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The One Big Library Unconference wiki
"It seems like there are lot of different kinds of libraries: public libraries, school libraries, university libraries, college libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, corporate libraries, special libraries, private libraries. But really there's just One Big Library, with branches all over the world." - Wendy Newman (Senior Fellow, Faculty of Information Studies, University of Toronto
The One Big Library Unconference is a one-day gathering of librarians, technologists and other interested people, talking about the present and future of libraries. It's organized and sponsored by York University Libraries and the YUL Emerging Technologies Interest Group.
When and Where?
When: Friday 27 June 2008, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.
Where: The Centre for Social Innovation, 215 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. (That's on the east side of Spadina, between Dundas and Queen.)
Who: Organized by members of the Emerging Technologies Interest Group at York University Libraries: Stacy Allison-Cassin, William Denton, and John Dupuis. Sponsored by York University Libraries.
Contact: onebig@yorku.ca
What: See the schedule. It will be filled in the morning of the unconference.
Lunch? Yes, lunch will be provided.
Wifi? Yes, free wireless is available through Wireless Toronto.
What's the unconference about?
In an interconnected world, all physical and virtual libraries can really be thought of as branches of One Big Library. We would like to get together and explore that concept. Our areas of interest are:
- The future of libraries
- Collaboration on building One Big Library collections and services
- Uses of social software in libraries
- Tools to support and extend the One Big Library
There is some background reading you can look at.
Our goals are:
- Bringing people interested in the future of libraries together with the hope of sparking collaboration and cooperation
- Starting conversations between people in different kinds of libraries, and people inside and outside libraries
- Intellectual stimulation and fun!
It's an unconference
The One Big Library Unconference is an unconference: "A conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants."
The schedule will be decided by the all the participants at the beginning of the day, on Friday morning. The unconference will require active participation: while not everybody will present or lead a discussion, everybody will be expected to contribute somehow.
The talks will be informal and interactive. More than half of the time alloted to each session will be dedicated to small group discussions on topics suggested by the participants. The lunch and the post-conference pub visit will make it easy to meet people from different institutions, types of library, industries and with varied interests.
You can suggest a topic for a talk here.
Spreading the Word
If you blog about the conference or post information to any other site, please use the tag onebiglibrary.
Signing up
Attendance is free, but there is only space for around 80 people, so please register by sending an email to onebig@yorku.ca with your name and contact details. Please include a link to your web presence (blog, web site, etc) or your organization's web site that we can display with your name on the participants list.
Note: We've reached the maximum number of registrants for our venue. If you wish to register for the conference, please email us at the above address and we will put you on the waiting list. If you've registered and will not be able to make it to the conference, please let us know so that people on the waiting list can get a chance.
There is also the requisite Facebook group.
