The Upstate New York Library Camp was held yesterday and today. Despite bad weather that threatened to nix my trip, I did get to attend most of the first day. And what a great day it was. Despite the gloom of wintry weather, there were more than 80 people from all over upstate NY gathered for day 1 – Unconference on the Future of Libraries. I won’t write up all the scribbly notes I took, there are more detailed notes on the wiki, on Jill Hurst’s enetworking101 blog.
The well organized day ran smoothly and lots of interesting conversations took place. And lots of sharing of perspectives, I think that was one of the best parts of the day. It was great to hear school and college librarians talking about the challenges they each face in working with students. And in particular, for the school librarians to share how few of these technology tools their schools will let them use. It seemed that many non-school librarians weren’t aware of how restricted the access is in many K-12 schools. And it was interesting to hear the public librarians share their perspectives on helping patrons with technology, training and providing information.
Great job by all involved: the Central New York Library Resources Council, the South Central Regional Library Council, and the Syracuse University School of Information Studies, with the collaboration of Jill Hurst-Wahl
