Project Overview: The project is designed to support the creation of Makerspaces in Idaho libraries and encourage the delivery of library services to digital users “where they live.” The [...]

LITT: Makers The Makers LITT is a place for library staff supporting maker programming in Idaho to to connect and share via a quarterly online chat and [...]

LITT: Academic Libraries The library is the heart of any academic institution. Connect with others who work in Idaho's colleges and universities in this LITT and share [...]

Nothing should stop you from reading! Audiobooks and magazines can be loaned free to any Idaho resident who is [...]

For the month of may we decided to do four different kinds of animation with our maker space.  Our first day was flip books. This showed the kids how we [...]

  Banners and Artwork Web Banner 1 Web Banner 2 Square Artwork Library Resources Public-School Library Collaboration Ideas Read to Me Overview of Services What is Libidaho? The Bookworm flyer [...]

Info2Go! is our series of monthly webinars showcasing current topics in Idaho libraries. The focus is on providing a platform for the library community and our partners to share [...]

Take a look at this cool Garden City Library contest held during Teen Tech Week.

One of our very ow SPLAT member's son won with his digital film making PSA.

Garden City Library - Stop Motion Student Animations from vcsweb on Vimeo.

http://www.gardencity.lili.org/node/410

So, it looks like library camps and library related unconferences are an increasing trend: http://liswiki.org/wiki/Library_Camp There were just two in 2006, a handful in 2007, more in 2008 and then during 2009 it seems like library unconferences/library camps just exploded!

Why are they so popular? Because traditional conferences are expensive due to the planning, preparation and other long term expenditures, unconferences make sense. This website for Library Camps and Unconferences explains this trend similarly, and also offers a helpful guide to hosting your own unconference: http://lln.lyrasis.org/node/355

This site says that the mark of a good and successful unconference is, "In a good unconference, all or almost all participants are participants, not just audience."

The benefits seem to be resource sharing, networking, the participants power to decide what they want to learn collectively, that the participants are not just audience, but participants (much like the whole point of web 2.0), and of course the major cost savings to just about everyone.

The STELLA (Science, Technology & Engineering Library Leaders in Action!) unconference stems from how hard it is to attend so many conferences that apply to the specific needs of science librarians: http://www.nuthingbut.net/2008/12/sci-tech-bunching-of-lsw.html

Joe writes, "science librarians don't neccessarily need to have an umbrella organization to talk, chat and meet with each other. We can organize ourselves without the organizational beauocracy." The STELLA unconference is happening now this week in Denver: http://denver-stella.pbworks.com/

I'm hesitant to suggest that Idaho libarians need this, but we might. I at least think it's something worth investigating and if you are interested I'd like to hear your thoughts.My thoughts are to put something together that is as free as humanly possible where the spirit is just to share ideas, brainstorm, and come up with some great, great ideas.

Lastly, here is a link to an article overview on library camps called The unconference: a new model for better professional communication http://www.lianza.org.nz/library/files/store_021/GreenhillandWiebrands_Unconference.pdf

Hi everyone,

Memo here, hoping you will come to the Southwest Idaho Library Association (SWILA), Region 3, annual conference on April 14, at the College of Idaho campus in Caldwell, ID. SPLAT members will be actively participating in both sessions and at the unofficial SPLAT couch. Please come by and say hello and ask us questions about library tools and tech, or better yet, tell us what new tools you are using or ways your library is making use of them. 

SWILA's conference site is at http://www.idaholibraries.org/node/509 . You can find all sorts of good info at the conference, including registration materials and maps on how to get to the College of Idaho.

One big change at this year's conference will be the availability of wi-fi, so you can tweet, blog, Flickr, or Facebook your SWILA experiences.

Hope to see you there!

Memo

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Thank you to the library staff who joined us for today's conversation regarding the child care and preschool crisis in Idaho and throughout the nation. As mentioned during the [...]