Information Highways - Now With e-Content!

Now rebranded as the "e-content institute," this year's Information Highways conference is smaller but sleeker... Gone are the halcyon days of yore with sprawling trade shows in the ginormous Toronto Metro Convention Centre. Instead this is a compact show at the Holiday Inn on King with three or four concurrent sessions, and probably about 350 attendees. This was day two of the conference, with seminars by vendors yesterday which I gave amiss.

I have notes to post later on each of the sessions I attended today, but let me give you a quick overview for now. Peter de Jager was keynote speaker talking about change management. I had not heard him speak before, and thoroughly enjoyed his talk. What he said made a lot of common sense, although I had not heard these specific ideas before. I am signed up for a full day workshop tomorrow with him, continuing on the theme of change. Should be good!

Next up were talks on intranet development, the use of wikis in organizations, reducing legal risk in using electronic content and product development, and finally a great session on competitive intelligence.

I saw a number of familiar faces: colleagues from other law libraries, vendor reps, and a friend in a completely different industry presenting at one of the sessions.

I also immediately spotted Dave Hook, The Industrial Librarian, after the keynote address. He looks a lot like his picture (imagine that) so it was fun meeting him face to face and talking with him in person for the first time. We chatted about the Computers in Libraries conference he had just attended, and for which he has been posting blog notes. He was a speaker at both events (CIL and today's) so it was interesting to compare notes on how our blogs have helped to raise our profiles. It was also a pleasure to meet his wife, a fellow blogger going by the handle Canadian Lib Genie. I think that is the first biblioblogging couple I've met!

That's it--gotta rest up for tomorrow. I probably won't be posting too much until the weekend since I'm hosting my bookclub tomorrow night and it would be overly optimistic to think I could fit blogging in sometime between food preparation and my friends arriving at my place. So, do stay tuned for those notes!

Cheers,
Connie

Dave Hook on CIL2006

I have been following Dave Hook, fellow biblioblogger The Industrial Librarian, on his coverage of CIL2006 (the Computers in Libraries Conference) which was held last week in Washington, D.C. Word has it the conference had record attendance this year of 2,662. Wow. Read back to Dave's post on March 18, 2006 for his conference coverage.

See also:

list of blogs covering CIL2006

Jane Dysart blogging at Dysart & Jones

Where's Connie? Catching you up on my recent activities!

I sometimes get caught up in projects and neglect to update you, my loyal readers, on just what I'm up to. Here therefore is a list of some of my recent activities for your perusing pleasure!

• I am delighted to be one of the administrators of the CALL 2006 blog, the first ever blog for a CALL conference. Michael Lines has done a fantastic job creating it--doing both technical and design work. Steve Matthews has given great technical support. Every now in then I throw in some moral support. If you will be attending the conference and would like to join us in blogging it, let one of us know. Otherwise, I hope you will read along. And we strongly encourage comments!

• I've been included as a panelist in the pre-conference workshop on Knowledge Management for the CALL 2006 conference. I will be representing the KM novice who has been avidly watching from the sidelines and who is going to start out by doing KM on an informal basis. We have a spectrum of librarians-who-do-KM so I hope you will consider attending this day-long session.

• Some of my recent posts on Canadian law/technology blog Slaw have included a series on recommendations for legal publishers from the point of view of the law firm customer. I have had excellent feedback both from colleagues and from publishers. While I don't have specific subjects planned going forward, I invite subjects for this series and hope to continue as, frankly, things stick in my craw. My plan is not to target specific publishers but to make general comments that I hope will be useful to all publishers and vendors in the legal industry. Here is the series to date:
  


• Desperately Seeking: RSS From Legal Publishers (February 17, 2006)


• Syndication 101 for Publishers (February 17, 2006)


• RSS Feeds From Publishers, a Reprise, and Reducing Catalogue Production Costs (March 3, 2006)


• Requests for Legal Seminar Publishers (March 10, 2006)

• My latest column on LLRX came out last week, this one on podcasting. Are You Ready for Podcasting? features an interview with Jim Milles. For all of my columns to date, check out The Tao of Law Librarianship on LLRX.com .

• I have had a great time as "Canadian Correspondent" on Jim Milles' podcast Check This Out! Most recently we taped my interview with Jim for the LLRX column, and he has posted the entire interview in Episode 17. This has prompted a friend to ask, "is that all you guys do, interview each other?" Which caused me to explain to him that what we are REALLY doing is creating some synergy and building expertise. Ahem--there is a difference!

• Sabrina Pacifici and I will be running a full-day pre-conference workshop on blogging for the enterprise at SLA 2006 on June 10th in Baltimore. We are looking to make this a true workshop, allowing participants to work through ideas to help everyone already familiar with blogging to "push the envelope".

