Library Camp Wales 2014 in Cardiff

After months of planning the day of the first ever Library Camp Wales dawned bright (although sadly not sunny!). If you've never heard of a Library Camp before, it is an 'un-conference', a free, participant driven event. The idea is that instead of booking speakers and presentations, the attendees pitch ideas on the day and contribute to the discussions.

After setting up in our fabulous venue, the Glamorgan Building in Cathays Park, our Library Campers started arriving and got stuck in to playing Human Bingo.



Some of the Library Camp Wales team manning the reception area

After the sessions were pitched and the timetable for the day was arranged the day got under way.

I didn't get to take part in many sessions as I was wandering about making sure everyone had all they needed, but I did get to facilitate the Speed Networking event, which was very noisy!

Speed Networking in action

Lunch involved a lot of food (Library Campers were very generous with their contributions) and we also had our very own customized cupcakes.

In the afternoon I got to attend a session on library skills and qualifications (which I'll blog about separately). Before I knew it, it was time for the wrap up and awarding the prizes for the badge competition, Human Bingo prize draw, and cake competition.

Winner of the Cake Competition!

We rounded the day off in Buffalo, enjoying 2 for 1 cocktails!

A card catalogue in Buffalo Bar, photo courtesy of @karen_gibbins

Check out a Storify of the day here.

Library Camp UK 2013 part 2

Slightly delayed part 2 of last November's Library Camp UK!

After lunch I headed to the digitisation session, it was really interesting to hear about current projects, such as the georeferencing of map and topographical collections at the British Library. Digitisation projects can often be too expensive or time-consuming for some libraries to consider, but suggestions were made to find ways around those barriers. Someone in the group mentioned  NADFAS [National Association of Decorative & Fine Arts Societies] whose heritage volunteers can be brought in to assist with digitisation projects. An interesting discussion also developed on the pros and cons of Google books, which seemed to conclude that the main problem was quality control. That's certainly been my experience, particularly with older texts, some are just unreadable!

The second session of the afternoon was on special librarians. At the introductions first thing in the morning, I was disappointed (but not surprised) to notice that after public, academic libraries, or students, everyone else was somewhat lumped together as ’other’. This session felt like a good opportunity to redress that a bit. I can’t list all the different types of library or information environments that people worked in but it was very varied, TV, legal, NHS, government, cathedral, and museum of course! There were also a large number (about half the group) who were students or graduate trainees wanting to hear more about the wide variety of library and information work out there.

The session began with a discussion on the challenges of working in these types of environments and whether you still define yourself as a librarian, particularly from those working on more corporate sectors. We then explained a bit about what our particular jobs involve, before finishing off with sharing tips on how you might pursue a career in a special library. An excellent write up relating to the session is available here.

The final session I attended was on catalogues and search interfaces, which although sharing a space with another group, was small enough that I had no problem hearing the discussion. The starting point was ‘what if the library catalogue had a different type of interface?’. Laurence (@Lorp, one of the pitcher’s?) elaborated on this by showing us a number of online catalogues and lists of books, including Amazon to demonstrate how a more visual approach may be more helpful in finding material. I certainly agreed with the idea, I have always found it 100 times easier to find a book if I know what it looks like. And, I really like the idea of the catalogue as virtual bookshelf with photos of the spines of books to identify them [although not as visually attractive as using the covers!].

The discussion then moved on to metadata and the problems of inheriting poor data, which no-one ever has the time or resources to put right. Some of the tools that could be used to help you fix problems, such as KDK-Alli Record Manager tools from National Library of Finland recommended by @preater

I consciously tried to take more of a backseat and not talk too much in sessions at this Library Camp because I felt that I just wanted to enjoy the experience on a slightly more passive level, soaking everything up like a sponge. I actually found it quite refreshing, at previous events I have been far more of an active participant, but it was nice to try a different approach this time.

You can see the full list of sessions here and access related social media activity on the Pinboard the organisers set up here.

