Thoughts on reports from conferences
I was thinking today, after reading through the many different reports about the recently concluded Computers in Libraries conference, that after having read all of them, I feel as if I did not miss much by not attending. This is something new, I think. Lorcan Dempsey phrases the phenomenon in a much more cerebral way than I can. He wonders whether this is "some inflection point in the libary [sic] communications ecosystem" but I think we’re talking about the same thing. I got tired of some of the same, repetitive stuff being presented (how many times are we going to read about Roy Tennant’s gospel about what’s wrong with OPACS and who the "good ‘uns" are??); like Walt Crawford, who made some comments about reports on his blog, I think that some of the new and cool stuff doesn’t live up to the hype. And I particularly got tired of the "fangirly" comments about — gush — actually being able to — gush — speak face-to-face with the Library Gods (a.k.a. aforementioned Mr. Dempsey, among others). Yes, I’m being sarcastic. However in spite of these distractions, the reporting was really, really good overall. Link that together with the photos already on Flickr under the tag "cil2006" and you get a more well rounded sense of what went on, who was there, and so forth. And then there are the umpteen links to the presentation material itself, readily available to download, look at, and digest over time.
I think this phenomenon is important, because a.) conferences are really expensive and time-consuming to attend; and b.) oftentimes they are a waste of the time and expense that you put into them. In many ways I’d much rather read about it (and peruse other media about it, such as photos) than take the trouble to go only to be frustrated for the low return on investment. Yes, ALA, I’m pointing the finger at you in particular.
Anyway, because I choose to not attend many conferences because I don’t want to be away from my family, I hope for more of the same in terms of blog reports from conferences that I have missed. Many thanks to those who provided their insights from Computers in Libraries 2006.
