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A couple of presentations touched on themes that are broader than libraries, namely the role of journalism and the press.

David Silber is an Assistant Professor of Media Studies at the University of San Francisco. His presentation, “Digital Media, Learning, and Libraries: Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, and Libraries 2.0” was well-attended and much appreciated by those in the audience. His point was that libraries are natural partners in his philosophy of AEIOU, which stands for Already Existing Information, Optimally Uploaded. He predicted that traditional newspapers would (and should) be supplanted by blogs and tried to convince all of us (as has our very own Susan) that we should blog with enthusiasm – and lots of pictures! He dismissed the 2.0 terminology as marketing hype, but the qualities of collective intelligence and active participation by the user are what it’s all about. He is every instruction librarian’s dream, requiring all of his classes to physically come into the library and combine that experience with the latest in media technology.

Nina Totenberg was the closing keynote speaker, but much as I respect her, her talk was disappointing. She spoke generally of the importance of journalism in a free society but it wasn’t until the question and answer session that she really engaged the audience with specific examples from her coverage of the Supreme Court and 30 years of watchdog journalism exposing government malfeasance.

Lynn