Library Camp UK 2013 part 1

Last week I set off for Library Camp UK 2013 at the new Library of Birmingham. I’m not sure how many people were attending, but it certainly seemed as though there was a really large crowd gathered. If you’ve never heard of a Library Camp before, they are a series of 'unconferences' held around the UK. Free to attend, they operate an 'Open Space' policy meaning there is no formal agenda or speakers, attendees set the schedule on the day and the direction of the sessions is guided by the participants.

Session pitches

 

Although I had considered whether or not to pitch a session, in the end I decided not to. There were so many great pitches to choose from it didn't feel necessary.
 

The first session I went to was run by @llordllama on performance in presentation, and it was the perfect start to the day. Unlike some sessions, it was less of a discussion and more of a teaching and learning experience, although still very interactive. He illustrated the ways we might convey confidence using body language, facial cues and voice. It was useful to think about how we can use our style of presentation to engage with people and get the best out of situations. Not to mention learning to recognise what those cues might be telling us about others, and how that could affect how we approach them. A lot of the session involved audience participation, and most people seemed to leave smiling.

The secret garden on floor 7

 

The second session I attended was Evidence-based Librarianship, which was a very, very popular. This meant that the group was large and you had to really raise your voice to be heard. We were also sharing the room with a second session and the noise occasionally made it hard to hear. Such is the burden of popular sessions!
 

However despite those issues, I found the session really interesting and you can read notes from @pennyb [who pitched the session] here. It focused on service led research, and although I didn’t really feel like I had much to contribute personally I still enjoyed it. It was interesting to hear the difference between academic librarians in the UK and in the US, where involvement in research as part of your job is more widely expected. 

Concerns were raised about how difficult it can be to find out about research in the field unless you happen to be actively involved in it. A number of resources were mentioned that could help, such as Educause and the LIRG website. But there was also a call for a more formal bringing together of information centrally, and the thought that it should be the responsibility of CILIP to provide it.

I was also very interested to hear of a scheme run by the University of Brighton that matches dissertation students with libraries looking to undertake research.



The falafel stand was often mentioned in the run up to Library Camp

As I had been so unorganised as to not bring any food to share, I decided to go out for lunch to the explore the Christmas market [way too crowded], and look around the library, which is truly stunning.

Library Camp London part 2

I've all ready blogged about the morning sessions here, and after an amazing lunch (all provided by the attendees) it was time for the afternoon sessions.

Photo courtesy of Claire Black

First up was a speed networking session, based on the speed dating concept, we were partnered up and given two minutes to introduce ourselves before we swapped to the next partner, and so on till we'd met everyone. It was a great opportunity to meet people, but the two minutes weren't long enough. I wish it had been scheduled for before lunch so you could carry on the conversations that had been started.

Next up was the 'Sweary Session' pitched by Richard Veevers, on dealing with library users swearing at you. I really enjoyed this session, even though I now work in a closed access library and so don't anticipate experiencing this particular problem. It was however, pretty surreal sitting in a session discussing the origin of certain swear words while hearing 'The Wheels on the Bus' from the Rhymetime session behind us!

To start with we made the distinction that there is a difference between swearing and being sworn at. Often it's not the language which is unacceptable, but the manner of communication.

With this clarified we shared our own related experiences, and discussed the various ways we'd dealt with them (or would have preferred to deal with them!), ending with a list of points that people found useful.

• Strong support from management staff - backing you up, particularly in front of library users
• Clear guidelines on what is and isn't considered acceptable, and procedures to deal with them - although not so inflexible that some personal discretion can't sometimes be used
• A consistent message across all frontline staff - if you are all saying the same thing then situations created due to confusion will be less likely
• Confidence to call in back up if required - sometimes just a change of face can help to defuse a situation
• The understanding that there won't always be a happy resolution - you can do everything in your power to resolve the situation and still end up with an unsatisfactory result, that isn't a failure, it's just how it is sometimes!

