Week Three: Online Meetings

Two coworkers joined me in listening to the Kansas Tax Webinar archive which was presented by Andy Coultis and Carl York, and moderated by Laura DeBaun. The information was useful, however it was a bit overwhelming. I'm not sure how the presenters could have prepared differently, but as librarians we have always been told we are not to give tax advice. Much of the information seemed to be trying to teach us how to do the tax returns for patrons - which we will not be doing. I do feel somewhat more prepared for the potential onslaught of patrons coming to doing their taxes at the library - though I am not sure I'm mentally prepared for the many who will take out their frustration at the state on our staff.

I am a big fan of online meetings. I have tried to share about skype.com with friends, family, patrons, etc. for years. I was involved in a team coordinating transportation for a mass gathering of youth this past summer in New Orleans (36,000ish people all together) to get from 3 sites to community service sites all over the city. We did several of our team meetings using skype - and most of the time it worked very well.

I think this kind of technology is wonderful and will be used more and more in the future. For the small libraries out in this part of the state it makes attending functions much easier - no mileage, time away from home/work, etc. To be able to sit at a computer to attend a training session, CE event, etc. is going to make it possible for many more library staff to participate in growing their knowledge. Especially in these economic times - any way we can save money is a great help. As the Internet gets faster and online meetings have better video quality - I think that more and more events will be conducted via the Internet rather than in person. How wonderful it will be to reach more and more people - with less cost! Of course technology is always changing and who knows what might be available in the next ten years that is even better than what we can do and imagine now!