I’m gearing up for a conference in late October, Internet Librarian and particularly Internet Schools West.

It’s one of my favorite “librariany” conferences, and the first one I blogged from last year as a new blogger, which was such a cool experience (and challenging since the beautiful Asilomar lodge didn’t have internet access in the rooms!) 

Part of what I like about this conference is that it’s small and intimate, and that long before other conferences included very many internet “strands,” this conference was pulling together trends in the academic, corporate, and school worlds all into one conference that is always cutting edge.

This year there looks to be a lot of focus on “gaming” and libraries, as well as a focus on how libraries are responding to web 2.0 and how that affects our services.

I’ve learned to create my own “mashup” at the conference of events from the school library sessions and the corporate/academic library sessions(like David King’s cool one last year on videoblogging and flickr), that always challenge me.  

I’m presenting a session this year on how librarians can help support administrators with web 2.0 tools.  

I feel that some of the obstacles school districts face in integrating web 2.0 tools is the fear factor, but often the fear is caused by the unknown.   Administrators are busy, and have so many varied responsibilities, so I think librarians and tech staff can play a significant role in helping their administrators stay on top of, understand, or utilize web 2.0 tools.   And I think getting the information out there for administrators helps them make better decisions regarding technology and helps them better support the campus when technology issues arise.

There has been quite a bit of debate in the blogosphere(great discussion here) about whether or not administrators have a duty to be technologically literate, and I don’t have the answer to that question, although I do think it has reached a point where that literacy is very important to a campus moving forward.   

And so this is my small attempt to share tools with librarians that particularly may help their administrators who may or may not have an awareness of how web 2.0 tools can help them do their jobs, more effectively, more efficiently, and with more transparency for their district.   There are so many excellent models out there to draw upon of administrators using these tools, but as I found when I spoke about this at the TASSP conference here this summer, some administrators haven’t “stumbled upon” them just yet.

This conference falls right at the end of K12 Online, so October promises to be a month filled with much personal learning for me, which is truly energizing.  One reason I set up my blog last year around this time was that I was learning more than I could possibly share via any other means, and the blog was a vehicle for not only sharing, but storing things I had learned.

I’ve been collecting examples of administrative tools and blogs and links on del.icio.us (of course Tim Lauer’s, Chris Lehmann’s, Kim Moritz’s, Kelly Christopherson’s, LeaderTalk, etc.)  for several months, but if you have any you’d especially like to recommend, please share!