Grand Day Out

I had a grand day out yesterday, to Clare College at Cambridge. I was one of the invited speakers at the ARLIS (Art Libraries Society)conference, where I was asked to give a paper on the "changing visual image", so I did one called "Should we just send a copy? digitization, usefulness and users".

I was nervous: a) it was a long time ago that I studied art history, and here was I talking to art librarians and b) I teach librarians and archivists (at MA level) how the interweb works, but that doesnt mean I know too much about being a librarian on a day to day level. But I'm pleased to report that they were all very friendly (and stylish), very welcoming, and seemed to like my rant regarding the fact we know very little about how people use digital image archives.

I'm going to write it up as a paper for their journal, and I'll see if I can post it somewhere at some point, as its going to be a personal opinion piece. Looking forward to writing it up, really (writing is easily my favourite part of my job.)

I also really enjoyed the other papers I say yesterday, particularly Debby Shorley (Head of Library Services at Imperial)'s Keynote. Great speaker: provocative and engaging. Very rare I see a speaker who I both find what they say interesting, and find how they present it interesting. (Which is not to say that I expect people will find both in me!).

Some random thoughts:
- Nice to be at a conference where I am not on any committees. Havent helped organise it. Dont have to report to anyone, or take responsibility for IT fail, etc.
- Strange to be out of my comfort zone in a conference where I didnt know anyone. The feeling of being 5 years old in the playground again! Which is nice, actually. And as I said - plenty of friendly faces.
-It was in Husband's undergraduate college, which I've never really been into before. I'm in ur colleg, climin ur staircasez!