“I volunteered last year; in fact I stayed up one night and covered the 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. overnight shift talking with librarians from all over the world, including Australia, the United Kingdom, and India. For all of us that volunteered last year, it was a profound experience,” said Mardi Veiluva, San José State University School of Library and Information Science alumna (2012) and Library 2.011 Worldwide Virtual Conference volunteer.

The Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference will be held online via Blackboard Collaborate. Individuals who are experienced using the web conferencing platform are encouraged to sign up as moderators, especially SJSU SLIS graduate students and alumni.

Training sessions will be offered to volunteers as a refresher to brush up moderating skills. “Each volunteer can attend a one-hour training session during September to prepare for the upcoming conference. Several training sessions will be offered and recordings will also be available,” said Debbie Faires, Assistant Director for Distance Learning at SJSU SLIS.

Faires added that during the live conference, there will be an online volunteer “lounge” where the volunteers will meet 30 minutes prior to the start of the presentations. “We’ll send each volunteer to the online room of one of the presentations where they can assist the presenter and come back to us in the lounge if they have questions or need assistance,” said Faires.

The online volunteer “lounge” was a popular hangout for the Library 2.011 Conference volunteers. “As volunteers had time throughout the conference days or evenings, they would visit the virtual drop in room even when it was not their volunteer time to see who they could meet and moderate for,” said Veiluva. 

Veiluva was so inspired by the sessions she moderated and how the experience gave her a jump on her personal learning plan that she is once again volunteering her time to moderate the presentations during the Library 2.012 Conference.

You, too, can be a part of this wonderful conference by volunteering to help moderate a few of the sessions.

Instructions on How to Sign up to Volunteer

We’ve mapped out these quick steps on how to sign up as a volunteer for the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference.

1. Join the Library 2.0 network.

• Go to http://www.library20.com/page/2-012-conference and sign up to join the Library 2.0 network.  http://www.library20.com/main/authorization/signUp
• After you confirm your membership, you’ll see a page to create a profile. Add as much information as you like and submit it.
• Your membership will be submitted for approval.

2. Once your membership is approved – you’ll be notified via email – you can join the Volunteer Group.

• Sign in on the Library 2.0 website using your email address and password.
• On the conference home page, click “Groups.”
• Select the “Volunteer Group – Library 2.012″
• Click the button “Join Volunteer Group – Library 2.012” located in the upper right side of the page. You’ll receive an email confirmation.

More about the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference

The Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference is the second installment of the free, online conference series founded by Steve Hargadon of Library 2.0 and the San José State University School of Library and Information Science. The conference fosters global conversations about the future of libraries in our evolving information landscape. 

The 2012 conference will be held around the clock in multiple time zones October 3-5, 2012, and is free to attend. Distinguished speakers and keynote presenters hail from China, the United States, Mexico, Singapore, and Brazil. Presentations made by library and information science scholars, professionals, and students will round out the conference schedule, furthering the hearty discussions.

Sessions will follow six thought-provoking subject strands addressing physical and virtual learning spaces, evolving professional roles in today’s world, organizing and creating information, changing delivery methods, user-centered access, and mobile and geo-social information environments.

San José State University SLIS students are encouraged to submit presentation proposals. The deadline to submit proposals is September 15, 2012. View Call for Proposals.

To join the global conversation, visit Library2012.com. Participants may also follow the conference Twitter feed using the hash tag “LIB2012.”

For more information about the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference, please email us at SanJoseSLIS@gmail.com.