The final session I attended was run by Steve Bowman called Vacate the Library! I was particularly keen to attend because I missed the excellent Librarians Awake! presentation he did at the CDG/New Professionals Conference last year, so I was hoping he'd cover similar themes in the session.

Steve began by telling us about some of the outreach work he's been doing at the University of Chichester, and how as a result it's allowed his department to become more visible both in the local area and within his institution. He pointed out that getting out of the library can be of benefit to you professionally and also to your institution. He also suggested that to get on as a library or a librarian it is 30% skills and 70% visibility!

There followed a discussion which allowed people to swap stories of the outreach activities they've been involved in, some of the suggestions included;

Internal

• Interact more with like-minded departments, such as e-learning for example
• Volunteer for things at work - committees, projects
• Send out regular newsletters informing staff/students/library users of your activities
• Have a strong presence on your institutions intranet
• Have pop up libraries - strategically placed by canteen/coffee machines etc.

External

• Go out to local schools, colleges, or organised groups
• Present at conferences or write for professional publications - handy if your institution is keen on raising its research profile
• Use social media - it can have a greater potential reach

I found the session really interesting, even if we did feel a bit outnumbered by the Librarians and Personality session next to us!

Library Camp London part 1

On Saturday 2nd March I headed to Senate House Library for Library Camp London. If you've never heard of Library Camp before you can read more about what's involved here, but to put it very simply they are 'unconferences' whereby the attendees are encouraged to set the programme of sessions and actively participate.

On arriving at the stunning Senate House there was a great deal of excitment caused by the film crew in the courtyard below, apparently they were filming the next Muppets movie (but sadly I didn't get to see any Muppets).

After the session pitches, the timetable was arranged and it was down to business! The downside of a Library Camp, is that there are always far more sessions that I want to attend than I am actually able to go to, so you just have to make your choices and hope the ones you missed are blogged about afterwards. In the morning I decided on two related sessions, 'Creative CPD' and 'Design your own LIS course'.

Creative Continuing Professional Development was proposed by @ellyob and got such a large response we ended up dividing into smaller sub-groups. The idea was to look at ways you could continue to develop your professional skills if you can't afford expensive training courses.

Our group started by sharing experiences of CPD activities we'd been involved in which led to us listing solutions and alternatives to keep training costs as low as possible. They were coming so thick and fast that it was getting difficult to make sure we had managed to list them all properly!

Top tips included;

• Join CILIP sub-groups and volunteer for commitee roles
• Investigate free online courses (check out the BL's free Intellectual Property course for example)
• See what in-house training is available
• Webinars (see the Open Education Database for listings of free webinars for librarians)
• Speak or volunteer at conferences (you get to attend for free then!)
• Pursue sponsorship/grants/awards (try SLA Early Career Conference award, CILIP John Campbell Conference/Travel Bursary or Aspire award or First Timer award for the IFLA conference, BIALL conference bursaries)
• Ask to visit libraries (lots of libraries offer tours, they just don't advertise the fact!)
• Job-shadowing (see Karen Pierce's account of the Do Something Different Day run by Cardiff University)
• Join ARLIS/SLA/BIALL (the courses are often cheaper! See also Historic Libraries Forum or
• Look for informal groups in your area (LIKE [London], LIKE North [Yorkshire], CLIC [Cardiff], TAFLIN [Tayside & Fife] to name just a few!)

But there were loads more suggested, and I'm sure some of the other groups came up with plenty of things we hadn't even thought of, which hopefully will be writen up and appear on the Library Camp London wiki.

Then it was straight into the second session, organised by the #uklibchat team, Design your own LIS Qualification. The session was live tweeted, with the team monitoring questions and responses from non-attendees so opening up the discussion to a wider audience than just those in the room. They had also set up a Google Doc prior to the session to pose a number of questions that would direct the conversation.
If you've got a LIS qualification, where did you study and what was the best module?
Which elements of your LIS qualification have you used the most since starting work?
Which elements have you not used so much?

