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On May 12, Chris and I attended the annual Carolina Consortium Meeting at UNCG. The format was half business meeting/half mini-conference with a focus on the resources that we purchase (or potentially could purchase) using the Consortium’s discounts. In the business half, I scribbled down the product names of a few offers that we might pursue.

After lunch, I attended the breakout session entitled, “The CC OCLC Deal: An Oxford-style Debate.” The two debaters were Angry Tim and Satisfied Tim, both played by Tim Bucknall of UNCG. Angry Tim sported a black hat and compared OCLC to The Borg swallowing up everything in its path (“resistance is futile”). Wearing a white hat and using the identical set of slides, Satisfied Tim painted OCLC as Capt. Picard leading a diverse crew of libraries into the final frontier. By using this style, the “two” Tims cleverly engaged our attention to deliver what could otherwise have been very boring information.

Satisied Tim

The program continued with Lightning Rounds. First, Steve Cramer from UNCG asked, “Are there alternatives to expensive business content?” (Answer: Sometimes.) Then, Liz Siler spoke on “A follow-up on UNCC’s eTextbook program.” I reported on this initiative back in November. Liz just started explaining student and faculty reaction to the program when…

BRAYNK! BRAYNK! Fire alarm!

After locating the nearest exit (it was indeed behind us), we spent 20 minutes enjoying the beautiful weather and rejoicing that the Elliott Center had not yet burst into flames. The organizers cancelled the remainder of the conference with a pledge that they’ll do something (e.g. webinar, shared slides) about the 2½ Lightning Round presentations we missed.