The Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference kicks off Wednesday, October 3. The global schedule includes 150 accepted presentations and 11 keynotes, and all the sessions will be held entirely online. Everyone is invited to participate in this free forum about the future of libraries in the information age.

There are 150 presentations scheduled for the upcoming Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference, so you better get some rest now. This global event about the future of libraries in the digital age is coming up fast, October 3-5, 2012.

With 150 inspiring presentations running ’round the clock in multiple time zones and languages, how are you going to decide which ones to attend? Take a look at the conference schedule and put together your game plan for the start of the conference. We’ve posted descriptions of the sessions for your perusal and included links to add the must-attend sessions to your Google calendar.

This is a great opportunity for professional development. Not to mention the conference is online and free, so your staff members don’t have to travel or incur any registration fees. You may want to consider streaming the conference live like the Library and Information Association of South Africa (LIASA) will be doing. LIASA will be linking to the Library 2.012 sessions as part of its annual conference happening on October 4 in South Africa!

Last year, we heard that several library directors took advantage of the online conference, streaming the live sessions at their libraries. Get the conference room ready now in preparation for a crowd of eager learners at your organization. Or, if you’re an instructor, you may want to have your students attend the conference sessions as a class assignment.

To join the global conversation on October 3, visit http://www.library20.com/page/sessions-and-schedule. Once on this page, choose your time zone and click on the links to the individual sessions. (Links to the virtual rooms will go live in the schedule when the conference starts on October 3.) The conference kicks off at 6:30 a.m. Pacific Time and varies depending on where you live in the world. We understand that you may need to stretch your legs at some point during the live event, so we will record all the sessions and post links to the recordings after the conference.

As a reminder, the conference sessions will be held in Blackboard Collaborate and can be accessed live from any personal computer. We encourage you to make sure that your computer is ready prior to the start of the conference. Click here to check that your computer is ready to go. “Step 1″ will indicate if you have a version of Java that is compatible, and then “Step 2″ will let you go into a test session. If you experience any problems using the web conferencing platform, you can ask for help in the WeCollaborate.com user community.

Help us spread the word! The Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference is free to attend, so please let others know about the conference. Last year, we had almost 10,000 attendee logins, and we’d love to see even more people become aware of this innovative conference and participate in the conversation. We’ve provided logos and badges that you can add to your blogs, emails, etc. The Twitter hashtag for the conference is LIB2012.

If you get a chance, please take a moment to thank our partners and supporters, volunteers, advisory board members, and keynote presenters. It’s because of their support and participation that we can offer the Library 2.012 conference for free.

For more information about the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference, please visit: http://library2012.com

The San José State University School of Library and Information Science is a founding partner of the Library 2.012 Worldwide Virtual Conference.