The general consensus in the room was that the practical aspects of librarianship were far and away the most useful, a number of people had found they used the cataloguing skills they'd learnt most, and many others found the IT and web design aspects most useful. Liz Jolly explained to us that LIS courses are supposed to be vocational, that it is the diploma which is the professional qualification and the dissertation is an academic extra. She also suggested we check out the new CILIP Professional Knowledge and Skills Base for further clarification on skills required.

It was also interesting to hear the point of view of employeers on what they were looked for in employees, which included project management skills, awareness of the issues surrounding the sector as a whole and practical experience.

After some discussion on what had worked well, what had appeared to be a waste of time, and what people wished they had had the opportunity to do we started to note down our ideal qualification.

The proposed selection

• A greater choice of modules
• Stronger links between theory & practice
• Practical experience of cataloguing
• Opportunities for group work
• Teaching
• Work experience opportunities
• Management skills - people, budgets, projects
• Up to date IT skills
• Strategic planning

There was a call for more teaching from practitioners rather than academics, and that the library staff of the university should have much more involvement in the teaching of courses than is currently the case. In short the conclusion was that courses needed to be much more in tune with what libraries are doing today.

Check out tweets from the session here.

LibCampUK11 Session 5: Social media and #UKLibChat

This session was originally pitched as a social media surgery, but was split into two groups.  Those needing specific advice on aspects of social media stayed in the cafe area, and the rest of us discussed #UKLibChat led by members of the organising team.

#UKLibChat is a fortnightly discussion group that takes place on Twitter, usually from 6-8pm on a Thursday.  It’s only been going since July and was inspired by the #libchat sessions run by Natalie Binder on Wednesdays from 8-9.30pm EST.  All topics for discussion are proposed by participants and are added to an agenda posted on the #UKLibChat website and Twitter the week preceding the talk. After the discussions are over the conversations are summarised and placed on the site

We seemed to be evenly split between those who had never heard of libchat; those that had, but either rarely or never took part; and those that were regular participants.

 The #UKLibChat team, after explaining the background of libchat started asking for feedback, what people liked about it, what could be improved, what were the barriers preventing people from using it.

• They started with asking those that had used #UKLibChat what they liked about it;
• A lot of people talked about how they appreciated how easy it made getting in touch with other librarians, and learning about other sectors. 
• There seemed to be a bit of a split between those who thought the agendas were very helpful for focusing thoughts, and allowing time to prepare, and those that found it a little too structured and contrary to the ethos of Twitter. 
• There was a universal consensus that the write ups posted on the website after the discussions are very useful.

Then users were asked what they didn’t like;

• Some felt that the question format was off putting, particularly if you feel you don’t have time to get your answers out, or if you have joined the discussion half way through, something a little less formal would be preferred.
• Many people were not keen on the ‘introduce yourself first’ aspect, they felt it discouraged people from joining in if they were not there at the start when all the introductions were being made.
• Some people felt that having it at a specific time was contrary to Twitter, but then there were plenty of others who appreciated having a focused time to chat.

From this developed a discussion with those people that don’t take part, and the reasons for doing so, and what the #UKLibChat team could do to remedy it;

• There seemed to be a popular misconception that #UKLibChat was only for students, so they need to get the message out that it is not just a student thing.
• People felt that if they had no knowledge or experience in the subject under discussion then they hesitated to get involved.
• A lot of people find Twitter intimidating, and following live chats even more so.  The team already recommends the use of Tweetdeck or a similar tool to take part, but the suggestion was made that they could provide how-to-guides and tips on Twitter on their website as well.

Also discussed were the other Twitter chats that people took part in such as;

#tlchat  - school librarian chat

#ukedchat - the UK focused version of #edchat
And what #UKLibChat can learn from them.

An interesting discussion also arose as to whether there was a generational gap between those using Twitter and those using email lists.  There was definitely a feeling that mailing lists are more formal and an impression that you need to be an experienced librarian to use them.  At the opposite end Twitter chats seemed to be used more by newer professionals.

