Well, the ChrisMash event is now over. 😦
Poor Mr Xmas Ornament (c) Nojko / Flickr
…but I enjoyed it and I hope everyone else did too and got something out of it.
Christmas 🙂 (c) Alice Rosen/Flickr
An archive of the #ChrisMash tweets can be found here.
On the day (Saturday 3rd December) we had 6 people giving presentations. Here’s a run-down of them.
Gary Green (QR-codes, fractals and photo montages)
This included QR code snowflakes (post on the walls) linking to ChrisMash messages; fractals that gave an impression of Christmas; & photo montages spelling out “Merry Christmas” made from #ChrisMash tweet avatar images.
Owen Stephens (The ghosts of Chrismash past, present and future)
Owen talked about how the use of data in libraries had developed over time, how data resources have been re-purposed and what the future of library mash-ups may involve… due to restrictions on data useage this may lead onto no more mashups and subsequently the Zombie apocalypse!
I love this slide Owen posted – an idea for a method of viewing library catalogues remotely using a TV camera.
Application of a telereference system to divisional library card catalogs (c) annarbor/Flickr
Owen’s slides are available here.
Paul Stainthorp (The DevXS event)
The University of Lincolnshire recently ran a student hackathon event. The university invited students from across the country and the world to attend and in the end 170 people turned up took part. It involved talks, presentations and encouraged students “to team up and build cool things that contribute to university life.”
Paul’s presentation (in the style of a Christmas tree 🙂 can be found here.)
Gary Green (Yuletide Info Stuffings Dug Out Of A Christmas Stocking)
A presentation of fun Christmas related links. This included Christmas infographics; winter book sculptures; weather checkers/visualisations to see if it will snow at Christmas; and the NORAD Santa Claus tracker. The list of Christmas links can be found here.
Andrew Preater (Towards ethnographies of the next-gen catalogue user)
Andrew talked about outcomes of an investigation into user experience and understanding of the next-generation catalogue and next steps they are taking at Senate House Library. As part of the research the intention is to study and observe readers in their natural environment using the library catalogue ie as they work in the library and do their research.
More details can be found here.
Karen Blakeman (Never mind the quality, just admire the pretty pictures)
Karen talked about evaluating the data that is provided in data mashups – often data looks good, but how far can you trust it; how accurate and up-to-date is it; how can you evaluate it? For example, the Twitter #uksnow map is built from tweets indicated how bad snow is in a particular area. This data is based around users personal experience – for example 2 inches of snow may be regarded as severe by one person, but insignificant by someone else.
Karen’s slides can be found here.
Owen Smith (Random slides for Chrismash)
Owen talked about what he does in his role at the Open University and how he is inspired to create extra functionality for information and library based services; and just to keep us entertained he also showed us pictures of cats, diggers and reptiles as well.
Owen’s slides are here.
Originally my intention was to have a few presentations on the day, a bit of tinkering time to do some practical mashing and then a get together at the end.  However, we didn’t have time for any mashing in the end, because a lot of the presentations encouraged some really interesting discussions to take place, which I was really pleased about. Maybe the Brewdolph bitter on tap in the pub helped encourage those discussions.
Snowman cupcakes pops (c) Angelina Cupcake/Flickr
I hope those attending enjoyed the event – I know it wasn’t quite your usual Mashed Libraries event, but it seemed to work well. Not perfect, I’ll admit that, but I’d definitely like to run one again with a few tweaks.
And I’d like to say a big thanks to everyone who presented at the event, attended, or got involved in some way, because without that interaction it wouldn’t have been half as fun for me.
#ChrisMash 