BOBCATSSS 2009

People in BOBCATSSS seem to have adopted the conference theme “Challenges for the New Information Professional” well.

Professor Tom Wilson, as the first keynote speaker, headlined his speech plainly “Thinking about the future” and put an emphasis on the rapid growth of population and the number of Internet users in developed countries. As hundreds of millions of people get access to the highway of information, professionals of our business shall have big new challenges, he stated.

The second keynote speaker, doctor Kimmo Tuominen, spoke mostly about participation. Mr Tuominen presented bold metaphors by, for instance, building allegories between information science, punk rock and Star Wars phenomenon. The third keynote speaker, professor Fernanda Ribeiro, pondered about the diversity and interdisclipinarity of information science by, for example, highlighting facts such as the growing number of new profession titles on information field.

For Thursday the BOBCATSSS caravan moved to other side of the city, to the Faculdade de Letras do Porto, but thinking about the future has continued as lively as it started on Wednesday.

One of Thurday’s workshop presenters was Aneta Ostrowska from Poland with the topic “WHOIS Librarian 2.0 − creating a characteristic of librarian of the future”. As a result of one hour’s mindstorm the participants could present some kind of image of librarian 2.0. According to that, the professional has to be very flexible and has to have good skills in communication, communicative technology, pedagogy, and many, many other features.

Aneta turned out to be one of those who try to get the maximum out of BOBCATSSS. After her workshop she just grabbed some breath and coffee before rushing into next workshop which was held by Tord Høivik from Oslo University College. The topic was “Counting the traffic − with students as observers” and it was about usage of public libraries in Norway.

“I like to do it in a bit different way than the others. That’s why the participants are not going to sit here all the 90 minutes, instead they go to library for a while to seek information”, Tord explained before the workshop. The concept seemed to work well.

“Really nice to have some action during the workshop, something very different if you compare to mine”, Aneta thanked after the session. “Sure I can take some advantage of this information in my studies in the future.”

During the two days of BOBCATSSS ’09 there has been approximately forty presenters giving speeches, introducing posters and leading workshops. There is still a lot to come, not to mention the guided tours and evening parties. Let’s see if there will be again an after party for over thirty people (like Finns and Germans had on Wednesday).

The first guest to arrive at this year’s conference was a true BOBCATSSS veteran. Laurits Rasmussen from Denmark has participated four times in BOBCATSSS before this.

Laurits was part of the organization team in ’06, last year he spoke at the students’ panel, and this time he will have a presentation with the topic “The Librarian 2.0 and the Visual Information Professional”.

“It’s an old story in a new case”, describes Laurits, with a wide smile on his face as always. “There will be talk about the new rooms and spaces of librarians and also something new about language, I think.”

Laurits has always enjoyed his visits in BOBCATSSS, and, based on his instincts, this one won’t be an exception.

“Every BOBCATSSS is a bit different than others. This year I have got well informed beforehand through the website, and that’s why I expect that this BOBCATSSS will be a great event. And now that I am here, everything looks good so far.”