MLA Conference Report #14

From Julie Meyers of Silver Bay Public Library:

The following is my report/review of my experience attending my first MCLA Conference:

I attended on Thursday October 13, 2011.

Session C3- Empowering Older Adults: I enjoyed this session and the speakers. Since I work in a small rural library and we have a number of older adults without computer skills this session was helpful to me. I could relate to the inhibition and frustration older adults feel when first confronted with a computer. I learned that older adults just want/need basic computer skills than include email, internet and social network use. I liked the idea of creating a "senior friendly" atmosphere and a special area in the library with a larger keyboard, ergo mouse, pointers, better seating etc. for them to feel more comfortable and lessen stress. I also like the idea of a "Senior Day" where seniors could come in specially to address their needs and learn to use computers more efficiently. Finding out a persons needs is also important; they just may need help finding something on the Internet and not a whole explanation of DOS!! These are all good ideas that can be used in our library.

LUNCH: The lunch speaker was interesting until we played the game he had designated. Many people at my table did not want to participate and it was rather a flop. I thought maybe this game, for such a large audience, was just too complicated. Maybe something "lighter" would go over better. I really enjoyed his enthusiasm for his subject tho---., and games at the library are a wonderful way to bring young, old, and families together.

Session D5- EBOOKS: WHAT'S ALL THE EXCITEMENT ABOUT?: This was a panel session with great panelists!! They all had much to contribute and I learned a lot about how larger libraries are handling E-book issues. It was interesting to learn how they are incorporating this new technology and what the future will bring our way on this subject.

Session E10 - THINGS IN A FLASH: THE LATEST WEB 2.0 TOOLS: This is an area where I have basically no skills, knowledge!! so this was a great session for me. I learned about QR codes, Instagram, Get Glue, Wunderlist and Evernote! The last two will come in handy in my personal life for organization. QR Codes are everywhere and I never really knew the purpose. I now understand them and can see how we could use them to draw the younger crowd (teens and young adults) to more library use by incorporating this technology- maybe in the reading programs??. I also heard about Google API's, Cloud Collaboration and Geo location. All in all a lot of information. I would like to delve deeper into each one now. A teen geo location program might be a neat idea. I know that they have similar programs at the state parks and they are very popular.

I felt my day spent at the MLA conference was very informative and I was glad to have the opportunity to attend.