Not So Local Conference

I had encouraged my staff to branch out a bit and attend some local conferences and workshops, and to submit proposals to present information about our new library. Two of them were accepted to present poster sessions at a COCID conference being held nearby at SUNY Brockport (Conference on Computing in the Disciplines) called "Integrating Library Services Into a Learning Management System." I had thought it was just a local conference and we would mostly meet people from area institutions. One look at the conference participant sheet told me otherwise. There were presenters and attendees from Nebraska, Illinois, Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, Michigan and Pennsylvania among other places. Pretty good considering it was small (~150) and not well known.

Here at Roberts, we started using Moodle as our campus course management system last summer, and I encouraged the library to make full use of it. We created training modules for our student workers, started a blog to help communications, used their scheduling etc. Now it just seems normal, and you forget that other places aren't doing things the same way. So my staff put together their posters, and I had them roll them over to digital picture frames. They are way easier than laptops to show a powerpoint, and the ones IT got for us are wireless and we can mount stuff on the web and access it from anywhere. Slick.

I smiled as our staff took in everything going on. Timid at first, they got the hang of introducing themselves, asking questions, taking the handouts, giving out their cards. We made some good connections, got some good ideas, and left a few of our own. The best part for me was to see their eyes opened to the possibilities, to expand their horizons and realize we are not the only corner of the world. Works in my favor since I have really been pushing them to get up to speed with the rest of the world, and they caught a glimpse of that world - at least enough to begin to realize I am not asking for anything unreasonable, just stuff that happens in lots of other places that in the long run will make their lives easier.