I have recently returned from a hectic and inspiring 10 days in Perth, where I attended two library conferences and one unconference. All three events were terrific. 

Alialibtec  ALIA National Library & Information Technicians Conference

Top 3 takeaways

Photo: Social Board staying connected offline 

• Shhhh - the secret to a good presentation is answering the following two questions - what do you have that the audience wants and what is it that your talk is going to do? (Dr Lisa Cluett) 
• To start a conversation when networking - the top 12 talking topics include the weather, sport, travel, current news, health/fitness, environment, entertainment/hobbies, work/business, shared situations, food/lifestyles and family (http://www.confident-woman.com.au/)

Networking at #ALIALibTec fabulous - library educators, friends and colleagues from past lives #newfriends #oldfriends

NLS5 - New Librarians Symposium

Photo: Stitching at NLS5

Top 3 takeaways:

• Please see Ruminations, Virtually a Librarian and Librarians Matter for more on NLS5 
• Curation is the next big thing in Libraries and Education (@malbooth) 
• Don't worry failure is okay - play, fail, learn 
• What is the hidden rule book in your profession/job/life? Now can you break those rules or rewrite them! (@libsmatters). Know what you can change and what you can't. 

Libcampoz

Photo: the LibcampOz participants

Top 3 takeaways

• Courage is rewarded
• Our profession is filled with dynamic, smart, wonderful and funny people
• Take calculated risks

Take a look at @Lyndelle's wordle from libcampOz. It is a nice summary of what was going on.

The good news is that we are planning LibcampOz2012 in Melbourne on Friday 10 Febuary 2012. More details to follow shortly. 

Peace

Yesterday's post Libraries & librarians from pop culture: a subjective top 5  got the ball rolling.  As suggested I am going to extend the list:

The Mummy (1999)

Listen here to one of the most wonderful quotes about being a librarian ever from Evelyn 'Evy' Carnahan played by Rachel Weisz. I enjoyed the first Mummy movie, great fun for a night in. Wonderful special effects and not only do you get to spend some time with the beautiful Rachel Weisz, there is also the lovely Brendan Fraser and John Hannah.

Rick: What are you doing here?
Evelyn:  Look I...I may not be an
explorer or...or an adventurer or a treasure seeker
or a gunfighter MISTER O'Connell, but I am proud
of what I am.
Rick: And, what is that?
Evelyn: I...am a librarian. (ArcadiaClips.com) 

My Morning Jacket - Librarian

Love the band and the song... any band that can use periodicals and The Carpenters has got my vote.

Pagemaster (1994)

Taking refuge in a library leads to all sorts of adventures for a small, anxious boy featuring the voices of Whoopi, Christopher Lloyd (Mr Dewey), Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Stewart and Macaulay Culkin.

The movie is watchable. I agree there is much unexplored potential in the premise but the voice talent is awesome.

Harry Potter (2001)

All the best and most dangerous spell books are kept in the restricted section of the Library at Hogwarts. Without Hermonie's research skills Harry would be lost. The library scenes for the first two movies are filmed in the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library. I read all the Harry Potter books and have seen all the movies.

The Librarians (ABC)

I have to mention Australia's own The Librarians because a number of real Australian librarians have appeared in the last two series and yours truely will be in the next series (if I managed to get on camera). Find out more about my days on set here. Day 2 was a blast.

That makes 10. If you are interested in pop culture references to libraries and librarians there are a lot of people writing about the image of librarians:Spectacles: how pop culture views librarians is a good read. Check out the comments on yesterday's post for other great librarians/libraries in pop culture.