Feed-back Double Interviews from Next Library 2011 Participants/

We received 120 pages and we believe some of them covered the feed-back from two persons.

Questions and summary of the answers:

What are the three best things about Next Library 2011?
-    NETWORKING / SOCIAL
o    (66) Meeting and learning from dedicated people from many different countries and backgrounds – networking
o    (24) Open and happy social atmosphere – “The best thing was the people”
o    (20) Inspiration and exchange of ideas came easy
o    (17) The Varna Mansion Party
o    (10) Freedom of speech and good communication with everyone
o    (5) Energizers and social events
o    (4) The food

-    ORGANIZATION
o    (29) Professional (and Happy / Friendly) organizers / Good organi-zation
o    (13) Workshops / sessions were interactive
o    (6) Time for reflection and discussion
o    (3) Flexible informal structure
o    (2) Good rhythm between sessions and keynotes
o    (2) Interaction & participatory sessions
o    That the conference is in Denmark
o    Freedom of choice
o    Combinations of workshops and lectures

-    CONTENT
o    (19) Good workshops with great variety
o    (11) The Community Engagement World Café
o    (4) Out of the Box Workshop
o    (4) International keynotes
o    (3) Chu Shuqing’s Keynote
o    (2) Building a Library from Scratch
o    The workshop on architecture
o    The Reach Out Workshop
o    Claudia Lux
 
Can you mention 3 things that could have been different?
-    NETWORKING / SOCIAL
o    The acoustics in Varna are bad for networking – a lot of noise!
o    “Help” for finding the right people would be good. Possibly by seating people after “professions” or interests at Varna

-    ORGANIZATION
o    (22) The conference should last longer, giving time to attend more sessions, and make better social contacts. Would be better use of travel money, etc. if the conference was longer
o    (17) Shorter workshops, giving time to attend more of them – maybe even repeat them
o    (10) The programme changed too often!
o    (9) More opportunities for discussing sessions (breaks)
o    (4) Better facilities and practical tech issues (microphones, etc.) in the labs
o    (4) Energizers should have brought people to the stage to partici-pate more
o    (3) Please have less energizers – “made me feel uncomfortable”
o    (3) The poster sessions should have been more visible
o    (2) Vegetarian food should be easier to find
o    (2) Staff should be more recognizable
o    Food should be more internationally oriented (warm food for cold weather)
o    More seats/chairs in the lobby
o    It’s hard to leave a session if you end up in the wrong one
o    Days started too early!
o    Tuborg was depleted!
o    More information about the un-conference

-    CONTENT
o    (17) Better description of (and information about) workshops
o    (2) Pecha Kucha should be organized as keynotes
o    (2) Inviting non-library partners to the conference
o    (2) Some workshops revolved around the same questions
o    (2) A keynote speaker who did something revolutionary (maybe someone from outside the “library-world”)
o    (2) Urban Library Development Workshop was much too big – the discussions didn’t work well.
o    Open Source workshop should be more interactive
o    The venue is not suitable for innovation
o    Conclusion was unclear
 
Which things (ideas / concepts / methods / contacts) from the con-ference can you use in your work?

-    (21) A lot of friends and network contacts
-    (17) Workshop methods and ideas
-    (13) The AIP Model and learnings from “Partnerships for Inclusion”
-    (13) Using feedback from the “Building Your Library Community” work-shop!
-    (13) Learnings from the Community Engagement Café
-    ( Social reading clubs
-    (7) All of them. We will try to remember all of it
-    (7) Next Mobile & Augmented Reality
-    (6) Open Source Workshop concepts
-    (6) Learnings from the theatre workshop (Out of the Box)
-    (4) The Danish Library “template” / model can be used for improving li-braries globally
-    (4) Inspiration to building libraries in developing countries
-    (3) Ideas for attracting users to the libraries
-    (2) The energizers!
-    Arguments for advocacy
-    The innovative format of the sessions
-    Advocacy examples from library associations
-    The focus on listening before speaking
-    The discussion methods from “Building a Library from Scratch”