SPARC

Twittering at Computers in Libraries

I had a remarkable experience using the now-very-popular online social networking tool Twitter at the Computers in Libraries (CIL) conference in Crystal City, March 30 to April 1.  Lugging my trusty Macbook laptop, my intention was to efficiently write entries on what I saw and heard to share with others.  At last year’s conference, I posted to the SPARC blog, and I found it was rather labor-intensive and exhausting to copy my notes and write a coherent blog entry by day’s end. This year with Twitter, I just wrote quick lines within the brief 140 character line limit, and sent the “tweets” online (90% of the time when the wi-fi was working).  There was no need to re-edit and post notes, and interested people could see them nearly in real time if they searched Twitter for the “hashtag” silcil.

The very cool thing was that by using the free Twitter client, TweetDeck, I could have my entries in one column while following other conference attendees’ tweets at the same time.  During talks, it was almost like passing notes in the back of the classroom.  This proved very helpful at the 2nd day’s keynote.  I was sitting at a place in the cavernous conference hall where the acoustics were terrible and the speaker had a Dutch accent.  With my hearing loss, it was especially difficult to understand what was said.  By following other CIL conference tweets, it functioned almost as closed-captioning for me, and everything was understood.

So, folks, I don’t think Twitter is yet “… another ephemeral, noninformative tech plaything” (per an article by conference speaker Greg Notess).   At least in the context of a conference, this librarian found it to be extremely useful.

A log of CIL Twitter entries by SIL attendees.

Gil Taylor

@giltay

Washington Post Discovers Smithsonian 2.0

The Washington Post did a story on the Smithsonian 2.0 event.

Condensing the two plus days of activity into a traditional print journalism article with limitations of space, coming out two days after the event, etc., was a difficult task. Already, readers have been providing some feedback on the WPost website, so that will help expand the coverage. So, for those of you who were at the event, particularly our invited guests, please do take a look at the piece and add some first hand impressions to supplement the story!

SI Libraries @ Smithsonian 2.0

Smithsonian 2.0 was held January 23-24, 2009. The two-day Smithsonian 2.0 gathering explores how to make SI collections, educational resources, and staff more accessible, engaging, and useful to younger generations (teenage through college students) who will largely experience them digitally. Over 30 creative people from the web and new media world will meet with 30 Smithsonian staff members to generate a vision of what a digital Smithsonian might be like in the years ahead.

A number of SIL staff worked on the event. Keri Thompson and Erin Rushing participated in the "Web and New Media Fair" demonstrating the Biodiversity Heritage Library and the Encyclopedia of Life; also at the "Web and New Media Fair," Doug Dunlop, Alvin Hutchinson, and Doug Litts showed a variety of other SIL online projects. I was part of the Smithsonian Web 2.0 organizing committee and was co-chair of the "Web and New Media Fair."

Perhaps the most interesting part of the event for the outside visitors (dubbed "the Digerati") were the behind the scenes tours of Smithsonian treasures and projects. Keri Thompson led a group through the BHL Scanning room while Daria Wingreen-Mason (above) wowed the group with a spectacular display of items from the Cullman Library, including a volume of the Audubon double-elephant folio (not seen in the above picture).

All SI staff are encourgaged to read more about the event and to participate in the ongoing discussion a the new Smithsonian 2.0 blog.

You can also see some more photos from the event on Flickr; you can also read some of the instant mini-blog postings by participants on Twitter.