The Wonderful Warm and Gooey World of Library Camp 2011

At 13.52 whilst at Library Camp I sent the following text message:

“Library Camp is marvellous, magical, thrilling, exciting, exhilarating, exhausting, AMAZING”

I think those words and many more such as inspiring, though-provoking, joyful and fun could also be added to the list of warm and gooey describing words.

Warm and gooey was how Library Camp made me feel.  Despite requiring an exhausting 5.45am start (to take advantage of cheap train tickets) and possible lasting damage to my teeth and waist line from all the sugary cakey goodness, Library Camp was like therapy for recharging the librarian soul and spirit.   After a stressful summer of dissertation writing followed by job seeking and then that limbo land of waiting for the new job to begin, my confidence was waning and I was feeling out of touch with library things.

Library Camp was invigorating. It was confidence boosting.  A very well timed opportunity to catch up with library school course-mates, colleagues from days gone by and twitter friends new and old.  Being surrounded by so many wonderful, fabulous and inspiring library types reminded me once again why I love this profession.  Unconference sessions were my contributions seemed well received restoring my confidence in my ideas.  Cake break conversation about my new job reminded me to be excited rather than petrified.

I was hoping Library Camp would have this warm and gooey effect.  Library Camp was founded upon the principles of Open Space Technology, something that attracted me to the event as we used it as the ruling principle of the improvisation module in the first year of my Theatre and Performance Studies degree.  The module had no fixed curriculum and thanks to Open Space Technology improvisation performance sessions always left me with a warm fuzzy feeling.  Thanks to Open Space Technology some very fine examples of improvised performance art sprung from nowhere.  I seem to recall at one point we all decided to put a microphone in the middle of the room and play a version of that bit on Mock The Week where they run in to the middle and say something.  We did that but less funny and more pretentious.   The process was organic resulting in a magical feeling in the air.

I was not wrong with my expectations from Library Camp.  There were negative points such as disorganised chaos is not for everyone, and the lack of structure meant the day sometimes felt too full or sessions rushed.  Perhaps the Law of Two Feet  (in which is you don’t feel you are learning or can contribute you should do something more useful!) should have been stressed more so that those who didn’t feel engaged knew they could leave if they so desired.  Overall the warm and gooey feeling out weights any bad points.

So thank you Library Camp for recharging my librarian battery pack and filling my mind with fresh new ideas.

Finally thank you baking campers for the much needed sugar.

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