International library conference to take place in Edinburgh in February 2010…

The Edge 2010 is a two day conference taking place on February 25th and 26th at Edinburgh Castle.  The conference, which is being organised by Edinburgh City Libraries, promises to “push the boundaries of public service delivery” in the 21st century.  Their impressive line-up of speakers include Susan Benton, President and CEO of the Urban Libraries Council;  Michael Porter, otherwise known in library circles as ‘Library Man’; Ewan McIntosh, renowned emerging and social media expert; plus lots more fantastic speakers from around the UK.

Further details, including a list of costs, payment options and accommodation, are available via their online booking form.

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Poster Sessions at IFLA 2009…

One of my favourite parts of any conference is always the poster sessions.  This is the time when you get an opportunity to experience (all in one place) the wide variety of library projects and research initiatives happening all over the world.

Poster sessions are always very busy so I made sure that I arrived early in order to speak to as many presenters as possible.  There were some stunning posters on display, but it’s not until you get a chance to speak to the presenter about their project that you get a proper feel for their research or the work that they’ve carried out over the last year.

The three posters highlighted below really caught my attention:

Marvel Maring, USA

Casting a Net from Nebraska to Nicaragua – highlighting the impact of a project between the University of Nebraska library school and a library school in Nicaragua.  This project is an excellent example of the role libraries can play in building social capital; and their potential in delivering value through partnership working. Presenter: Marvel Maring (USA).

Máximo Moreno Grez, Chile

Chileans Networking towards the Bicentennial – an inspirational project about citizens from small communities in Chile creating their own websites by uploading user generated content via PCs provided by the local library. Presenter: Máximo Moreno Grez (Chile).

Tina Mortensen, Denmark

Read it, Show it, Promote it – provided some quirky ideas for public libraries to reach non-users, increase visitor numbers, and make the library a fun and interactive, rather than passive experience. Presenters: Michael Larsen and Tina Mortensen (Denmark).

Please note that it was quite noisy and very busy during the poster session, so apologies if I’ve misinterpreted any of these posters. Apologies also for the quality of the photos, which were taken on my iPhone3G.

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Invited to Speak at IFLA 2008!

I was already superexcited about attending the 74th IFLA General Conference and Council in Québec, Canada,  but I can hardly contain my excitement now; I’ve been selected to present a co-authored paper on Library 2.0 during the Information Technology Section’s session: “Enabling access to the global library – Small is Beautiful: Distributed deployment of library services for small and special libraries”.

Can’t wait to attend my first international conference!  If you also happen to be attending, be sure to stop by and check out my presentation! I’ll be the nervous looking one standing next to a very cool co-author, Mr Anthony Browne from East Renfrewshire Council Library & Information Service. 🙂

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