Conference report

I had actually intended posting daily updates - with a summary of the sessions that I'd attended on each day. However, I haven't really got enough out of any of the sessions to make it worthwhile, so I think I'll just do an overall summing up post of the main issues following the close of the conference tomorrow.

I am actually quite disappointed with LILAC2009 so far. The presentations have been good, I've had lots of interesting chats and it's clear that there are great things being done by librarians. But, I'm not hearing anything I didn't hear last year.

And the focus is still very much on HE. One of today's keynote speakers was Leslie Burger who is Director of Princeton Public Library and there has been a sprinkling of non-HE parallel sessions. However, the vast majority (about 90% as a very rough estimate) of the participants are from universities. There are many reasons why this is the case, but it's something the LILAC committee (all from HE) need to address. One of the themes of the conference is 'information literacy for life' but I fear it's an issue that's only going to get a very superficial treatment.

This is live you know...

Currently in a session about using an ARG for student inductions...

My favourite gadget

One personal objective I have for this 3 day conference is to explore my iPhone. I've had it for almost 5 months now and I love it. I'm not using it to it's full potential yet though, so this trip is providing a good opportunity to find out just how much it can do for me. So far, it's provided the musical soundtrack for my train trip, allowed me to keep my other half updated as to my precise location* (via email and text), provided a variety of reading material to keep me amused (via RSS feeds and ebooks), enabled me to check train times, post to this blog and find the telephone number for my hotel (via it's Internet browser), and it helped me get from the hotel to the conference location this morning (via it's GPS functionality).

Oh, and I have used it's functionality as a mobile telephone as well!

* this is of great importance to him.

Journeys

On my way to Cardiff for LILAC2009. LILAC is the Librarians Information Literacy Annual Conference and is THE information literacy event of the year (in the UK anyway). It's a lovely sunny day and some of the journey is along the East Coast Mainline (one of the most scenic lines in the country). I've got 900-odd songs on my iPhone and American Gods to read. This is how all train journeys should be.

(I've been on a voyage of discovery with this blogging lark for a while (I have a restricted access blog within IDEA's Communities of Practice platform) but have yet to embrace it wholeheartedly. And with my usual impeccable sense of timing - now that Twitter is the thing - I'm ready to jump in with both feet!)

Beginnings...

OOOOhhhh...it's like that first stroke of the paintbrush on a blank canvas or pencil on a fresh sheet of paper, or even that first tentative step into newly fallen snow...