Howdy Again From Charleston

A lot of people sure love Charleston. I've had about ten friends tell me where to go to eat or have a drink. Dave's suggestion of the Hominy Grill sounds intriguing. I walked past it today and it looked like a nice traditional diner.

Didn't really do any sightseeing today. I got up real early for the conference and just lazed around afterward. I walked back and forth twice to the conference and that's almost six miles on foot. There is a shuttle but I haven't used it. It's been so nice out, mid 70's, that walking just seemed to be the thing to do. My dogs were aching when I was done.

So far the best presentation was the second I attended yesterday. Geoff Bilder gave a great and enthusiastic presentation on the problems facing researchers when trying to determine the authority of a web document. I was hoping he would have a blog but I have only found an older blog that hasn't been updated for a year.

Today I attended a good seminar on using digital video for research. It looks like the java based interfaces used on sites like Youtube are definitely going to end up in libraries. In fact they already are. I know we at the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library have access to PBS videos via NC Live but I'd like to see us eventually subscribe to a service that has historical videos matched up with text. Primary sources all are the rage so what could be more appropriate than video? We already have some lectures series on CD, why not on our online resources? Of course they didn't discuss how much this stuff costs. Right now it's geared more towards academic libraries it seems to it may be beyond a public library's budget.

Tomorrow there is a talk on Wikipedia and libraries. I am interested in seeing what is said there.