NASIG Newsletter

NASIG 2009 REGIONAL UNCONFERENCE EVALUATION REPORT

2009 Evaluation & Assessment Committee:  Ann Doyle Fath (Chair), Janice Lindquist (Co-Chair), Carole Bell, Jana Brubaker, Sarah Corvene,  Martha Spring, Christina Torbert.

NASIG’s 2009 Regional UnConference was held at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, on 20 March 2009. The 11-question evaluation was made available for two weeks following the conference.

Of the 41 registrants, 26 completed the evaluation. The response rate of 63% mirrors that of the 2008 annual conference exactly.

Respondents were asked to give ratings on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest rating. The overall rating for the 2009 Regional UnConference was 4.35. Respondents rated facilities 4.88.

Additional open-ended questions asked the respondents to submit two positive statements, suggest changes, suggest topics for future unconferences, indicate their willingness for facilitating a future unconference, and any other thoughts they wanted to express.

The comments tended to be very positive overall and indicate an interest in future programs using this format.

YOU TOO, MIGHT ORGANIZE AN UNCONFERENCE! Q&A WITH CHAR SIMSER ON THE RECENT NASIG CONTINUING EDUCATION EVENT

What is an unconference?

From the folks over at Wikipedia, “An unconference is a facilitated, participant-driven conference centered on a theme or purpose. The term “unconference” has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as high fees and sponsored presentations.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconference)
Continue reading 24:2 (2009:05) You Too Might Organize an Unconference!…

NEW ADVENTURES IN CONTINUING EDUCATION: THE FIRST NASIG REGIONAL UNCONFERENCE
http://nasigunconference2009.wetpaint.com/
Char Simser

Perhaps you are like me and hadn’t even heard the word “unconference.” Apparently, unconferences have been around since at least 2006. My first exposure to the concept was in early 2008 when librarians in this region organized the first Library Camp Kansas, http://librarycampks.wetpaint.com/page/Library+Camp+2008. I didn’t attend that event but dropped in since I knew several of the organizers and it was happening in my own backyard, right here in Hale Library at K-State. The unconference was public service oriented but I could immediately see the benefits of this type of venue and cornered NASIGer Dalene Hawthorne who was an attendee. The two of us talked about making this work as a NASIG event, grabbed Mary Bailey who also works at K-State, and began our plotting. I followed up with e-mails to several NASIG colleagues to gauge their interest in coordination and planning, presented the idea to the NASIG Board and then to the Continuing Education Committee. We were off and running! Continue reading 24:2 (2009:05) New Adventures in Continuing Education: The First NASIG Regional Unconference…

NASIG IS ALL A-TWITTER
Jill Emery, NASIG President

As a communication experiment, NASIG has created a Twitter account.  Twitter is a micro-blogging site or note-taking networked website that allows a person to post quick short messages of up to 140 characters.  Currently, we’re using this tool to disseminate information about the upcoming NASIG conference, any additions to the NASIG Newsletter blog, and other short NASIG facts that we would like to promote out to anyone with an interest in NASIG.

The Twitter account has been available for about a month and we have 36 followers and are following 20 different NASIG members and news feeds that NASIG followers might be interested in reading. So far we’ve posted 81 messages.  Anything new added to the NASIG Newsletter blog automatically gets delivered to Twitter and in return posts made to Twitter show up along the lower right hand column of the Newsletter to feed short news/notes back.

Twitter was used extensively at the UKSG conference by various people taking notes on the various sessions and speakers they heard and presentations they attended.  It is hoped people will also use this during the NASIG conference in Asheville.  It’s really simple and can be utilized via a smart phone (Blackberry, Android, iPhone) if you do not have a laptop or wireless access.  Simply create an account on Twitter and when you write anything about NASIG, add #NASIG or @NASIG at the beginning or end of your message. This is known as hash-tagging and allows for messages around one particular event to be grouped together.

Twitter is extremely easy to use and the distributed nature of the notes allows for ready distribution to numerous places.  We look forward to more use of the NASIG Twitter account in the coming months and for finding new applications of this tool in the future.

The account can be found here: http://twitter.com/NASIG.