Dan Chudnov :: Library Geeks 006 - Access Hackfest

Originally posted by Dan Chudnov on October 17, 2006. Read also Dan's "Quick Notes from Access 2006".

Last week's Access conference provided many opportunities for an eager 'caster. If I'd slept at all I would have taken advantage of more of them. Still, I managed to turn the mic on a few times, and today's episode is the first of those.

Ross and I introduce the annual Access Hackfest preconference, and discuss some of the details of how it works. Following this are a series of Hackfesters discussing the projects they've chosen and the progress they've made, including advice to future Hackfest hosts from the current hosts and reflections from a first-time 'fester. (Hmm... maybe "'fester" isn't the best term.)

I've tried for years to communicate how well the Hackfest encapsulates everything great about the Access conference - that it's a chance to engage in a kind of librarianship we don't often get to engage in, without long-term commitments, politics, departmental rivalries. Unless you're actually there it's hard to see just how much fun it is, how much you can learn, and how refreshing (and tiring!) it can be to work so hard on something somebody else suggested and even pay for the privilege. Since you can't all be there, maybe listening to Hackfest participants tell you about it will be the next best thing to being there.