If you’re any­where around North Car­olina on August 14, check out this one-day con­fer­ence brought to you by the Pub­lic Library of Char­lotte & Meck­len­burg County. I met Anas­ta­sia Good­stein last year, although I didn’t get to hear her speak. If I was going to be in the area, I’d def­i­nitely want to hear what she has to say.

About the Conference

The 2008 Tech­nol­ogy Sum­mit Dig­i­tal Youth Wired for Action is a high-impact con­fer­ence designed to inspire new learn­ing and cre­ativ­ity in library staff, edu­ca­tors and oth­ers from around the region inter­ested in youth devel­op­ment and learn­ing. The day will be filled with prac­ti­cal tips and meth­ods to help inte­grate new tech­nolo­gies into the pro­grams and ser­vices you offer to chil­dren and teens.

The event’s keynote speaker will be Anas­ta­sia Good­stein author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online. Her blog, YPulse, is a lead­ing media, tech­nol­ogy and youth devel­op­ment infor­ma­tion source, and School Library Jour­nal recently pub­lished Goodstein’s arti­cle What Would Madi­son Avenue Do? Mar­ket­ing to Teens.

Tick­ets

Tick­ets to this excit­ing event are just $20 per per­son and can be pur­chased online through the Library’s part­ner­ing agency, the Children’s The­atre of Char­lotte, or call (704) 973‑2828. (Note: a $5 han­dling fee will be added to all Inter­net and tele­phone orders.)

Event Sched­ule

8:30–9:00 a.m. Reg­is­tra­tion for morn­ing session

9:00 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Morn­ing Ses­sion A Focus on Teen Services

12:15–1:45 p.m. Break for lunch (maps of nearby din­ing choices will be provided)

1:45–2:15 p.m.: Reg­is­tra­tion for after­noon session

2:15–5:00 PM: After­noon Ses­sion: A Focus on Children’s Services

Venue Infor­ma­tion

Imag­i­nOn
300 E. 7th Street
Char­lotte, NC 28202

First time vis­it­ing Imag­i­nOn? Visit the Imag­i­nOn web­site for direc­tions, a map, and under­ground park­ing infor­ma­tion.

Tech Sum­mit on Sec­ond Life

A live audio stream of Anastasia’s pre­sen­ta­tions will be avail­able on Sec­ond Life at Alliance Library’s InfoIs­land Open Air Audi­to­rium (103, 117, 33). For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Kelly Czar­necki at kczarnecki@plcmc.org or IM (instant mes­sage) BlueW­ings Hayek in Sec­ond Life.

This is an annual sur­vey done by Dr. Scott Nichol­son, asso­ciate pro­fes­sor at Syra­cuse University’s School of Infor­ma­tion Stud­ies, and is designed to col­lect infor­ma­tion about gam­ing pro­grams run in libraries in 2007. This can be any type of game (board, card, video, chess, puz­zle) at any type of library (pub­lic, school, aca­d­e­mic, or spe­cial). The focus is on gam­ing pro­grams, where the libraries sched­ule an event of some type fea­tur­ing games, and on gam­ing pro­grams that were run some­time dur­ing the 2007 cal­en­dar year.

You can take this sur­vey at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=64bf17n2mW5s4QdKL6ctxg_3d_3d until the end of July.

Data from last year’s cen­sus has been valu­able in help­ing us to under­stand how libraries are using gam­ing and to get fund­ing for other gam­ing pro­grams. Adding data about your insti­tu­tion to our cen­sus will help us bet­ter under­stand how libraries are using data. You can see the pub­li­ca­tions that have used this data at http://gamelab.syr.edu/publications/. The results from this sur­vey will be pre­sented at the 2008 ALA Tech­Source Gam­ing, Learn­ing, and Libraries Sym­po­sium.

Ques­tions? Con­tact Scott Nichol­son at srnichol@syr.edu. I can tell you that hav­ing this kind of data has been cru­cial when talk­ing with reporters, so I hope you’ll help and fill out the form for this year’s sur­vey. Thanks!