To close we had a more general discussion on using Twitter to create communities.

Some of tips included;

• Have a core group that will always be dedicated to contributing
• It’s better to start small, and have plenty of action, than to create something big that doesn’t see any use.
• Take advantage of existing networks to advertise what you are doing.
• Link to blogs so people can get extra information.

Even though I was flagging a bit from information (and sugar!) overload, I still found I got a great deal from the final session.  I'll be looking forward to the next Library Camp!

LibCampUK11 Session 4: Wikipedia, Wiki Commons and QRpedia

Andy (@pigsonthewing) mentioned this session during the special collections one when we were discussing how to use the internet to raise the profile of your collections, and it immediately caught my interest.

Unlike some of the other sessions, this one had more of a presentation feel.  Andy started off with an introduction to Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons and QRpedia and what it could do for your library for those of us that had never heard of it before (which was quite a few of us I think).

He explained the GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) outreach project to us, which aims to encourage (and help) cultural institutions to share their resources with the wider public.

The two main points he put across to us were that you can;

1. Release content to the public with open license via Wikipedia Commons
2. Have Wikipedia volunteer editors write about particular museums (or libraries) and the objects in their collections

The criteria for Wikipedia articles were;

1. They had to be notable, ie talked about elsewhere
2. Those articles should be cited in the Wikipedia article

Wikipedia would then ask its volunteer editors around the world to translate your pages into their own languages.  In doing so you’ve already increased your collections visibility on the internet.  However Wikipedia is a voluntary service, so there is no guarantee that the articles will be translated speedily.  You could use incentives to speed up the process, for example invite people from the user groups you are targeting to come and have a back of house tour.  In addition, you can release images on a Creative Commons license, which can be added to related pages on Wikipedia and link back to your institution.

There are currently more than 270 different language versions of Wikipedia available, and Andy mentioned one that they are keen to expand on more is the Welsh Wikipedia (Wicipedia) which at 27,000 articles is the 59th largest Wikipedia edition (as of April 2010).

Wikimedia Commons – Encourages institutions to upload open license images from their archives.  The benefits to the institution are increased awareness of your collections and raising your worldwide profile.  You can also get Wikipedia editors around the world to help you find information about your items.  For example, the National Archives in the U.S.A. put photos with no metadata on Wikimedia and asked the Wikipedia contributors to tag them.

QRpedia – encodes URL of a Wikipedia article and when the QR code is scanned with a smart phone it returns the article in a mobile friendly format to the phone in the language that the phone uses.  This is particularly useful if you have a lot of tourists visiting your collections, it will save you the cost of translating exhibition panels.  It doesn’t even have to be your own article, it can be a generic one, or an associated one, i.e. next to a Van Gogh painting can be the link to the Van Gogh biography on Wikipedia.  I found this part of the session very interesting, as I immediately saw the benefits it could have where I work.

Scanning QR codes at Derby Museum (QRpedia site)

At the end of the session Andy set us all 'homework', he recommended we find an article on Wikipedia that has errors in that we could correct, or one that was a 'stub' (a short article in need of expansion) and add to it.  Although I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, I'm definitely keen to give it a go.



The Wikipedia entry for the National Museum Wales,
 which is currently a stub article



LibCampUK11 Session 3: New Library Models

I'm not entirely sure of the correct name for this session, I had it in my head that it was New Library Models, but I might have got that wrong.

The idea for this was a bit of a rip it up and start again mentality – if you had no budget/policy/time constraints what changes would you like to see made.

I have to be honest of all the sessions I went to this one turned out to be the one I got the least out of, I just felt it didn’t really deliver on what was pitched.  Instead of focusing on outrageous, there are no limits types of ideas we seemed to get bogged down very quickly in the more practical, realistic side of things. While it is understandable that we would, we do after all live in the real world, and we do have limits on what we could do, I was hoping for more radical ideas to come forth.

