I attended the NYLA Conference 11/5-11/8 in Saratoga
Springs. Most interesting presentations: Little known collections of the NYS
Library (the antiquarian librarian stood up there with his cane and presented
using 12x14 title cards), Using Infographics to share data (during which the
power went out for an hour), and Digital Badging (which I thought had died, but
apparently not). Some interesting vendors, Boopsie (mobile library app – it integrates
with BB! http://www.boopsie.com/), and
someone who does mini-golf events (sometimes within the stacks) for libraries
as fund raisers.
On 11/13, Charlie, Debby, Greg, Susan P, and I did a well-received
webinar for the Digital Commons community on Creative IR Staffing. We had about
200 people signed up for it, and more than 125 log-ins which makes it my
biggest audience ever.
Finally, I watched the webinar on World Cat
Discovery Services yesterday. It is a reference solution which expands what we
currently get with First Search, for no additional cost. It will totally
replace First Search on 12/31/2015, but is available now (in fact has been on
the library webpage for some time). It allows users to find our collection at
the point of need, either through the native interface, the 3rd party
API, or on the web. There are additional features available for a price, which
include using it as a full featured discovery service (databases, etc.) and
being able to show real time availability and item location, course reserves,
and custom reporting via Adobe Analytics.
