Difference between revisions of "Code4lib Mid-Atlantic"

Revision as of 14:37, 19 April 2013

Welcome to Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic, a Philadelphia Area/Tri-State chapter of the Code4Lib organization.

Upcoming Events

The next C4LIBMA meetup will be Wednesday, April 24 at 6:00 p.m at Temple University’s Paley Library.

We have planned time for lightning talks and also 15-20 minutes for a general update from members who attended Code4Lib Annual 2013. If you would like to give a talk, please feel free to email us, and there will also be a sign-up sheet at the door. We will have a laptop PC with internet access ready for presentations, and there is a VGA hookup for anyone who wishes to bring their own machine.

As promised, cookies will be provided. Water is available and sodas or snacks can be purchased from vending machines.

We will be reserving a table at a local pub, the Draught Horse Pub near Broad and Cecil B.Moore Avenues, for continuing the conversations after the meetup ends around 7:30 p.m. If attendees prefer to go into Center City for post-meetup refreshments, that can be a possible plan as well.

Temple University is accessible by SEPTA public transit on the Broad Street Subway (Cecil B. Moore local stop) and Regional Rail lines (Temple University Station) as well as the #4 and #16 buses. For those driving or carpooling, guest parking is $14 at the Liacouras Garage, which is conveniently located near both Paley Library and the Draught Horse. Another $14 cash parking option is Lot #10 located at 12th and Diamond Streets (See Parking Map). For more information, here are maps and directions.

To get into Paley Library, any non-Temple affiliated people will have to show a photo ID and sign in with the security guard. Then proceed downstairs to the Lecture Hall on the Ground Floor.

About

The official kick off of the chapter occurred on October 17th, 2012 at the Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic conference. As with the main code4lib organization, the goal of the Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic is to connect librarians, hackers, designers, architects, curators, catalogers, artists and instigators in the Philadelphia and greater Tri-State area (and if you're further out, that's cool too).

Sign up for the Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic Google Group as we work out the details there for future meetings and activities.

Call for Volunteers

We're looking for volunteers, both for general long-term organizational duties and to help plan future events. Positions that we know we need include a social media expert, an IRC guy/gal, and a social functions organizer. We also need volunteers to help us with needs we as yet don't know we need (and feel free to identify them). If you're interested in helping the chapter, sign up for the Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic Google Group and post what you'd be interested in. We're a friendly bunch so don't be afraid to jump right in.

Host a Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic Meetup

As well as volunteers, we're definitely looking for future hosts for our Last Wednesday of the Month meet-ups. April, May and June 2013 are currently earmarked, but we're open after that. Typically, we meet in a conference room for one to two hours (having a projector and laptop/computer on hand recommended) and adjourn to a local restaurant or bar for a social hour. If you're interested in hosting, contact David Uspal and he'll get you on the calendar.

To keep us "regionally diverse", we're trying to keep on a 2:1 host schedule -- i.e for every two events hosted in Philadelphia, we'd like to get one outside the city as well. As such, we're especially looking for hosts outside the Center City Philadelphia area.

So far, our informal meet-ups have been "Quaker Style", aka anyone who has somethign to say gets up and presents (no formal time limits, but keeping it 10-15 minutes to be polite.) Feel free to plan your future meetup in this fashion or feel free to experiment with the formula. We're an easy-going bunch, so feel free to has as you'd like.

Past Conferences

Thanks to all who made the Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic kickoff conference a success! For the October 17th kickoff meeting, the conference was located at Falvey Memorial Library, Villanova University, and was held as part of the series of tech conferences, nicknamed the "Tech Trifecta", being held at Falvey Library over the week of October 15th, 2012. Conferences held included the VuFind Summit 2012 (October 15th and 16th), Code4Lib Mid-Atlantic (October 17th), and VuStuff III (October 18th).

Video, slide presentations, and abstract pages from this event coming soon(tm).

Our first informal meetup was held at the end of November at the Landmark Americana in University City.

January 20th, 2013 saw us meeting at the Penn Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

Our next meeting will be on April 24th at Temple University (see Upcoming Events above).

Governance

We want to structure the regional meetings to tailor to what the community wants -- be it more formal meetings with talks, roundtables, etc or just evening informal meetups at a downtown pub. To this end, we want to hear from YOU (you've read this far, so you must be interested). To be heard, just contact David Uspal or jump onto the mailing list and send a post with your ideas.

Contact Info

Inquiries or general comments can be directed to David Uspal at davidDOTuspalATvillanovaDOTedu