At one point we started discussing the way users search for information, and how they will often choose the path of least resistance.  I mentioned a study (I couldn't remember who by) that was done that showed that if users have to choose between the best source of information which takes effort to find, or 'good enough' sources of information which are very easy to find, they'll choose the easy option.  And that in some cases 'good enough' is just that, good enough for their purposes. 

This led to a discussion about falling research standards in academic sectors, students who would rather Google everything than use library resources, and that if these were the academics of the future wasn't it worrying.  I didn't speak up during the session but this attitude made me uncomfortable because at one point it started to stray worryingly close to territory that I'd seen here (also discussed here and link).  The comment I'd made was not to say, they are searching for information in the wrong way, but to try to highlight, if this is how people want to access resources, then shouldn't the library be doing everything it can to replicate that process.  Don't we ideally want to make it as easy to access the best sources of information as it is to access the 'good enough' material, so that people will always want to choose that instead.

We also had an interesting discussion on classification vs. categorisation, and one person gave an example of a very strange system of shelving, which seemed to rely solely on the discretion of the shelver as to where they felt it belonged.  This drew gasps of horror as we all imagined how completely impossible it must have been to actually find anything.

Finally we had a rather random discussion about trying to persuade Frank Skinner to be a library advocate, I can't remember now how it came about, but it seemed to involve us all stalking him on Twitter till he agreed.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who was at this session, and whether their perception of it was very different to mine.  At times I felt rather disconnected from it so I'm not sure I always followed the discussion correctly, I blame the post-lunch slump.

LibCampUK11 Session 2: Special collections

This was the session I was most looking forward to as I work in a museum library with a number of special collections, and I always love hearing about how other people have promoted theirs (and steal ideas!).

I don't think I can top the excellent write up from Girl in the Moon (well it was her session!) but I'll give it a go.

We started with introductions, I think this was one of the only sessions I went to where everyone introduced themselves.  Forty-five minutes isn’t very long to discuss your topic and introducing everyone does eat into it, but it was useful to get a feel for the various backgrounds and experiences of special collections that people had.

Next Laura (@theatregrad) gave us a brief overview of her dissertation, which had focused on library exhibitions and the sorts of issues involved.

Our 'Book of the Month' case in the process of rearrangement

There were two points that came up in the session that were particularly pertinent for me, the first was that libraries can tend to be a little over protective of their special collections, and in some ways treating them more like private collections.  We become so concerned with saving them from wear and tear that we can restrict access more than is entirely necessary. 



The sign at the top of the stairs to the library
 - not the most welcoming of images!

The second point was that many libraries are still not taking full advantage of the benefits of the internet for online exhibitions and digitised access to material.  It was pointed out that if a collection is deemed special, it won’t just be the local population who find it so, it may well have worldwide appeal.  There was a concern that advertising too much will result in a flood of requests to visit the material that the library cannot possibly cope with.  But agreement was reached that in many cases most people would be happy with just consulting the online versions, so you wouldn’t see too dramatic a rise in requests to consult material. 

I think this may be where the experience of a museum library can slightly differ from some of the other types of libraries that hold special collections.  We already have a steady stream of visitors into the museum building to see our collections so we are more likely to get requests to visit the library in person.  Although we have always made it clear that we are an appointment only library, we often receive on the spot requests from visitors.

A very good point was made that raising the profile of your collections, can also raise the profile of your library within your institution, and that it can often be used as leverage to apply for more funding.

We tried to define what a special collection is, which was not as easy as we thought.  The general consensus was that it is a collection of material (books, photos, journals, letters etc.) on a certain subject or period, or gathered for a particular reason, or by a particular collector, that is kept together in a library often separate or distinct from the main stock.  The items could be valuable or old, but not necessarily as it is just as common to find special collections of contemporary items.  One thing we did seem to agree on is that they do tend to be unique in some way, either because of the scarcity of the items themselves, or in the way they have been put together.



