The Liminal Librarian

6 Comments

1. Aaron the Librarian:

   Happy to be of service
   Room info forthcoming this weekend…

   18 January 2009, 4:24 pm

2. Jason Griffey:

   Thanks, Rachel. Glad you think it’s useful, and the whole point of doing it was to try to prompt other division to do the same. I’m about to add the Google Map to LITABlog as well, but here’s a preview: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100234958050911716886.0004560290ace09f0a7f9&t=h&z=11

   18 January 2009, 8:29 pm

3. Jenny Levine:

   Rachel, I actually investigated doing a calendar of all of ALA’s events in gCal last year but rejected the idea when it became clear it would force users to have a Google account just to search it. I didn’t think it was feasible to explain to 65,000+ people why they can’t search through ALA’s calendar without first having an account with Google, just like I would hope we’d get skewered if we forced you to create an account with Microsoft to search our calendar. In fact, I couldn’t find another easy-to-use calendar service that allowed public search, which I find a little crazy and depressing.

   Without search, we have even bigger problems, because there are approximately 2500 separate meetings/events at Midwinter and approximately 3000 at Annual. No one wants to browse through that many listings without some type of taxonomy and/or search, so we’re currently seeking a better solution. We’re going to investigate writing a special Drupal module to incorporate the event planner into our forthcoming “ALA Connect” service (see http://itts.ala.org/update/category/alaconnect/ for more info) to create a truly useful event planner (see the post at http://discuss.ala.org/marginalia/2009/01/07/its-been-a-tough-start-to-the-new-year-at-ala/).

   In the meantime, it makes sense for smaller chunks of ALA (like BIGWIG) to use these types of services to get their events out. I’m glad they’re experimenting, and I’m looking forward to receiving feedback when we do a survey to ask about features folks want in the event planner.

   Hopefully this helps explain where we’re heading.

   19 January 2009, 11:44 am

4. rachel:

   Jenny, that makes sense, and I’ll look forward to seeing the improved planner. (And, have nothing but respect for what you have been doing at ALA.) I don’t think that Google Calendar itself is necessarily the be-all end-all answer, but just being very pleased at its clarity and ease of use in contrast to the ALA-provided app. — if you can duplicate that, you’ll have a lot of happy libraryfolk.

   19 January 2009, 12:22 pm

5. Jenny Levine:

   From your mouth to…. Thanks!

   19 January 2009, 1:34 pm

6. Marty Holzer:

   So, I tried to set an “itinerary” around the HUGE expanse of listed booths at ALA/Chicago through the ALA website. A co-worker (MLS librarian who — an “early bird” sort — proudly displayed her list of target booths, which she had prepared substantially in advance of this coming weekend) tried to guide me through the log-on and selection process.

   Our whole Aurora PL staff will attend on “exhibits only” passes on Monday, 7/13/09 as a special use of the organization’s annual Staff Development Day. I chose “services” as a way to narrow down the possibilities to visit. My mentor’s advice way NOT TO LOG ON with my attendee registration # but rather go through the ALA/Chicago portal. Never got any results…computer seemed frozen in the “loading” mode as soon as I chose from among the “subject” selections. Co-worker’s observation: the
   ALA site has crashed; you might try later tonight (up ’til 9 pm, as that’s our library’s closing time on Thursdays) when there aren’t as many users attempting to access the application.

   I attended Jenny Levine’s recent SIG at Oak Park Library and was attracted to the confidence she expressed in DRUPAL…seemed to have enormous benefits for the presenters and ALA planning groups to share info. and gather the plans toward implementation in an easy-to-access framework. What happened? Did I misinterpret the uses our fearless leaders were envisioning for DRUPAL?

   Thanks for listening! I’ll still attend but with a lack of preview “direction” for the limited time we’ll be spending at McCormick Place.

   10 July 2009, 2:53 pm

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