The Corporate Librarian

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?

I first posted about the potential for a Library Camp in NYC on the BUSLIB-L list Saturday, October 21st. It’s now one week later, and 22 people have responded to my first survey. The power of mailing lists! I’m expecting more next week, since I posted to SLA-CNY mid-afternoon on Friday. By way of comparison, Library Camp East drew about 50 people. Respondents are largely from New York (mostly NYC, but some upstate as well).

I’ve got a mailing list set up for further updates (e-mail box (underscore) nine (at) ix (dot) netcom (dot) com if you want to be on it) and a friend investigating space for us (and helpful suggestions from others on backup location). So far, months have switched around somewhat with August being the favorite (12 out of 22 respondents), followed by March and July (11 respondents each). Conferences I’m aware of:

• ALA Midwinter Meeting (January 19-24, 2007)
• Library Camp East (February-ish)
• Code4Lib Conference (February 28-March 2)
• ASIST IA Summit (March 24-26, 2007)
• ACRL National Conference (March 29-April 1, 2007)
• SLA Annual Conference (June 3-6, 2007)
• ALA Annual Conference (June 21-27, 2007)
• ASIST Annual Meeting (October 18-25, 2007)
• Internet Librarian (October 29-31, 2007)

March has the advantage of lower hotel rates and being closer to the proposed dates of Library Camp East 2007. It’s also the month of spring break for Pratt students (March 10th-16th). August has the advantage of being a month many people are taking off anyway, and might be close to another Library Camp if one’s being held in September as it was last year. In terms of special guests, the top 3 are Jenny Levine (The Shifted Librarian), John Blyberg (founder of the first Library Camp) and Jessamyn West (librarian.net). I’ll invite a number of people once the date’s nailed down. Suggested themes are all over the place, though the Corporate Librarian is not unmoved by the suggestion of “raspberry pie.”

Good news: 16 people have responded to the survey on potential dates, guests and themes for Library Camp Mid-Atlantic here. So it seems there are enough interested people to move on to making arrangements with local hotels, nailing down a specific day and putting up pages on the Library 2.0 Wiki.

Not so good news: while the Corporate Librarian has received 8 e-mails he’s forwarded the survey link to, he’s seen 16 survey responses. Which means 8 people he doesn’t have a way of contacting about further updates, because he wasn’t clever enough to have a question collecting e-mail addresses in the original survey.

If you haven’t responded to the first survey and would be interested in attending a Library Camp, please fill out the first survey here and the second survey here. If you’ve already responded to the first survey, just fill out the second one. It’s even shorter!

Planning proceeds apace - Jeremy Hunsinger is kindly checking to see if space is available at Pratt Institute, and has posted about the event to two mailing lists he’s on. I will likely do the same on BUSLIB-L, assuming it’s OK with Dan Lester.

I’ve created a very brief survey for people who might be interested in attending:

Click here to take survey

Even if you’re not interested, please pass the information on to people who might be.

In April of this year, the Ann Arbor District Library had a Library Camp unconference. In an unconference, the organizers provide meeting space, transportation, writing materials and general themes and the participants self-organize to discuss what they’re interested in within those constraints on a day-by-day basis.

It was so popular, the Darien Public Library in Darien, Connecticut held a Library Camp East in late September (which I found out about after the fact. Grr.).

Surely corporate librarians are as interested in technology as our academic and public brethren?

Would there be interest in organizing a Library Camp East Mid-Atlantic in the New York City metro area for 2007, for academic, corporate and public librarians?

If so, comment below and/or e-mail the Corporate Librarian at box [underscore] nine [at] ix [dot] netcom [dot] com.

You can see some sample agendas here and here.

UPDATE: Alan Gray of the Darien Public Library has e-mailed me that they’re almost certainly going to be organizing a Library Camp East for 2007. Therefore, I’ve retitled and edited the post accordingly - in all likelihood, I wouldn’t be planning this for before March 2007 at the earliest.