An artists book from Shirley Jones of the Red Hen Press
 in the National Museum Wales library collection

This then led on to a discussion about the types of materials found in a special collection, and how easy it is for an organisation to not realise the value of what they hold.  Some rather harrowing tales were shared of people trying to rescue discarded items from skips because an organisation didn’t understand (or care!) about the significance of what they were throwing away.

A very interesting discussion rounded off the session, about the practice of small companies that cannot manage their special collections loaning them (on a permanent basis) to larger institutions with the necessary experience to care for them.  Some interesting questions were raised about how to choose an institution.  I have to admit I did privately think at this point, "you’ll be lucky to find more than one that wants it!"  If an institution takes on a collection from another organisation, they will usually be responsible for all care and conservation, housing it, providing access and promoting it to the wider public.  As they are likely be working with limited budgets and space requirements for their own collections, they may not be falling over themselves to take on the added burden of someone else’s, regardless of the prestige that may accompany it.  However, it was decided that if you did have the luxury of choice, to go with the one that already has similar material in their collections, as that way any researchers using the material can see it all in the same location.


Egenolff Herbal c.1536 in the National
Museum Wales library collection

Sadly the session felt like it was over way too quickly, I would have happily stayed longer if I could, as there were still so many other aspects we could have talked about.  But it did inspire me to take more of a look at how we are using our special collections, and ways we could do more.

LibCampUK11 Session 1: Real social networks

The first session I attended was on real social networks, as we started to get into the discussion I did get a feeling that I hadn’t picked the right session for me, as it was predominantly based towards public libraries, which I know very little about.  But I stayed with it because I felt one of the advantages of Library Camp was the opportunity to learn about other sectors, and I’m glad I did because it turned out to be very interesting.

The purpose of the session was to discuss some of the ways in which libraries can connect more with their communities.  Some good points were made about how differently patrons view their branch libraries compared to central ones.  Apparently many people feel more comfortable talking to their branch librarian than to staff in a central library because they often find the environment intimidating.  There seemed to be a perception from users that as central libraries were much busier, they might be bothering them, whereas a branch library tends to be much quieter so it wasn't so much of an issue.

A number of people shared their experiences of using the British Library, particularly some examples of poor service they had received.  It really highlighted how it only takes one bad experience, amongst many otherwise good ones, to put you off and that it's the bad memories that people are more likely to remember!

Some of the conclusions made at the end of the session included;

Courtesy of @pigsonthewing

• Stop focusing so much on the stats – but as one public librarian pointed out, this is easier said than done, if higher management use those stats to decide whether to continue with the service or not
• Highlight that online use is still using the library as much as physical visits – again it was pointed out that physical visits can be more important because they justify having a library building.
• Encourage book groups in the library as a way of getting people to socialise - here the problems of space were discussed, a story was told of a book group being asked not to use the library any more as it was getting too large for them to accommodate.  It was also pointed out how successful Birmingham book groups held in coffee shops were because people like the atmosphere.  However, a lot of discussion followed about the difficulties of outreach work, because they don’t add to physical footfall in the library space.
• Remove social media blocks on library staff computers – this led to lots of horror stories about people having to run Twitter posts past line managers before posting them, which was time consuming and rather defeats the purpose.  Also of library staff wanting to update the library Facebook pages, but having to use the public computers because access to social media sites is blocked on the staff ones.
• Librarians need to get involved in the designing of space when refurbishing/building a library – again this led to stories of buildings designed with little regard for how they will actually be used.  And that certain well used elements can often be off putting to patrons, for example security barriers, which are not a very welcoming entry to the library.  There were some interesting examples of successfully combining a library with an additional service (e.g. community centre) in the same building.  One example was of an after school club being led into the library to see books they had been discussing in their session, and another example was the success of placing the library in a shopping centre.
• Be friendly and human - some people pointed out that if staff look too busy then people feel uncomfortable approaching them.  An example was given of a library that employs volunteers to go around welcoming people as a way to combat that problem.

