open source web design programs. 3. RSS and Widget Portals 4. Social Bookmarking 5. Library Lounge 6. Web presence
7. Other channels—text for due dates, reference service,. 8.Cloud computing 9. Micro-sharing like Twitter—has to be monitored and answered 10. Putting It all Together
Ideas: 1. Let go of control 2. let BETA be your friend 3. Be transparent 4. Try out emerging tools 5. Spot trends 6. Offer inclusive learning 7. Overthink and die 8. Plan to Plan 9. Mission Statement 10. Evaluate, rethink.

I also hit a Net Fair segment –again by Ellie Collier—about Google Apps. She has more info on her blog and there are really cool things available. There are tons of settings for Google Alerts to tip you current and make the web your own.

“In-house surveys: Get the Data You Really Need” was given by a real statistician and managed to be engaging. I like stats as they show you the fruits of your labors. He went into a lot of detail about creating your survey instrument, because that is usually where the mistakes happen. We need to ask ourselves “Why?” Why are we doing a survey—what do we need to know. Then we decide “Who” we are going to include. There are more steps and directions to choose, but I may be the only one interested in this, so I will stop. If you too like stats, I will share my notes. The handouts to his presentation aren’t available online.

As I return to the Librarian in Black’s program, which is about staying on top of the information overload, I realize I would much rather stay and listen to her (and look at my prize) than go be onstage in front of thousands of people. But we reluctantly pack up and move to the green room. Which is so cold I really think I feel the tip of my nose freeze.