2010 Conference Day 2
Day 2 begins a bit earlier with announcements …the most difficult part of my day. As a good Girl Scout (Girl Guide), I know most of the verses to the Announcements Song. Next time we see each other, I’ll be happy to teach this wonderful commentary song to others.
Anyway, sponsors were up first with Mathias Seaman (Inter-Research, thank you again for your generous support of this conference) leading the pack with commentary on the quality of scientific/research paper submissions. He also remarked on the difficulty of getting papers peer-reviewed as more and more researchers are dropping out as reviewers.
Gerry Sawchuk presented from ProQuest (again, we thank Proquest for their generous support of the conference) with the various improvements to the search interface and other news of importance from ProQuest.
So, quite pertinent to Mathias Seaman’s (Inter-Research) remarks our first presentation was on information literacy education at San Jose State University.
And then a health break so we could walk around and begin bidding in earnest on the Guin Auction or check email on the computers provided by the hotel and INIDEP for conference attendees. The auction and the computers were in the same room, but we couldn’t require bidding before computer use.
Then a really useful discussion/comparison of the various citation managemetn systems. Endnote, Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks…many universities dictate what their faculty and students use by purchasing institutional licenses and some allow the institutions allow the users to choose for themselves. All have features that make them useful; all have a few drawbacks that limit the software. Choosing one may not be easy unless you are under budgetary constraints, in which case, you may want to check out Zotero or Mendeley as both are open source.
Another comparison paper evaluating the various survey tools available for creting user surveys for our libraries. You always get what you pay for. A suggestion was made that we create a listing of survey questions that are well-written and have achieved good statistical results.
Lunch was again at La Trattoria with a choice of beef or lasagna. Hmmm, Argetnine beef or Italian pasta…Let’s go local. Although reports are that the lasagna was very tasty. I did like the beef though. Once again, the service was quite leisurely ensuring that we upset Marcia Croy-VanWely’s carefully articulated schedule. I missed the dessert, which was described as an apple torte sprinkled with cinnamon and was quite delicious according to Ruth Gustafson. I had to hurry back to the conference to try to finish the slides for the Green Flash round. And then, I missed the “Importance of Collaboration in Crafting New Roles for Libraries”.
Following our afternoon health break, only 1/2 hour after lunch, we got to experience the Green Flash again. Yes, they were mostly recorded to video and will be posted on YouTube. I will post a link as soon as they are loaded after I get home.
And now, for something completely different. Well, not really, but at least were got to pretend to be outside in the beautiful spring weather as we rode around on a tour bus to experience the Ciudad of Mar del Plata. Yes, we even got to get off the buss at the harbor to spend some time visiting with the Lobos Marinos on the docks.l We got to see a show when one of the town dogs took a liking to the sea wolf and got chased away by another sea wolf.  Back on the bus for more touring to end a Akun-kahua for a wine tasting. We were surprised by empanadas as well as a description of wine-making in Argentina. After returning to the hotel, we broke into small groups to find our dinners.
Off to bed for another early morning…
Lenora
StreamNet Regional Librarian
Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission
http://www.fishlib.org
PS All the pictures will be on Flickr.com and videos will be on YouTube. Keyword for Flickr is IAMSLIC2010.