By the end of the session I was starting to feel a bit (guiltily) relived that I don’t work in a public library.  Although we all have limitations on what we can do, there does seem to be a very significant divide between what public library staff (or at least those staff that were at Library Camp) want to offer to their patrons, and what they are actually able to provide within the limits of their organisation.  It was a bit disheartening to think that one of the more visible sectors of our profession is in many cases powerless to affect the changes they want to in order to meet the needs of their community.  I just got the impression that whenever they wanted to implement any changes (big or small) too many bureaucratic barriers were placed in their way.  It was definitely a real eye opener for me in that regard, and I'd be interested to hear if that has been other peoples experience.

Library Camp 2011

Last weekend I attended Library Camp UK 2011 in Birmingham, my first experience of an unconference (or any type of conference in fact).

An unconference works on the principle that participants decide on the programme at the beginning of the event (people had been posting suggestions on the Library Camp wiki in the run up to the day) and that all attendees get the opportunity to contribute to the discussions.

The idea is based on “Open Space Technology” (Harrison Owen) which has four main principles and one law:-

1. Whoever comes is the right people
2. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have
3. Whenever it starts is the right time
4. When it’s over, it’s over 

Law of two feet: If, during the course of the gathering, any person finds him or herself in any situation where they are neither learning nor contributing, they must use their two feet and go to some more productive place.
(Library Camp website)

Courtesy of Dave & Bry's Flickr stream

I was a little nervous about attending because I like structure and organisation and the unconference style doesn’t really fit that format.  I was also nervous because I’d never even been to a traditional conference before, and I was worried that I would find it all a bit overwhelming and over my head.  However, a lot of people on Twitter mentioned feeling the same way which helped bolster my confidence, and there was a growing sense of excitement in the twitterverse from attendees. 

The day started with everyone introducing themselves (in which I learned an awful lot of librarians are called Sarah!) which was time consuming, but I think it did help to break the ice.  Then came the pitches, followed by a short break to let the organisers sort out the timetable of sessions.  In an effort to force myself to get more involved I had put a proposal on the wiki the week before the event, but in the end I didn’t pitch it as there were a few other pitches on similar(ish) themes (and, if I’m truthful because I wimped out!).

The timetable board courtesy of The Lizard Lounge

The sessions I attended were;
Real social networks
Special collections
New library models
Wikipedia & wiki commons
Social media and #uklibchat
I will blog about the individual sessions later, but here are some of my general thoughts from the day.

My overall experience of Library Camp and meeting so many library folk for the first time wasn’t as scary as I’d imagined.  It might have been nice to have more time in advance to consider the different sessions, as it did feel like a free for all getting to the timetable board in between each session.  And there definitely wasn’t enough time for everything, I didn’t get to talk to nearly as many people as I would have liked.  I also wished some of the sessions were longer, some subjects really felt like they need more than just 45 minutes.  Although that might not have been such a good idea, as by the end of the day my head was spinning from all the information I had taken in.

The highs

• The venue; it was clean and bright, with a never ending supply of coffee.  It was also really easy to find thanks to all the information put up on the wiki
• All the cakes; there was so much more cake there than I was anticipating
• Meeting loads of lovely people; I got to meet people I only knew from blogs and Twitter, catch up with people I already knew and meet lots of new ones as well
• Learning about other sectors; I was the only museum librarian there, so it was a great opportunity to learn more about other sectors of the profession
• That it was held on a Saturday rather than mid-week, so I was actually able to attend
• All the chatter on Twitter, before, during and after the event helping foster a real sense of community

The lows

• Realising that I do in fact have a limit to how much cake I can consume
• That there were so many people, and so little time to meet them all
• Not getting to all the sessions I would have liked to because of scheduling clashes (although that’s where the session notes section of the wiki will come in very handy)
• The early start; I should have gone up the night before, I’ll know for next time!

All in all, I had a great day; I felt there was a real buzz and sense of enthusiasm at Library Camp.  I left feeling motivated and full of ideas, so roll on Library Camp 2012!