#ALIAAccess 2010 Brisbane

say hello to the future. it was good.
#ALIAAccess group on flickr

highlights:

1. meeting tweeps @jobeaz, @rachelwray, @newgradlib, and catching up with Jo and Robyn (fraser coast)
2. Dr Neil Carrington's leadership workshop
3. Helen Partridge's LIS education project
4. the massive twitter interaction during the conference (33%+ delegates tweeting) - realtime responses to discussion
5. north brisbane library visits - checking out design, spaces, information service models, community engagement, staffing, collection development and customer service
6. the interaction and community atmosphere of many sessions, especially #camp
7. the walk from Ibis, across the Victoria Bridge to the convention centre - Brisbane turned on beautiful weather

suggestion:

1. brilliant to have iPads on the perch to play with, but next time - perhaps loan out a few iPads and other devices to delegates in each stream, particularly to newbies so they can tweet intensively in sessions; get a real feel for it.
2. loan out flipcams so short films can be uploaded to the website (#camp, dinners, the lunch buzz, exhibits)

If delegates haven't used these devices preconference, then actually putting them out there will do more to encourage their use and the influence will spread. 

congratulations:

committees did a fabulous job :) thnx

in brisbane june 19-22

Kurilpa Bridge
Ron Mueck exhibition at GoMA
Chapel Hill
Leading Library Teams workshop at the Mercure Hotel
Airtrain

... and I put the finishing touches to my Brisbane poem on the plane on the way home. now i have to send it out in the world.

the benjamin andrew footpath library now in brisbane

http://footpathlibrary.org/index.html

I first heard about the Footpath Library earlier this year so was excited to hear that it had now branched out to Brisbane. Immediately after I sent an email to colleagues about it two came up to me to say what a wonderful idea and if it ever branches out to Townsville they'll be there to help. I had mentioned the TBAFL to another colleague a while ago when she had discussed her idea of setting up a bookclub for homeless people. We have very caring library staff.

So the TBAFL is in Brisbane now, as well as Melbourne and Sydney, with Bernadette Franzoni on the management team. Bernadette has been a young people's librarian and worked on the Summer Reading Club project, so many would know her.

Fiona Crawford, TBAFL Communications Manager, has let me know that in Brisbane TBAFL installs and stocks bookshelves in hostels and community organisations. They have enough volunteers at the moment but Fiona said that they would always appreciate if people wanted to run book drives. Book donation guidelines are on the website.
Knitters alert - The TBAFL will also happily accept knitted scarves and beanies.

Can you support the TBAFL's work with donations of books or knits?
Check here for a simple knitted beanie pattern: http://www.knitting-and.com/knitting/patterns/hats/footyhat.htm


And, stay warm. It's cold outside.

airport poetry

poem composed on the train yesterday, using visual stimuli (julie beveridge's suggestion), and then drafted and rewritten at the airport. at gate 46.

poem composed after attendance at a city workshop, not instead of networking you will note, comrade harps! :)

fabulous to catch up with corinne hills who i haven't seen since we shared a dorm at CSU res. school back in '03. she influenced my decision to move to townsville - something i wrote about for InCite. best wishes for your Masters, corinne!

met great librarians from ipswich (home of the infocoach), nerang (check background image on my twitter), gold coast, federal court, drug arm, etc.

julie beveridge rocks townsville!

*****

my first full creative day in ages - saturday in townsville with julie beveridge for a poetry workshop - five star day.

julie is director of queensland poetry festival, marketing coordinator at queensland writers centre and author of Rock'n'Roll Tuxedo and Home is Where the Heartache is (two poetry chapbooks, the latter of haibun).

and 'specially nice to be with a group of other writers for the day too

and we did an open mic. which i've done before in the gallery at HB, but my first time here.

and then i got a long email from glenys who is writing a novel - fully into the creative phase of character and scene development - and who owes me some pages!

i have to update some details on wordbox on the weekend - check it out next week.

You will write a haiku by the end of the month

love libraries

I would love to have the Cubic Structural Evolution Project in a public library - it's touring regional Queensland galleries now. Kids are having such fun with the 300 kilos of white lego. Here's the batbear sitting on the rubble. He's a class mascot from a local school, touring around with a child each night. He certainly had fun at the Project.

Shoe store workers could learn a lot from libraries. Today I went to buy some black shoes and only found one pair in my size. To her credit the shop assistant did call the store in the next town to see if they had any of the others in (but they didn't). Now if that was a library we would be working hard to find that elusive product to suit the client's need. This is the new line too, and I was told that they only ever get one box in of that size - librarians would have ordered enough to cover anticipated demand and would have had them moving in and out. And why don't they have email alerts set up to let me know when that elusive one box comes instore? So, I did get one pair of gorgeous black shoes today (but not in the style I desired more) and I wore them to work in the afternoon. Halfway happy.

Send good fortune my way on Wednesday - two great things will happen for me that day. Here's wishing you a Wild, Wonderful Wednesday too.

smart people use library services

Thank goodness for Dr Glen Gole and other champion doctors at Brisbane's Royal Children's Hospital who are advocating for a world-class library and research centre in the proposed new Queensland Children's Hospital. It was revealed this week that due to space shortages the library has been omitted. Des Houghton reported in The Courier Mail (Jan 10-11, p. 54) that 'Doctors were infuriated when it was suggested they should look up the internet instead'. The internet replace a medical library? You. Are. Joking.
Check out the Herston Health Sciences Library's collection, facilities and services. Those database subscriptions to Medline and CINAHL don't come free.
Smart people use library services, and advocate for them when others demonstrate they have no idea of their importance.

TSBs on Web 2.0

View 500 images on flickr: Brisbane's Traffic Signal Boxes

brisbane libraries buzz

Brisbane has some top class libraries and we have been tramping all over them this week, learning about exciting library-type things. Our group of CSU students, from various Australian towns and cities (plus two from China and Fiji), came together from BASLIM and the two Masters courses with two of our lecturers, Roy and Jake. Over four full days we were led through many libraries by incredibly professional and passionate librarians.

State Library of Queensland - welcome to the 21st century! - I love The Corner and The Edge and the loungey InfoZone. And we could have done with stories round the Kuril Dhagun Fire Pit in this chilly weather.

Brisbane Square Library - vibrant, progressive, interactive, with an envy-making book sorting machine. And Fast Backs for popular fiction titles.

Supreme Court Library using the Moyes' Classification Scheme - enjoy your placement there Lea.

GoMA's art research library - librarians make significant supportive contribution to world-class exhibitions including the stunning Picasso collection on now.[Awe-inspiring Cezanne, Degas, Renoir and Modigliani on show from Picasso's collection].

QUT's law library and main student library - virtual reference services and information literacy skills embedded in the curriculum.

Qld Parliamentary Library- and I found my dream book room in the O'Donovan Library: floor to ceiling filled bookshelves with those tall roving ladders.

Other groups visited libraries at the Public Works, Mater Health Services and BGGS before we all celebrated with yum cha in the city.

Other highlights of the week - crossing the Goodwill Bridge (Brisbane has a pedestrian bridge across the river!), walking a lot which is a great way to explore a city, photographing more TSBs (I'll upload them from home), and I'm blogging this from another progressive BCC library in Fairfield. There's a writers' group going on across from me and lots of people are browsing and using the computers (mix of genders and ages). And BCC libraries were featured last night on Extra (tv show) - Chermside was one I think.
What do you like about your library?