LibraryTechtonics

This is what I’m up to today:

Women Who Tech: A TeleSummit for Women in Technology in the non-profit and political world will bring together the most talented and renowned women breaking new ground in technology on Monday, March 31, 2008. The TeleSummit aims to create a supportive network for the vibrant and thriving community of women in technology professions by giving them an open platform to share their talents, experiences and insights via virtual workshops and panel discussions.

Here’s the list of sessions I’ll be attending online today:

• Get Your Local Campaigns On
• Tooting Your Own Horn
• Women and Social Capital
• Open Source for Women
• Improve This Blog Pitch
• Mobile Activism

I meant to blog about this three weeks ago when I registered, but given that I was getting ready for PLA in Minneapolis (which was interesting; just got back last night, posts to follow) and trying to work and live, I just didn’t get a chance to. It’s an opportunity to hang out online with women who do tech things on all sorts of industries, learn about what women are doing with technology to advance their businesses, and just learn stuff that can be transfered to other areas (like, say, librarianship). It’s free, and there might still be some session openings for today, so check out the site if you’re interested. You can also follow the Twitter “back channel” for the conference. I’ll be tagging all my pertinent tweets with #wwt.

Preach it, friend.

It’s Minneapolis. There’s a German band playing in the conference center, right near the entrance of The Exhibits, all afternoon. Things got wacky, and a priceless moment was born…

Conversants (ISSN: 1940-5022), “a limited-run, open-access journal about participatory networks,” did a soft launch on Friday, with Participatory Librarianship rock star R. David Lankes at the helm as editor. When Dave emailed me just after ALA Midwinter and asked me to write an editorial on “how library school can be better” for the new journal as a from-the-field view of what technology should be included in library school education, I was more than happy to oblige. As you’ll read, my article isn’t just about knowing about the latest social networking site, or having the latest tech toys in the library; it’s a more holistic approach to technology that keeps service and customer behaviors at the forefront.

The articles in Conversants are on the academic side, but are not limited to the academic library point of view. They raise interesting questions, and I hope they’ll promote interesting discussions about the truly conversation- and sharing-based nature of the web and emerging web technologies. The journal also sports an interesting comments format, and I’m interested to see how it works out: readers can leave comments on individual paragraphs as well as on the entire page.

It’s an innovative publication with a comparatively unique approach to the technology side of things, examining the human element more than the toys, bells, and whistles. I can only hope that smart library school professors will include this journal in their class readings, and library school curriculum developers will take notice!

It’s hard to believe a no-brainer fantastic innovation of this kind — fabulous store front branches in underserved areas of the Brooklyn DUMBO neighborhood — could go underfunded by the New York Public Library when library just received a $100 million donation just last week.

Library Outposts are storefront library service points, no more than 1500 sq. ft. in size, centrally located in busy commercial districts or near transportation hubs. The storefront presence makes the Outpost agile and adaptable to the particular features of each community, providing fundamental library service and serving as a gateway to the full range of programs, classes, and events offered throughout the larger service ecology. The space is easily transformable; one moment a silent reading room, another moment a performance art space, another moment a forum for a community group meeting. Storefront library facilities have been attempted in the past with limited success, but the Outpost model takes advantage of emerging technologies to reconsider the distribution of library content and materials (you know, like books, DVDs, etc.) and invent itself as something entirely different.

Nate Hill put two years of work into the project, and you can read all about it because he’s hoping that his knowledge will be put to good use somewhere.

So, who’s going to step up and use this packaged-with-a-bow plan? What could/would you do with it? Where else do you want to see it applied? I’m interested to hear about it.