• Work on the Northeast Regional Law Libraries meeting to be held in Toronto October 17-20, 2007 has been heating up! I am co-chairing this conference with Stephen Weiter. We are close to having a preliminary website to give everyone some initial information and which will reveal our fantastic team putting this all together. Our theme has been confirmed as "Libraries Without Borders 2" playing on the title used at the last meeting held way back in 1996. If you have any questions about this, feel free to contact me at connieblog@sympatico.ca -- put "NE2007" in the subject line.

• And despite all these projects and exciting accomplishments, the thing that still gave me the biggest thrill was getting a nod from vlog Rocketboom on March 23rd when they used one of my story ideas again. Woohoo!

...not to mention committee work for CALL and TALL, projects in progress which I can't yet disclose and--oh yeah!--my day job.

And...always look on the bright side of life....

Namaste,
Connie

The Canadian Centre for Philanthropy Has a New Name

The Canadian Centre for Philanthropy (CCP) and the Coalition of National Voluntary Organizations (NVO) are pleased to announce that they have come together to create a new organization: Imagine Canada.

Building on the solid work of both CCP and NVO, we've launched a new organization to support Canada's charities, nonprofit organizations and socially conscious businesses and champion the work they do in our communities

See the Imagine Canada website.

They have subscriptions available to access the Canadian Directory to Foundations and Corporations which is also available in paper.

As well, there is the Imagine Canada-John Hodgson Library for your virtual research pleasure.

The Canadian Centre for Philanthropy has long been the best resource for information on charities and giving in Canada. Thanks to Vanessa for pointing out the change!

Sept. 17/07 Update: I have corrected the link to the main website. If you are looking for the press release that announced the change back in 2005, it is on this page under 2005.

Now You Are Two: Happy Birthday Little Blog!

Hard to believe we've been companions now for two whole years. It feels like I've just started blogging, and yet so much has happened since I first opened that wee Blogger account. I can't wait to see what the future holds!

I invite all regular readers of this blog to drop me a line, either as a comment to this message or to my email connieblog@sympatico.ca .

Cheers,
Connie

The Indefatigable Sabrina Pacifici!

Sabrina Pacifici, editor and publisher of legal research e-zine LLRX.com and blog beSpacific is the subject of an article in the Library Journal, "Indefatigable - Sabrina Pacifici" (March 15, 2006).

I have had the extreme pleasure of getting to know Sabrina over the last several months, and can vouch for the assertion that she does all these projects in her spare time, getting little sleep. On a personal basis, she has been an inspiration, and has given me an immense amount of moral support and encouragement.

She is speaking at the Computers in Libraries conference coming up later this month, March 22-24, 2006, in Washington, D.C.:

• Free Cybertour: "Blogs for Managing Content" - Thurs. March 23, 12 - 2 pm


• Post-Conference Workshop: "Mining Blogs & RSS for Research" - Sat. March 25, 1:30 - 4:30 pm

In addition, she and I will be co-presenting a pre-conference workshop on blogging for the enterprise at this year's Special Libraries Association conference in Baltimore, June 10, 2006.

It's Alive!!! The CALL/ACBD 2006 Conference Blog

I'm pleased to be one of the admin group, along with Michael Lines and Steve Matthews, helping put together CALL's first ever conference blog! Thanks to Michael Lines for all his hard work setting it up and putting together a fabulous design. When you visit the blog you will see we have retained all our "work in progress" discussion so everyone can see what went into creating this blog. While blogs can be very quick to set up, a lot of thought went into this one. It has quickly become my favourite place to post as far as ease of posting goes.

I really hope CALL members, other delegates, and those who are unable to attend the conference, will participate as bloggers and as commenters leading up to and during the conference. This is going to be a lot of fun. Do let us know if you would like to try out blogging!!

Here's the official announcement from HQ:

Dear member,

This year, for the first time, the annual conference will be complemented by a collective blog: CALL Blog 2006 http://www.callacbd.ca/conferences/2006/blog/.

Bloggers from all regions, as well as those new to blogging, are invited to contribute.

We hope to offer descriptions of and reactions to the conference sessions and social events, as well as other aspects of the Edmonton experience, including weather updates and travel tips. Two of Canada's top law bloggers, Connie Crosby and Steve Matthews, are already on board. If you are interested in contributing, contact Michael Lines at mlines@law.ualberta.ca.

The conference planning committee would also like to remind all those planning to attend the upcoming conference in Edmonton that early bird registration rates are available until the end of the week.

