The 40 continuous hours of Library 2.012, the “Future of Libraries” free conference, which ran from October 3 through October 5, featured 150 presentation sessions and more than a dozen keynote addresses from across the globe. Topics ranged from physical and virtual learning spaces to evolving professional roles in today’s world, organizing and creating information, changing delivery methods, user-centered access, and mobile and geosocial information environments.
ALA offered five sessions at the event, which were archived and are available at library20.com:
“Collaboration, Innovation, Education: A Model for Successful Financial Literacy Programming at the Library,” presented by Aubrey B. Carroll, information service manager at Florence County (S.C.) Library System;
“The Influence of E-Trends on Library Management,” presented by Kathy Rosa, director of ALA Office for Research and Statistics;
“Restoring Contemplation—Why We Should and How Libraries Can Help,” by Jessie L. Mannisto;
“What Can Libraries Learn from New User (and Nonuser!) E-Reading Data from the Pew Internet Project?” presented by Kathryn Zickuhr, Pew Internet research analyst, and Larra Clark, director of the Program on Networks and associate director of the Program on America’s Libraries for the 21st Century at ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP); and
“Ebook Business Models for Public Libraries,” presented by Carrie Russell, director of the Program on Public Access to Information at ALA’s OITP.
American Libraries listened in on several of the sessions, which offered everything from great websites that school librarians can use to assist students’ research to the new librarianship worldview. Librarians in special, academic, school, and public libraries, as well as US college students from rural and urban areas, and others as far away as New Zealand and Argentina, participated in the online chats.
As participant Kerryn Whiteside noted in a chat about ebook models for public libraries, “Lots of food for thought—and some hope.”
