#library camp

[lesterpubliclibrary]

Video Game Creation Camp

[typefaceandintent]

I've signed up for Librarycamp! Just the name is amazing, but the event itself looks fantastic, too. And free! And on a Saturday! And at the new Birmingham library! I'm excited!!!

[librarianonthestairs]

LibraryBox is an open source, portable digital file distribution tool based on inexpensive hardware that enables delivery of educational, healthcare, and other vital information to individuals off the grid.

More info

[libmichelle]

Thoughts on my first library camp

On October 13th I finally attended a library camp; I wanted to go to Leeds Library Camp earlier this year but couldn’t because of an injury.

I was excited to attend, see what the fuss was all about – and eat lots of delicious cake. In preparation, I paid a baking colleague to make brownies for me, and roped in another non-library- staff colleague to come with me. So I started off with lots of points, which Carolin told me could be converted into eating extra cake. Win!

The day started off with a real buzz (sugar high from cake breakfast?) as people pitched their sessions. Throughout the day I felt this buzz really tapered off, when I was expecting it to build as the attendees got to interact and share ideas. For me this showed after lunch, when only a few people stood up to pitch more sessions. For the number of attendees, I would have thought a lot more sessions would have been suggested.

This isn’t to say I didn’t have a good, interesting time. Just perhaps not in the way I expected. Perhaps it was the sessions I attended, and not feeling confident to move around sessions (there didn’t seem to be a lot of that going on). I was in the session on open source software and couldn’t hear anything because of the air conditioner – I would have liked to have moved but it would have felt rude to walk all the way across the room to the door. Instead I managed to get involved in the UKLibChat session on Twitter. It would have been nice to go to that session, but I hear it ended on a bit of a downer.

Pre-camp I didn’t want to run my own session; as it was my first time I wanted to experience instead. But Rachel’s interest in a session about living and working abroad and my constant search to find contexts in which to say sentences like “when I was doing a circus class in Melbourne...” led me to a small room with a small amount of people, talking about my experiences overseas. I actually enjoyed this session more than the ones I attended (vanity alert!) as a) it was really small and b) I got a chance to speak. Joy has basically written all my thoughts on sessions and how they could engage more people, so go read her blog post. Suffice to say I think this smaller group format worked better as (hopefully) everyone got the chance to speak, ask questions and share experiences and concerns. Rachel’s done a good write-up of my session (top tips: just do it; you can never have too much money) and I will eventually get round to posting about living and working overseas myself. Honest.

So, what did I take away from Library Camp? Cake and a full stomach. Seriously, I didn’t go to Library Camp with an agenda - I just wanted to experience an unconference, and catch up with people I don’t get to see often. With the past few professional development events I’ve attended, I’ve found it useful to have an idea of what I wanted to get out of it. It’s difficult to do that with an unconference as you don’t know what the sessions will be about. I did have in mind to talk about  games and gamification in libraries but the session I attended wasn’t exactly what I’d imagined.

The main thing I took away was being roped into helping out with a local library camp in Sheffield! I have been promised that it’s “not much work” but we’ll see. In addition, when I got home I thought perhaps it would be good to run a camp for careers staff (Careers Camp!), so I’ll see if that idea can get off the ground after Christmas. From what I hear these smaller camps might be more my style, so I look forward (with trepidation) to being involved in organising them.