Library Camp!

I went to library camp in Montrèal and had a very good time. This was the second library event that I’ve been to recently where I stuck around for the whole thing and I’m glad I did. I even woke up early so that I could see John Fink and Jason Hammond’s talks which were before mine and worth getting up for.

The promo materials said I was going to be “inspirational” so I tried my best. I basically did an anti-pecha-kucha talk with six pictures slides that were each on the screen for about eight minutes each. And I wrote out a talk, with all the words not just my usual “now talk about the digital divide” notes. I was pleased with it, though the informal no-podium nature of the event meant that I still wound up riffing a fair amount and doing weird things like this. Plus it was 100 degrees [37.7 C] but people were nice and stayed awake. The Library Camp event was in the Cyberthèque in the basement of a McGill building which was an awesome place to have an event. Big tables, lots of computers, working wifi, nearby bathrooms and snack machines, good screens and projectors and AV. Big big pros to Amy Buckland and Amanda Etches-Johnson for creating a terrific event and to everyone else for coming out and participating.

My talk — NOW I WILL INSPIRE YOU — is available in a few formats.

  • The main page where slides are available in various formats (not super helpful)
  • The actual words from the talk itself
  • some live-blogged goodness which I had to make a real effort to not read while I was talking

what to do with that card catalog

I just had to arrange for moving my card catalog from a friend’s place in SF to another friend’s place in SF. I keep meaning to go get it but I live in Vermont and it’s never risen to the top of the priority list. I have a big 70’s-looking card catalog at my summer place up north. It’s big and lovely but probably too big to get up the stairs here. The blog Desire to Inspire [found through my Flickr stats] has a neat set of photos showing you other things you can do with card catalogs, including storing catalog cards!