Join Helene Blowers in exploring the e’s of librarees and social media and see how librarees all over the country are engaging customers in powerful ways through web 2.0 tools.

WHEN: Wednesday, September 10, 2008
6:30 – 7:00 p.m. Refreshments, Sign-In & Networking
7:00 – 7:10 p.m. Central Ohio Chapter-Annual Meeting Business*
7:10 – 8:00 p.m. Helene Blowers Presentation and Q & A
WHERE: Larry D. Black Auditorium, Main Library
Columbus Metropolitan Library, 96 S. Grant Ave.
Columbus, OH 43215
*We begin with a brief chapter business meeting,
with the presentation immediately following.
RSVP with Ginny Browne at browneg@oclc.org

Presenter Helene Blowers is the Director of Digital Strategy for the Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML) in Columbus, Ohio. Prior to her recent move to CML, she worked for the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County in Charlotte, NC as Public Services Technology Director, where she provided leadership for many groundbreaking library services, including the widely adopted discovery learning program, “Learning 2.0: 23 Things” which has been duplicated by hundreds of libraries world-wide.

Helene is a 2007 Library Journal Mover & Shaker and the 2008 recipient of the LITA Hi-Tech Award. She is the co-author of the book “Weaving a Library Web: A Guide to Developing Children’s Websites” and a frequent presenter at library conferences. When Helene is not busy trying to keep CML from falling off the ever-surging technology wave, she enjoys travel and spending time with her husband and two young daughters. She blogs at LibraryBytes.com

RSVP with Ginny Browne at browneg@oclc.org
Ginny Browne
Knowledge Management Librarian, OCLC
6565 Kilgour Place
Dublin, OH 43017
614-761-5217

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, September 10th!

Program: The information world is becoming more user-driven and “social” in scope. As information professionals, we must understand this new wave of Internet customization and collaboration. Our users are developing new expectations in information delivery and interaction, but are we meeting or exceeding their needs? Some libraries and information providers are exploring and utilizing the same principles and technologies that have driven the Web 2.0 movement. Libraries are using tools such as blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, social communities, podcasts and various “mash-ups”, to give library users increased ownership in their library experiences. At the same time, users are creating tools to supplement and/or replace their library interactions. Even if your library is not leading the technology wave – are you at least recognizing how the new web developments have changed the user’s experience?

Presenter: Brian C. Gray, MLIS, is the Engineering, Mathematics, and Statistics Librarian at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He teaches a workshop at Case on using RSS feeds and is helping to implement instant messaging as a reference tool. Starting in the spring of 2007, he is teaching a new workshop, “Using Web 2.0 Principles to Become Librarian 2.0″ for the Kent State University School of Library & Information Science. He is current web coordinator for the Library Administration and Management Association of ALA, has designed serveral blogs, and maintains a personal blog on engineering resources (http://blog.case.edu/bcg8/), a personal blog on web 2.0 in libraries (http://briangray.alablog.org/) and co-authors several other blogs.