ACRL conference

in late march and early april, i'll be in baltimore, attending the association of college and research libraries (ACRL) conference. i attended ACRL last year, in minneapolis, and it was awesome. the conference is a dynamic blend of academic and research librarians, information technologists, and educators. this year's theme is "sailing into the future - charting our destiny." i am one of the invited speakers.

here's my abstract:

Digital Media, Learning, and Libraries: Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, and Libraries 2.0

Let's be clear about it: The term Web 2.0 is, first and foremost, a marketing gimmick. Its purpose is to create a sense of new, foster a buzz about new media, and generate new investment. So far, it's working.

At the same time, for those of us with access to recent developments on the web, it is difficult to deny that something new is indeed afloat. New social software coupled with new social interactions seem to be generating new forms of collective intelligence. Although these forms manifest in different ways, they most often share an important similarity: They encourage users to contribute - to add and annotate, as well as to read and reflect - to the collective intelligence.

With help from sites like theworldisnotflat.com, dosomethingamazing.com, intellipedia, and librarything, this talk seeks to open discussions around the intersections among social software, student learning, and academic libraries.

David Silver
Department of Media Studies
University of San Francisco

there's over 250 panels to attend, a conference wiki to collectively build, and the very, very cool cyber zed shed. plus, one of the keynote speakers is baltimore's very own john waters!