FLA Filings: More From Annual Conference

It having been a very busy few months, it's been difficult to keep up and catch up with blogging all the interesting goings-on around libraryland. This post was begun real-time and has been worked on several times since...herewith, then, some very, very belated Florida Library Association program notes and links to materials in no particular order from the 2006 Annual Conference.

In the Technology Training Interest Group program, Carol Bean, Ginny Howerton, and Kate Todd presented Seniors in Cyberspace, a well-attended active learning session with plenty of object lessons about what it's like to have to learn with some of the "nasty aging tricks" that our bodies are wont to play as we grow older. The program included some surprising statistics and numerous suggestions about how to present computer concepts effectively to a senior audience. Click to see the accompanying handouts, bibliography, and PowerPoint slides. Some of you may have gotten to hear Carol Bean present a session with a similar theme (I Feel So Stupid - Old Age Meets New Technology) at the Technology Training To Go conference in Orlando (August 10 and 11).

Yours truly had a scheduling conflict and missed what was purported to be a lively and engaging panel presentation cum discussion for the LINCC User Group, the 3rd Annual Ask a Librarian User Forum. According to an e-mail to the Ask a Librarian (AAL) group from Diana Sachs-Silveira, the Virtual Reference Manager for AAL, "The main themes that emerged at the meeting included: the need for easy to use, reliable software; maybe a new simplified interface that would work with cell phones and PDAs; more marketing to librarians, and prospective users (both in and out of the library); expanding hours of service and a possible academic desk." The detailed discussion questions and meeting notes are available in the public part of the Ask a Librarian site here.

Diana Sachs-Silveira also commented upon a related program saying:

At FLA, the Telephone, Email and Chat Reference Services interest group hosted a session Let's Provide a Chat Service that They Want! A Focus on Teens to Twenty-Something's with Joe Thompson, the project Manager of Maryland's AskNow.

The program was very interesting and focused on chat reference and younger users. I thought the Ask a Librarian Community as well as those in the FLA Interest Group would like to view the presentation. It is now online at: http://askusnow.info/presentations/

There's another program that may or may not eventually get its own entry, but for now, in the interest of actually getting this posted before the next annual conference rolls around, this is a wrap!

SUBJECTS: FLA FILINGS; WORKSHOP WEALTH