One down, one to go

My first presentation, Keeping Up and Reaching Out with Blogs and RSS, went well. Some fifty people showed up for it, even at the ridiculously early hour of 8 am. Lots of questions, discussion, interaction. I enjoyed it!

Jenny Levine on a post at The Shifted Librarian, observed about The Internet Librarian conference:

Several speakers noted that this was the year we were able to skip over the intro material (what is a blog) and talk about the more advanced stuff (what to do with your blog).

At the Missouri Library Association conference, you start with "what is a blog." I used the weblog definition on ODLIS, the Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science.

I want to make three points with this post. First, there are lots of librarians who still want to learn what a blog is and go on from there--and lots of conferences where you can deliver that content and be the first to do so.

Second, it doesn't take a huge amount of background to be an "expert" on this. I'm not an expert compared to the speakers at Internet Librarian, but I am compared to busy practicing librarians in Missouri. If you are reading blogs in an aggregator, you already have the basis for giving a talk about using Blogs and RSS as tools for current professional awareness--you just need to do some research on other aggregators besides the one you use. If you have a blog of your own, you have the basis for a "getting started" talk for librarians and libraries to create their blogs.

Third, you can do it. MLA could have rejected my proposal, saying come back next year after you have your MLS degree. But they didn't. Apparently, my "title," listed as "MU-SISLT Graduate Student" in the program, didn't scare very many people away. It's all about the content. If you, as a student or new librarian, know something that other librarians want to know, do a little research to flesh out your understanding and go tell them about it. Librarians make a great audience for all the same reasons that they make great professional colleagues--they are intelligent, curious, and accepting.     #

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