Technology Advances and People Talk at Charleston Conference

By Unlimited Priorities on November 15, 2011 in Blog

The annual Charleston Conference is a gathering of librarians, publishers, electronic resource managers, consultants, and vendors of library materials in Charleston, SC. Every November folks gather to discuss issues of importance across all their fields. Begun in 1980, the Charleston Conference has grown from 20 participants in 1980 to over 1,100 in 2010.

The Charleston Conference has always been a egalitarian gathering of individuals from all different areas who wish to discuss topical issues in a non-threatening, friendly, and informal way. Business executives discuss and debate with library directors, acquisitions librarians, and others. This was the conference’s 31st year in Charleston and its focus was on Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition. This is an event that Unlimited Priorities would hate to miss.

Looking back, the organizers note in the program:

Back in 1980 when the Conference started there were no Facebooks, no Twitters, no RSS feeds, no QR codes, no Wikipedias, no open access, no smartphones, no Kindles, Nooks, iPods or iPads, no reality TV, no eBooks, no aggregators, no Against the Grain or Against the Grain News Channel, no big deals, etc. … Now, by contrast we have all of the above and more!

The 2011 Conference Program is online and there were plenty of people blogging throughout the event and some of our favorites are listed below.

News from the Conference

Sheridan Libraries Travels: Charleston Conference 2011 – The Blog of the Johns Hopkins Libraries for staff reported back on research literacy, access to research, and new technology that lets publishers note errata and changes between printings.
Lauren Corbett writing for Wake Forest University’s Z. Smith Reynolds Library’s Professional Development Blog shared conference highlights with her colleagues.
John Dupuis of Confessions of a Science Librarian was a speaker at the event on the topic of Keeping Up with the Things That Matter: Current Awareness Tools and Strategies for Academic Libraries. He was kind enough to share his slides as you can see via this link.
Chris Bourg at Feral Librarian – Thoughts from Charleston Conference discusses the value of publisher participation at the event and the importance found in having a diversity of libraries present.