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libcampks08

libcampks08
It’s all about the unconference!
March 20th, 2008 | Permalink | 1 Comment

libcampks08

There it is; the official tag for the first Kansas unconference: Library Camp Kansas. Every picture and post on this topic should have this tag, so if you’re looking for more information (blog posts, pictures, etc), it is your key.

The day started early with the NEKLS van picking up Rhonda and myself outside the capitol in Topeka. Anticipation was the word as we were all looking forward to an exciting day at Hale Library at Kansas State University.

Arriving in Manhattan, we all hustled up to the 5th floor of the library to start our day. Being libarians we were immediately attracted to the great food provided through the hard work of Jason Coleman (and others) and the money of our sponsors (thanks guys!). Then we settled down to “organize” the day. The great thing about an unconference is that the topics for the sessions are created during the conference. If you name a topic; you get to lead discussion on it.

We had a total of three seesions and we all split up into groups by the topics that we wanted to discuss. I went to customer service, 2.0 topics, and gaming. Royce hit all of these also, so if you want to hear more about them, he blogged them earlier today. Or you can check out all the sessions on the wiki. They were all great sessions, though I felt that the best discussion happened in our first session on customer service. We had a bunch of creative people with great ideas!

The best part about the unconference was the almost unlimited opportunity for networking. I met lots of great people before, during and after the sessions. Hopefully I’ll get to see them soon at Kansas Library Conference.

After the sessions were all over, we all met to wrapup the day. We talked a lot about the successes and failures of the day and everyone was excited about a second unconference in western Kansas next year (no, Salina is not west!).

All too soon the day was over. See you next year!!

If you want more about the unconference, please check out these sites:

Photos: http://tinyurl.com/2rzg3d
Wiki: http://librarycampks.wetpaint.com/
2.0, Learning/CE, Social Software, Tech, libcampks08
Library Camp KS 2008: the royce perspective
March 20th, 2008 | Permalink | 2 Comments

Neffs inner light shining. Very Angelic.
Originally uploaded by royce kitts

Wow! Library Camp KS was awesome!

For one the day started off with me welcoming all the rock stars to the event: Brenda Hough, Joshua Neff, Erin Downey Howerton, David Lee King, Michael Sauers, Cindi Hickey. Yeah, it was pretty intense. Plus added to the mix was a lot of my school friends from ESU. Brian, Dan, Lily, Jen 1, Jen 2…quite the time.

My experience was actually really cool. I went in thinking “what in the world am i going to learn today”. But instead I actually served as a resource to others.

My first session was on customer service. We told stories, looked at some online resources, and did quite an extensive wiki update on customer service (alas, we also figured out that two people editing the same wiki page is no good idea.) Some real good ideas, mainly we focused on:

-how do you train someone

-how do you pick the right person

-what do you do when they suck.

The second session was a lunch session. From what I heard, some groups didn’t really get to talk about anything, but oh was my group different. We spent the entire lunch period talking about what our favorite 2.0 things are, and how we use them in the library, and what potential uses other technologies might have. We talked enough my food got cold, but it was the Hibachi Hut and they serve the best food. I used to work there, so I got the star treatment, such as taking my own menus to the table and passing out the silverware.

In the morning we picked the topics, so for the third session I knew it was going to be on gaming. I ran to my library over lunch and picked up a wii. And for the gaming session we hooked it up and those who hadn’t played it before got a chance to check it out. During that time those of us who had put on tourneys, or are into gaming, talked about what has worked and what didn’t. Mainly we discovered that just plugging the games in is enough to get participation. Also, it still seems that the biggest hurdle to gaming is going up against the whole “its the ruin of civilization” argument. We had fun.

The afternoon ended with a bull session on what we thought. Some of the things I picked up on:

-Regional unconferences

-something in the western part of the state (let’s face it people, everything is done in the eastern part of the state, and as Kathy Rippel alluded to “Salina is not western Kansas. You gotta love Kathy, she always says what others won’t say.)

-keep the wiki going, make it your friend -bring lunches in (im not a fan of this idea, i like informal library lunches, you box the lunches in and it just zaps the fun out of it.)

Overall I give the day an A-. The minus based solely on the fact that I meant to get a pic of myself with Josh and his bowtie, but he wore a regular tie.

Kudos to Brenda and Jason…..and to Jason again. Good job everyone.

Flicker Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/roycekitts/sets/72157604164018604/