Yes, Memorex still exists and still even uses the “Is is live or is it Memorex?” tag line. In fact, they’ve copyrighted it.

That title probably dates me! Wonder if Memorex still exists? I’ll be leaving this afternoon for Computers In Libraries in Washington DC. I’ve been thinking about all the different types of conferences that now exist and their operating premises, partly because I’m so involved in various conferences and partly because I was interviewed yesterday by a student in Scotland who’s doing a masters thesis on the role of conferences in transmitting knowledge into organizations. She’s using Online Information as her source of interviewees.

Traditional conferences revolve around speakers. Attendees go into a room and listen. Sometimes there’s time for questions from the audience, sometimes not. The unscripted part of conferences, which is often the most interesting, are the questions, the repartee among conference-goers, and the chance meetings with friends, acquaintances, and strangers during conference activities. Completely virtual conferences are much more about conversations and interactions. Instead of being dominated by formal speeches, virtual conferences exist in chat rooms and discussion boards.

Both are very useful, but each could learn from the other. We need more conversation within traditional conferences, but we also need a way to capture it. And some virtual conferences could benefit from greater structure. It will be interesting to see how conferences evolve to meet attendee expectations and to accommodate new technologies.

Here’s a great slide from Stephen Abrams’ talk at the PLA symposium being held this week in Chicago, posted by Michael Stephens at Tame the Web.

According to the latest issue (March/April 2005) of Columbia Journalism Review, On January 10, 2005 the San Diego Union-Tribune published an article with the headline “Naked justices keep book off libraries’ shelves.” But when I went looking for it at the newspaper’s Web site, the headline had become much more staid. And, yes, it was a story about the library in Mississippi that didn’t want to put Jon Stewart’s book on its shelves.

Another virtual conference, this one from ACRL opens its “doors” on Thursday, March 10th. After last week’s intensive blogging of the NFAIS conference, which was not virtual, three weeks dropping in and out of the Online Social Networks, which was , and anticipating next week’s Computers in Libraries non-virtual conference in Washington DC, I think I’ll pass on the ACRL one.

It does sound interesting, however. Speakers include Cliff Lynch (who’s also doing the opening keynote for CIL) and Michael Keller (the very forward-thinking University Librarian at Stanford) in a free webcast on Thursday. It’s moderated by OCLC’s Lynn Silipigni Connaway, who gave a paper at last week’s NFAIS conference. Very intertwined, these conferences. Lynch and Keller intend to touch upon Googlization, digital repositories, distance education and privacy. Other topics to be addressed by speakers include AACR3, staff development, virtual reference, disruptive technologies, and instructional technology.

In addition to webcasts, the ACRL conference will have text-based threaded discussions, blogs (some will be audio blogs), live meeting (chat) rooms, and online speaker materials (which I gather will be the full papers, but might be PowerPoints, I suppose).

I’m hoping to at least hear what’s going on from some of the bloggers.

Yahoo turns 10 today and they’re offering free ice cream to celebrate. Happy birthday, Yahoo!