It occurs to me, as I prepare to leave this weekend for Paris and Information Today, Inc.’s conferences, one on WebSearch and the other on Collaboration, held in conjunction with i-expo , that we’re holding conferences this year in 3 of the 5 bid cities for the 2012 summer Olympics. Those cities are New York, Paris, and London. Maybe next year we’ll hit Moscow and Madrid, but somehow I doubt it.

Last Friday IOLUG (the Indiana Online Users Group) presented a very successful program on Marketing Your Library. Eric Lease Morgan has posted a summary of the program. I thought I’d have time to attend, but was exhausted from spending the beginning of the week in New York for WebSearch University and overwhelmed with conference planning and magazine activities, so didn’t make it. Now that I’ve read Eric’s report, I’m doubly bummed I didn’t go. Sounds like it was great.

Last week was exhausting. I was in New York for WebSearch University, which was exciting and stimulating. I don’t think we’ve ever had such an international audience for WSU. Knowing that people listening to you are from Norway, Denmark, Armenia, and Egypt makes you rethink how you phrase some of your remarks to make them less North America-centric. I don’t know that we always succeeded at that, but we tried.

Chris Sherman talked about search engines “hitting the wall” and contrasted Web 1.0 to Web 2.0. One of his examples was travel search engines. Orbitz is 1.0; Kayak and Mobissimo are 2.0. I hadn’t tried his 2.0 sites, but after his talk, I did. Honestly, for international travel (I’m trying to book a flight to Oslo for IFLA), I don’t see a huge difference. Maybe I’m missing something. Wouldn’t be the first time. Nor the last.

Already have the flight booked for Paris next week. I’m speaking at WebSearch Academy in conjunction with i-expo. It’s going to be great.

A report in Information Week on Bill Gates’ CEO Summit quotes him as saying that “Nobody’s paid to do search or just find information…” Several information professionals are suggesting that some letters to the editor explaining that, yes, librarians and other information professionals are paid to do exactly that would be appropriate. Ironically, Bill Gates is an SLA member, thanks to his keynote speech a few years ago when SLA’s annual conference was in Seattle.

INFORUM is the annual online conference held in Prague for a largely Czech and Slovak audience. I spoke there last year and I notice that Karen Blakeman, who will also be speaking at WebSearch Academy in Paris June 1st and 2nd, is on the program this year. INFORUM’s producer, Albertina icome Praha, just announced the availability of live videobroadcasting and online reporting . For the videobroadcast, you can choose between the original language of the speaker or its simultaneous translation (official languages of the conference are Czech and English). The official reporting is in Czech only. Both projects are implemented by the Ikaros professional electronic journal. INFORUM dates are May 24-25, 2005.

WebSearch University starts tomorrow at the New York Hilton. Today is pre-conferences and I’m scheduled to give mine on deep web business resources in about an hour. I’ve been checking web sites to make sure everything is up to date. And wondering how much stuff I’ll miss in trying to cover a topic as large as business resources in half a day.

In a press release, Factiva and NewsGator Technologies announced today their agreement to “jointly release Enterprise RSS that will bring the first business RSS solution to corporate users around the world.” Aside from the usual pr hyperbole, it’s an exciting announcement, expanding Factiva’s current RSS feeds, which are still in beta. At the moment, all you can get from Factiva is RSS feeds from their “Editor’s Choices,” which are breaking industry news stories. The arrangement with NewsGator will expand that to individual track folders where specific searches are stored for electronic clipping and alerting purposes. Since tracking can only be done on Factiva if you’re a Factiva subscriber, these RSS feeds aren’t available to non-customers. Factiva sees this as a great opportunity to attract more subscribers from the NewsGator customers who may not have heard of Factiva. If you prefer an alternative RSS reader, you’re out of luck getting the Factiva alerts, although you can still have Editor’s Choices pushed to you.

Karin Borchert, Factiva’s Chief Product Officer, told me that the beta RSS feed of Editor’s Choices was implemented for market validation and that the incredibly positive feedback provided the energy and momentum for Factiva to go forward. Borchert didn’t close the door on other content delivery options Factiva might adopt in the future, although she did point out that e-mail delivery is still there and that sending information to PDAs is an important initiative.

From the SLA Web site:

National Library Legislative Day – Register Today!
May 3 & 4, 2005
Come and participate in National Library Legislative Day 2005. SLA is collaborating with ALA and DCLA in bringing together hundreds of library supporters from across the country. Attendees will visit Members of Congress to share stories about libraries in your communities and to talk about the needs and accomplishments of libraries in your area.

National Library Legislative Day 2005 Schedule

Monday, May 2, 2005– Pre-Conference Event
“Introduction to National Library Legislative Day: Why Your Participation is Important; What to Do and How to Do It.” Martin Luther King Public Library 901 G. Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20001. Room 443, from 3:00p.m- 5:00 p.m.

Tuesday, May 3, 2005– Legislative Briefing Day
Holiday Inn on the Hill
415 New Jersey Ave., NW, Washington, D.C. * 20001
phone: 202-638-1616 or 800-638-1116

Wednesday, May 4, 2005–31st Annual National Library Legislative Day
Capitol Hill, Washington DC
Walk the halls of Capitol Hill and bring important messages from the library community to Members of Congress.

Full details and registration information
SLA contact: Doug Newcomb, Director of Public Policy

National Library Legislative Day is sponsored by
District of Columbia Library Association, American Library Association, Special Libraries Association, participating state library and media associations, and other contributors.