Sessions - Mashups

Session led by Toby McAleer

Toby demonstrated with a hands-on tutorial, the ATO eLibraries use of RSS by mashing up feeds and displaying them within the SirsiDynix EPS Rooms application.

Toby's first session was so popular he did an 'encore' performance.

Toby highlighted the advantages of Google Reader and Yahoo Pipes, which is another feed aggregator on the horizon. He talked about getting RSS feeds directly into the OPAC via the use of a snippet of html script. For those who missed this very informative session.....CLICK HERE for the presentation.

Feedback ??

Butcher's paper, white-boards, post it notes, PCs....you name it we used it!

We made use of 'people', 'spaces' and 'ephemera' to encourage all the participants to take part in this relatively unexplored world of 'The UnConference'.


Feedback has been wonderful and we congratulate all attendees for their enthusiasm in making the day such a success! ....but then we always knew Librarians have never been backward in coming forward!
Leaders and facilitators emerged from a group who pretty much arrived that morning wondering what sort of day awaited them.

Comments like:

"I found the day incredibly beneficial, thankyou all very much for organising everything. There were a couple of web 2.0 questions that I was really hoping to get assistance with (most notably to do with building targeted RSS feeds) and they were answered in great detail from Toby's session and others. I liked the mix of having some pre-planned "hands-on" sessions and those more organic sessions that were developed on the day - it allowed for a balance between some theoretical/strategic discussions and getting to grips with the tools that enable this brave new Library 2.0 world! "


Blogged comments from:
The Connected Librarian
Library Sputnik


This White board asking for comments at the end of the day may have gone unnoticed as the 'bar' opened!
We would love YOUR feedback, please take some time to look at our questions.

How were your expectations met?

What was the most useful takeaway from today?

What did you like about the format today?

Should we hold regular UnConferences? How often?

How could WE have improved today?


Other comments/Feedback?

Sessions - Second Life

Presented by Michelle McLean

Michelle presented some background information about
Second Life via some demo videos from YouTube.

She also made use of Kathryn Greenhill's excellent slides on Second Life from her National Library presentations .
She then went live to demonstrate this virtual world, moving around and interacting with others logged into this virtual life

Michelle went onto suggest ways that this world is already being used in library applications and businesses, with online meetings being conducted via this program

Sessions - Wikis

Session led by Tom Edwards, Andrew Hiskens and Dianne Clifford

Session began with a overview of the wiki Dianne had set up in her school library. Designed to be used internally by staff; she went through the process of setting up a wiki using open source software


A general discussion about ways to get staff to use wikis
– difference between a wiki and an Intranet?
-What libraries do and don’t use the Intranet .
-Advantages and disadvantages of having the wiki hosted on a different server to putting in on the library server and having more control
-Ownership of the wiki
-Problems that may have to be overcome with council or IT restrictions
-Setting up with an aim in mind rather than just for the sake of having a wiki because it's in vogue

Session ended with possible uses for a wiki in the library environment
-strategic planning
-staff communication
-community interaction
-book clubs-intranet
-staff procedures and policies

The Unconference - Planning the sessions

Australias’ first Unconference was held at at Yarra Plenty Library in Melbourne amd was sponsored by SirsiDynix. It attracted about 100 attendees.Representatives from school, special, public and the State Library of Victoria were all in attendance. The focus being web 2.0 technologies in our libraries. Knowledge of Library 2.0 and web 2.0 ranged from an awareness to expert, but the benefit for all came in the sharing and in the ideas that came from this






As attendees arrived the aroma of freshly brewed coffee from …..coffee cart filled the air, as well as the smell of fresh donuts. Mmm…the day was certainly off to a good start





Facilitated by Anne Hartigan, rules were set down (ie rule of 2 feet – if you don’t like the topic; or aren’t getting much out of it; feel free to leave)

The first item was to set the agenda for the day With paper spread across the floor and markers in hand, attendees put thoughts to paper, expressing ideas about what they would like to discuss for the day. There was certainly no lack of enthusiasm

Ideas were then arranged into a workable agenda for the day.
-Web 2.0 = library 2.0?
-Wikis
-RFID in libraries
-Literary blogging
-Information literacy : overcoming fear
-OPACS and mashups
-Library education
-Young people social networking
-Virtual services universal? /sharing resources
-Second life tour
-Re-engineering reference, IM and virtual reference
-Library 2.0 : 23 things program
-Tagging reader recommendations : creative tools
-Convincing stakeholders of our worth

There were some great conversations, exchanging of ideas, thoughts provoked, inspiration given, new connections made through networking (and old ones reestablished) and so much more.