Recent reference to Library Camp NYC

A recent article by Monika Antonelli on the green library movement mentioned the green librarianship session that took place over a year ago at Library Camp NYC. Glad to see that our event is still reverberating.

Continue the discussions on the event wiki

Now that we’ve had our library camp, I am happy to note that there’s been a flurry of activity at the Library Camp NYC wiki. There are now pages for each of the discussions sessions in the program, links to blog coverage (scroll down the History page or look on pages for individual sessions in the Program), and links to over a hundred photos on flickr.

We’ll leave the wiki editable for a long time so the discussions we had can be documented as well as commented on.

Wireless access at Library Camp NYC

If you are bringing your laptop to Library Camp NYC tomorrow, make sure you ask at the registration table for a guest login for Baruch College’s wireless network.

Last details for Library Camp NYC

Entry to Library Camp NYC

Only those who have registered in advance will be able to attend. Due to space constraints, we can’t accommodate walk-ins to this event. For those who have registered for Library Camp NYC, you will want to enter the Vertical Campus building from the corner of 24th Street and Lexington Avenue. When you get to the security guard’s desk by the turnstiles, just say that you are here to attend Library Camp. You will then be directed to the elevators that take you to the conference center on the 14th floor of the building.

Starting Time

The event will start promptly at 9 am. Between 9 am and 10 am, we will be working as a group to craft the final program for the day. It is essential that anyone who wants to moderate a session be here by 9 am so you can submit your suggestion in person (The ideas on the Library Camp NYC wiki were meant to get the conversation going in advance of the meeting; the actual program will be determined those who actually attend the event.)

Food

There will be coffee, juice, and bagels available from 9 am to 10 am. Lunch will also be provided, all courtesy of the Newman Library at Baruch.

Wrap Up Session

During the last hour of the day (3 pm to 4 pm), all attendees will gather back in the main meeting room (14-220) so that reports back from each discussion session can be delivered.

Liveblogging conferences

Ethan Zuckerman gives many useful tips on liveblogging conferences. Not all of them apply to an unconference (e.g., entering in speakers’ names and topics in advance), but still worth noting.

What to pack for Library Camp NYC

Thinking about what to bring? How about:

• lots of questions for conversations and discussions
• a digital camera so you can post pictures to Flickr with the librarycampnyc tag and so you can capture whiteboards at the end of discussion sessions
• an empty stomach (we’re providing light breakfast as well as lunch)
• business cards to exchange
• your laptop (we’ll have free wireless access…just ask for a login at the registration table)

LibCamp Boston

Thanks to Jessica Baumgart’s post on her blog today, I learned that there’s going to be another library unconference this Saturday in Boston. LibCamp Boston will be held at the Boston Public Library on July 28 from 10 am to 4 pm.

What to expect at Library Camp NYC

Library Camp NYC is only three weeks away. The organizers are now hitting high gear in the planning efforts. We’ve been busy nailing down all sorts of final details. To get a sense of how the day will proceed, take a look at the What to Expect page. Small changes are likely to come to this page, so you may want to monitor changes on this page by making it a favorite:

1. You’ll need to click the “Join” link at the top of the Library Camp NYC wiki so that you can set up an account with Wikispaces, the free wiki hosting service we used.
2. Once you’ve set up your account, look for the star symbol that appears near the top of every page. Click it to indicate that you’d like to be notified via email (the one you used when you set up your Wikispaces account) of any changes to that particular page. After you click the star, it should be a solid yellow, showing that you’ve set that page as a “favorite.”

Library unconference in Melbourne, Australia

Last March, an unconference was held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Yarra Plenty Regional Library. You can read all about the event on the official L2 unconference Melbourne blog–from the planning stages to the analysis that took place after it was all over. As we plan Library Camp NYC and try to add content to the What to Expect page on our event wiki, the l2 unconference Melbourne blog has been a useful source of ideas.

New wiki page detailing the history of Library Camp NYC

With an eye toward increased transparency and a motivation to share, the Library Camp NYC wiki now features a History page that will detail how the event is being planned and how it all turned out in the end. It is hoped that others who might be interested in planning any unconference, library-themed or otherwise, will benefit from such sharing of the behind-the-scenes work of the organizers.

The inspiration for this comes from the organizers of Five Weeks to a Social Library, who each posted well-crafted messages on their blogs about how they planned the event and what lessons they learned. The other notable source of inspiration comes from the BarCamp web site, which features lots of background information about how to plan unconferences and tips about what works and what doesn’t.