Infocamp Seattle: 2009

Ok, so it's been almost a whole week since Infocamp, but my blogging habits are rather laconic. I did want to write a little bit about Infocamp, though.
I signed up on a whim.. a classmate from FSU's distance program who, by strange coincidence, is also a Portlander, suggested I check out NW Central to find library-related people and events in my general geographical area. So, I go on NW Central, find an information conference in Seattle (where I spend almost every weekend anyway, due to my boyfriend having relocated there) which is $10 for students. Um, why would I NOT go?

General observations:
I was a little tenuous about the idea of an conference where anyone can present, and presentation decisions are made last minute - I'm kind of shy and knew I wasn't about to present anything. But that went really well - lots of people were much more extroverted, prepared and knowledgeable than myself. Strangely, some of the groups I enjoyed the most were the least prepared and structured - one led by a fellow student who announced that he had little expertise but wanted to get people together to talk, and another discussion that was going to be about program evaluations for libraries, but ended up being a discussion about the state and future of libraries in the modern world, and how to keep up and fit in and thrive.

The only drawback of the minimal description for events was that I ended up at a couple presentations that were really good, but somewhat out of my league - a talk on resume development that had some good information as far as layout and content, but was clearly geared towards the professional with years of experience rather than the student with a bunch of unrelated, part time, $10 or less per hour jobs behind them; and a talk on personas that I went to because it was one of the only library related ones that slot which left me far behind because I realised I had little to no idea what personas were. (I still don't exactly know)

It was a little overwhelming - in a conference sort of setting, there's rarely the chance to really get to know people super well because you're moving about, everyone's doing ten million things at once, so on and so forth. It was a strange mix of people, being part librarians and part website designer/manager/ "information architecture" people, part seasoned professionals, part students, but it was a good mix. I enjoyed talking to the web folks and seeing what was similar/different in their work and their attitudes about my interests (So tell me, do people still go to libraries now that there's the internet?) and of course, it was exciting to sit and listen to seasoned library folks talk shop, and fun to talk to other students and recently employed graduates. I was kind of glad that I didn't know anyone and so was forced to talk to strangers in order to have something to do. I did feel like I might be the only one out of 350 people without a personal business card or an iphone, and felt a little bit lame being like, "Um, I work at a call center for public transportation" when people asked me what I did. However, even people who I thought were probably way cooler than me were super nice. I regretted a little bit not making it to the Saturday night social event, since a little bit of alcohol goes a long way towards minimizing my introversion, but then again, I was combining the conference with the once a week boyfriend visit, and decided that my days belonged to Infocamp and my evenings belonged to Matthew.
All in all, it was a worthwhile though exhausting weekend, and I think I'll do my best to make it there next year. Also, if you were there, and maybe talked to me, (or not, even) drop me a line, let's get to know eachother.