*disco music* FINALLY
So, here I am at the first day of Internet Librarian 2005 proper (as opposed to to the preconference I participated in yesterday). AND I abandoned my Web Managers track (more on why soon) in favor of the public libraries track hosted by Michael Stephens. I couldn't resist because Jenny Levine and Jessamyn West were presenting on Flickr and Tagging. For those just tuning in, I attended a NEASIST program last spring on Social Software at which Michael and Jenny presented and it turned out to be the start of my interest in all aspects of this. Jessamyn is quickly becoming a library star AND she's a high-profile public librarian, which I think is good. Now I can say, with good authority, that she's also an excellent speaker. I think it really says something that these public-library people are fabulous - they're full of enthusiasm and not bogged down in theory and academia (not that there's anything wrong with academia, it's just that sometimes ya'll lose a bit of perspective). They're dynamic and interesting and thought-full and real advocates for their libraries and their libraries' communities, near and far. I want to be their friend.
Another reason I like them? Michael set up an wifi hub in this room which I accessed with no problem… Whoo hoo! I'm a product of my generation and I work best when I'm doing many things at once. So I'm much more dazzling here, when I'm listening to the speaker at the same time, than I ever would do sitting in my room or even in an internet cafe later.
Okay, on to the conference content…. As I mentioned, I attended a preconference workshop yesterday entitled, “Web Manager's Academy.” It was extra $$$ (thanks again, UNH), but so relevant to my job that I felt it would be good… and it was, to a certain extent. It was four speakers. Darlene Fichter moderated and gave an overview of “next generation websites” and moderated; Jeff Wisniewski talked about Content Managment Software and CSS/designing with standards; Marshall Breeding discussed database connectivity and web services; Frank Cervone presented on federated searching and OpenURL. It was a good introduction to all these things and it taught me that I'm doing things, at least some things, right - especially when it comes to CSS and standards… but it was just an introduction and I guess I was hoping for something a bit more indepth. My other pretty big complaint is that this morning, two of the three presentations I attended were almost identical to the preconference presentations… so why did we buy both?
That said, I have to say that those presenters, really have it together. They get that what we, as library web designers are up against. Yes, we have to provide access to such diverse resources, services, information that navigation and information architecture is really important BUT we have to know our patrons and they need a little finesse with a slick interface… but not too slick. The interface establishes out credibility… I'm going to leave that here… you've heard me say it before. They also touched on a third dimension of difficulty - librarians. Us. We are handicapped by our own knowledge. Yes, indeed, we know too much and that makes our designs too confusing for people who don't know what we know. The answer? Well, as much as I'm dragging my heels about this, it seems to be Usability testing… and this is my next soapbox to my boss….
