How we done it…bad?
Thu 24 May 2007, 10:31 pm
I have been hanging out a lot lately (too much? constantly?) in the Library Society of the World meebo room. There is a fun group of regulars that hang out there in what amounts to a librarian clubhouse.
We were discussing conference presesntations Wednesday night, and, as it often does, the idea of “how we done it good” presentations came up.
I don’t really mind the “how we done it good” genre, as long as the presentation itself is “done good.” If the presenter adequately makes the information generalizable to more than just their specific library, a “how we done it good” presentation can be quite inspiring.
But then I thought that perhaps we need more “how we done it bad” in our conference presentations. I’d like to see a “lightning talk” session at a conference, perhaps seeded with a few people who have 5 minute talks prepared on projects that just didn’t work out as planned: events where no one showed up, grant projects that never came to fruition, “innovations” that were just a pain in the neck, etc., etc.
A quick google search shows that I’m not the first one to think of “how we done it bad” in the library context, but I’d still like to pass an hour with a bunch of librarians trying to top each other with tales of how they messed up.
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- File under: Conferences
- Comments? 8
On Monday, I gave a keynote where I described how I implemented an IM reference service (primarily for our distance learners, but also with the notion that it would benefit our undergrads) without surveying them, only to find that the vast majority of the distance learners don’t use IM. Thank goodness MeeboMe came out, because that gave us the opportunity to serve even those who didn’t have an account or client.
I think it’s very helpful to hear the “what went wrong’s” because you can often learn so much more from them. Hopefully the folks in the audience learned to survey their populations, that even their keynote speaker can make rookie mistakes, and that you CAN recover from mistakes like this with creative thinking.
Yes, let’s definitely get over ourselves and start sharing the “what went wrong’s”!
Comment by Meredith — May 25, 2007 @ 5:41 am
My first few Internet training classes were painfully awful. The student evaluation process was really helpful in pointing out that in attending a day-long session they did not want the history of the ‘net, they wanted to learn how to get on the ‘net and do things that would help their library work.
Not only what we dun rong, but how we knew we done wrong, is a useful point for discussion.
Comment by K.G. Schneider — May 25, 2007 @ 5:52 am
I am pretty sure I remember seeing a call for articles on this very topic. I can’t remember the journal title, but I am sure it will be advertised when it comes out. I would love to read more stories about projects or ideas that flopped. There have definitely been one or two that I have tried that went over like a lead balloon.
Comment by Mary Carmen — May 25, 2007 @ 7:23 am
My mom and I were discussing this very same thing last night in terms of instruction (hmm…perhaps you guys were talking about this at work?).
I would love to hear, and see, more “how we messed up” presentations, or presentations on how an idea was so great in theory, but totally awful in reality…perhaps more in the context of a panel or round table discussion so that others could offer their own thoughts about why a particular program didn’t fly, or similar experiences trying the same thing.
Comment by Emilie — May 25, 2007 @ 9:27 am
I’ve been pushing for more “non-success stories” as being particularly helpful for others. It’s really tough to do. If one set of future plans works, out, I might find ways to foment such stories as being learning/teaching experiences.
Comment by walt crawford — May 25, 2007 @ 9:53 am
I did a conference presentation on why a course-based wiki I set up didn’t work. This conference had comment sheets, so I asked to see any comments on my presentation and they were all very negative – along the lines of “why do I want to hear about something that doesn’t work?” and “what a waste of my time!” It was very disheartening.
Comment by John — May 25, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
“How we done bad” seems like a much nicer (and hence probably much more useful) take on the “worst practices” blog/paper/conference session that I (and undoubtedly others) have occasionally imagined.
Comment by Laura — May 25, 2007 @ 3:03 pm
I’m a little late to this due to weekend o’ offline fun, but I always try to include mistakes and what I learned from them and how I attempted to correct them in the “how I did it..” presentations about our podcasts. I think the non-success stories can be quite useful if put in context of how the audience could maybe do it better @ their POW.
Comment by dave free — May 29, 2007 @ 9:50 am