Today begins the 2006 HigherEd BlogCon, “an online event focused on how new online communications technologies and social tools are changing Higher Education.” Looking at the schedule for this month-long event, I’m seeing a lot of very interesting topics by some great speakers, er, writers.

You’ll notice that April 10-14 is dedicated to “Library and Information Resources“. LJ Mover and Shaker, Meredith Farkas has gathered a fantastic group of people to present during this block–I just hope mine can keep up with some of the other great topics planned!

As a public library person, I’m looking forward to getting a taste of librarianship in higher education. I think, with much of the Library 2.0 discussion focusing primarily on public libraries, school libraries have been left out in the cold a bit. It’s important to include them in the discussion of new ideas and the overarching discussion.

I’ve never participated in a BlogCon before, so this is a first for me, but it’s apparent that a lot of work and planning has gone into making this succeed. The fact that there is no geographical barrier to attendance really intrigues me and I’m looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

Be sure to subscribe to the HEBC feed (comment feed too) and participate! It is, after all, a conference.

Last year, I blogged a talk that University of Michigan's John Wilkin gave to our staff during our annual staff training day. I found the talk to be very interesting as he covered the Google digitization process from the University's perspective. His thoughts are particularly useful because he's not a Google employee so he's not spouting the company line, yet he is, in every way, an insider to the entire digitization program.

At any rate, he's speaking again tonight at AADL. If you're in the area and have the evening free, I'd highly recommend his talk. From the AADL website:

What does the UM/Google partnership to digitize the UM Library mean; what significance will this have for libraries, researchers and the public; and why is this so controversial? Through this project, UM hopes to guide more users: to their local libraries; to digital archives of some of the world's greatest research institutions; and to out-of-print books they might not be able to find anywhere else--all while carefully respecting authors' and publishers' copyrights. This event is the Library Director's program for 2006.

Each year, AADL Director Josie Parker chooses a current topic of community, state or national concern to highlight at a special program during this national week of celebrating libraries.

His talk will be at the Downtown branch in the Multi-Purpose Room. Regretfully, I'll be missing it due to prior commitments.

[tags] Google, Wilkin, Books, OCR, Ann Arbor, AADL [/tags]