The Corporate Librarian

Apologies for not posting in a while, the only topics that came to mind were ones the Corporate Librarian thought might be better saved for Library Camp NYC.

The Corporate Librarian still has to reach out to Brooklyn Public Library about possible meeting space - assuming that goes well the next step is to reach out to local hotels, see what sort of deal the Corporate Librarian can work out.

The other news is much more tentative at this point, but the Corporate Librarian thought it was worth mentioning. If the Corporate Librarian’s bosses agree, he’s going to transfer to the San Francisco office in February 2007. It’s entirely for personal reasons, and in fact the Corporate Librarian is a bit concerned as to whether things would work out from a business perspective.

The Corporate Librarian’s clients at least occasionally visit the New York office - aside from the head of the industry practice, it’s not likely the same would be true in San Francisco. There’s also the question of working with the Corporate Librarian’s boss remotely - he’s much more of a face-to-face guy. On top of all of this, the San Francisco office is the most expensive office in the US, and the Corporate Librarian might have to have his rates raised to cover an increase in salary - HR hasn’t gotten back.

Anyway, that’s what the Corporate Librarian has been dealing with. He hopes you and yours are having pleasant holidays.

The Corporate Librarian has a newfound respect for event planners, after poking around various library websites to see what kind of meeting space they have.

• Brooklyn Public Library: Might be a possibility, looking at their meeting space policies. Brooklyn is very much unknown territory to the Corporate Librarian, apart from a few days spent apartment-hunting and visiting various places the writer H.P. Lovecraft lived in or wrote about back in the late 90s.
• METRO: As noted previously, is already busy with workshops of their own (but are willing to help with promotion, which is very much appreciated)
• New York Public Library: Requires the purchasing of insurance, no promotion/signage etc. except within the rented space and with the expression permission of NYPL, invitations and promotional materials (including press materials) referring to the NYPL must be reviewed by the NYPL first
• Pratt School of Information: Requires either student involvement or the purchasing of insurance

Judging from past Library Camps, the Corporate Librarian is thinking he should plan on about 50 people attending, and try to get a space with Wi-Fi access (another reason to investigate BPL).

Once the Corporate Librarian has a space lined up, next comes arranging deals with a local hotel. Then, at long last, he can feel confident posting details to the Library 2.0 Wiki.

The Corporate Librarian has been a member of SLA in the past, but honestly has used it mainly to get access to the annual conference when it was convenient to work or to accesss job listings. For 2006 and 2007, his goal is to really work at getting more out of SLA membership - attending a few chapter meetings, checking out a few Click University sessions and if possible going to the annual conference in Denver.

Hmm. Clicking on About Click yields:

Click University is hosted by Learn.com and the Learn.com software and Learning Management System, the LearnCenter, is designed for Windows. It will not operate on Mac OS.

Ms. Suggs and Vicks, tear down your wall!

If the Corporate Librarian were Special Library Association Dictator for Life (he thinks he’d look rather dashing in a uniform), a few changes he’d make:

• Let people apply for SLA membership entirely online, rather than having to fax in a form
• Make e-learning materials as platform-agnostic as possible. Offer podcasts as MP3 files, with other learning materials as .mov and .wma files. SLA already has a Podcast Center, so this isn’t a stretch. WebEx does have players for Linux, Mac OS X and Solaris for a collaborative meeting solution, even if the Mac OS X version has gotten some bad notices.
• Publish subscribable calendars for SLA as a whole and for chapter/division/section websites using the iCalendar standard or the hCalendar microformat (based on iCalendar)

Things SLA gets right:

• Sends an e-mail with membership number and PIN so members can use the benefits of the site quickly
• A partnership with Newsgator to offer an RSS reader
• Subject portals on topics

The Corporate Librarian wound up joining the New York chapter and the IT Division (Blogging Section), and looks forward to meeting colleagues. More as the Corporate Librarian experiments - any comments or tips from past or present SLA members?

Unfortunately for me (but fortunately for librarians in the NY metropolitan area), METRO’s got their hands full with symposia and forums, including several 2.0 workshops. METRO has offered to publicize Library Camp, however, which the Corporate Librarian is exceedingly grateful for.

Pratt would require some sort of student involvement or the purchasing of insurance, from what I understand.

Anyone have further suggestions for library settings to hold a Library Camp in? The Corporate Librarian knows various branches of the New York Public Library have meeting rooms, as does the Brooklyn Public Library. How suitable would these be for multiple breakout groups? Is Wi-Fi available?

One area the Corporate Librarian’s interested in is using technology to train people remotely. Vendors use web conferencing and webinar tools like Centra or WebEx all the time, and it seems a natural for the Corporate Librarian to do the same given the fact that most of his clients are in different offices entirely.

Many vendors are working on making their products more user-friendly and customizable, but the Corporate Librarian thinks walk-throughs are would also be useful in dispelling the “fear of the unknown” factor. Also, it would give the Corporate Librarian a chance to flex those bibliographic instruction skills he picked up in library school. It wouldn’t hurt to build an awareness of librarians as capable of doing more than just lit searches and putting together PowerPoint decks, too.

Any tips, in terms of what does and doesn’t work?