Access 2008

For those of you flying in to Pearson airport, there a couple of different ways to get to Hamilton:

• Rent a car and drive
• Shuttle bus from the airport + GO bus

Check out the TRAVEL page under FLY for more information!

More information about the post-conference on “Metadata Standards & Applications” has just been added to the page, including cost, etc.

If you aren’t already excited about Access, this just might do the trick: the conference program is up. We have some awesome sessions and speakers lined up, so check them out and make sure you don’t miss all the fun in October!

And, speaking of fun — we should have the complete schedule up in a couple of weeks, and conference registration will be open shortly thereafter. Watch this space for announcements!

Access conferences are thought-provoking, forward-thinking, and promote innovation and creativity in libraries– and so we want to get the word out about this year’s conference in Hamilton!

We would like to put our conference on the radars of Access repeaters, and also attract Access ‘newbies’ who will bring new skills and ideas to the event.

So we’re attempting our own innocuous viral marketing by putting our event ‘out there’ on Facebook, Twitter, our blog (which you are reading right now), and on t-shirts our conference planners have to wear until until October which say “Access 2008 or bust”

(just kidding about that last one).

Visit us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13574590355&ref=ts

Talk to us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/access2008

Add us to your Blogroll: http://access2008.blog.lib.mcmaster.ca/feed/

Access is Canada’s premier library technology conference that focuses on issues relating to technology planning, development, challenges and solutions.

This year the conference will be held in Hamilton, Ontario at the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel (conference) and Hamilton Public Library (Hackfest) from October 1-4 and is hosted by:

McMaster University | Hamilton Public Library | Mohawk College

We hope to see you there!

Conference tag: access2008
(Flickr, del.icio.us, and anywhere else!)

Call for Proposals for Access 2008
Deadline: Friday, February 22, 2008

Access is Canada’s premier library technology conference, featuring a single stream of sessions that deal with technology planning, development, challenges and solutions. We are now accepting proposals for prepared talks on the following topics (other ideas are more than welcome):

• customized web applications and search interfaces
• open source software
• national and provincial/state-wide consortia technology initiatives
• information policy
• digital and social media
• library catalogue innovations
• digitization projects
• institutional repositories
• end-user searching behaviours
• protocols and metadata

…or anything else suitably geeky, innovative and/or awe-inspiring! Sessions are usually 45 minutes or 1 hour in length. Proposals should include:

• your name, title, institutional affiliation, contact information, blog/website URL
• 100 word (max) abstract describing your proposed presentation
• co-presenters you will (or hope to) present with

Submission Procedures: (deadline is February 22, 2008)

• send your proposal to Amanda Etches-Johnson, Program Chair, at etchesa AT mcmaster.ca
• each submission will be acknowledged and all presenters will be notified of the status of their proposal by April 15, 2008.
• if you’d simply like to recommend topics and/or speakers (other than yourself), feel free to get in touch!

Depending on the number of submissions, we can’t promise that every proposal will be accepted. However, we will have sessions set aside for Lightning/Thunder talks, which provide an informal opportunity to share your ideas with your peers.

Feel free to get in touch with members of the Program Planning Committee:

Amanda Etches-Johnson
User Experience Librarian, McMaster University
etchesa AT mcmaster.ca

Jenn Horwath
Virtual Branch Manager, Hamilton Public Library
jhorwath AT hpl.ca