New York Times Link Generator

From Simon Fodden in a comment on Slaw:

Connie, apropos of your NYT link, you might take a look at the New York Times link generator: http://nytimes.blogspace.com/genlink. It’s a way of generating a permanent link for a blog entry, and, moreover, one that non-fee-paying people can use. It depends upon the NYT RSS feed, I gather. And it seems that the Times doesn’t object. See also: http://backend.userland.com/2003/06/16#a265

I had no idea this was available. Now I can link to articles I find when I search New York Times as a registered user, and not worry about whether others will see it nor not!

PALINET Podcast: Technology Conversations

PALINET Podcast: Technology Conversations - interviews with leaders in library technology. I haven't listened to these yet, but looks great!

SirsiDynixInstitute.com - Greg Schwartz speaking on podcasting in May 2006

The SirsiDynix Institute Web Seminar Series! - Greg Schwartz speaking May 17 and May 24

Carnival of the Infosciences

Carnival of Infosciences - I've been wondering why there wasn't a "carnival" for librarians. Well, looks like one has been running for several months but I just hadn't hit upon it. Don't know what a blog carnival is? Well, it is when various bloggers take turns writing reviews of other blogs. They will be within one industry, and it is not unusual for the reviewer to use a metaphorical device or structure to cleverly pull the reviews together. Sound a bit strange? Well, you just have to read them a bit to get the idea. I have been reviewed in a law blog carnival before, but I have yet to put one together myself. Perhaps soon! Um, as soon as I get a quiet moment or two. 8-)

CNN's Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web

This is important stuff! CNNMoney.com recently put together a list of Web 2.0 companies that are emerging as the vanguard. Some of them I have heard of and even used; others are unfamiliar to me. They are grouped in categories: "Social Media," "Mashups and Filters," "The New Phone," "The Webtop," and "Under the Hood."

See: The Next Net 25: 25 startups that are reinventing the web (March 3, 2006)

Thanks to Marty for pointing this article out to me!

U.S. Newspaper Company Knight Ridder Being Sold

Word is spreading quickly via news sources that Knight Ridder is being sold to McClatchy, a smaller newspaper industry rival. Knight Ridder is the former owner of Dialog (now owned by Thomson). In 1994 KR created a joint venture with Canadian media company Southam to create Infomart Dialog (now FP Infomart). See: Knight Ridder history.

Confessions of a Server

This is one of the most amusing error messages I've ever seen on the 'Net:

Confessions Of A Server

OH MY! Life is so unfair! What did I do wrong to be born a server in this day and age? I could have been a nice simple bicycle that people happily rode around on all day. But no, I'm stuck inside this metal case serving web pages instead. I never even see the light of day and all I can hear is the rush of the air-conditioning!
Well, no more! I'm relaxing here with a cup of tea and a biscuit until someone shows me some love and attention.

It never takes them long to fix me when I kick up a fuss so check back in a few minutes and I'll be chugging along merrily again.!

Signed,
The WordPress.com web server
(WordPress.com - where even the machines have life!)

Librarian bloggers survey

CW (Constance Weibrands of the Curtin University of Technology's Library and Information Service) is contucting a librarian blogger survey for her presentation to the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) conference in September. She asks for responses by March 20th. Link courtesy of Jessamyn West.

Bibliocasting listserv announcement

My new word for the day!

Bibliocasting = podcasting for libraries

and there is even a listserv on the subject:
Introducing Bibliocasting list

Greater Toronto Area Podcasting Meetup (Saturday, April 22, 2006)

There is a Greater Toronto Area Podcasting Meetup at Imperial PUBlic Library on Saturday, April 22nd. Thanks to Jim Milles for pointing this out (I have to hear about happenings in my own city from someone in Buffalo, apparently!). I'm a podcaster wannabe, so am seriously thinking of attending.

Peter de Jager at Information Highways / e-content institute 2006

I'm signed up for the Information Highways conference coming up March 28 - 30, 2006, now branded as the e-content instititue 2006. I am going to glean as much as I can for my web management group at the firm.

In particular, I have signed up for the full-day seminar on change management being conducted by keynote speaker Peter de Jager . He has already contacted me with a series of questions about change projects in my organization so he can prepare the content of the seminar to the participants. Fabulous!

He also sent a link to his website, and I found these
Peter de Jager - Publications which look helpful. I haven't clicked through to read them yet, but thought I better post something here so I can find them again later.

Cheers,
Connie

Dow Jones Reorganizes, Promotes Clare Hart

Dow Jones Reorganizes, Promotes Clare Hart. Clare Hart was previously with Factiva, and she has now been moved ("promoted") to Dow Jones.