m-Libraries 2009

For those of you who are already in Vancouver and attending the pre-conference sessions today, welcome! I wish I could extend a sunnier greeting to your visit to the Pacific Northwest, but the overcast sky will just have to do. Just a reminder that the registration desk is open until 7 this evening and through the week, so whenever you arrive, please stop in to pick up your name badge, program and ask any questions you may have to the volunteers (who are wearing those “Ask Me” buttons).

This afternoon at 1:30 you have a choice. Workshops 3 and 4 on “Mobile Library Techincal Development” and “Researching m-Libraries,” or you can attend the tours around UBC which are being offered to the famous Museum of Anthropology, the beautiful UBC Botanical Gardens, or our own brand-new facility the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre. Further details for all of these activities can be found in your program.

This evening everyone is invited to join the other attendees for a dinner at one of Vancouver’s tourist treasures, Granville Island. The bus is scheduled outside the Barber Centre at 4:45, so we are looking forward to a big, welcoming crowd. Enjoy your time in Vancouver, and thanks again for coming from everyone at m-Libraries 2009!

Hello! Welcome to the blog for the m-Libraries 2009 conference in Vancouver, BC. The conference programme is available here for download, and the conference home page with more information is http://m-libraries2009.ubc.ca/

I am here to introduce this blog and some of our more web-oriented resources before registration starts this Sunday, and to keep everyone abreast of what’s going on as the week progresses. We will most likely have opinions flowing into and out of this blog from several volunteers (and any interested commentators). We want the conference to be as accessible as possible of course, so if you would like to see many of the concurrent sessions but can’t be everywhere at once, check back here and we will hopefully have a little more information on what went down in the other room!

Also, keep in mind that m-Libraries 2009 has a larger web 2.0 presence outside of this blog. In addition to subscribing here, please feel free to follow us on Twitter, or join our facebook group. This way you can stay connected no matter where you are!

We are all looking forward to the speakers, as well as to hearing from all of you at the event. Please get out there and participate with these online tools, it can make a huge difference for mobile libraries if you do! Also, please keep an eye out for volunteers with “Ask Me” buttons if you have any questions during the week. Remember, registration starts at noon on Sunday so if you’re around early, come in and stop by!

Of course, a big thank you goes out to Sony and Emerald for their sponsorship of this event, and again, we are very excited about getting m-Libraries 2009 off the ground soon!