I attended a pre-conference dinner tonight at the Rochester Hyatt. Tomorrow the Special Libraries Association will present a talk given by Stephen Abram on Library 2.0. I heard him speak last October and my entire outlook on my job as library IT person was changed. I’m very excited about the direction libraries are headed.

Tonight’s dinner was terrific — really good food and great conversation with people I have not met before. As a public library employee, I enjoyed the opportunity to hear about the special libraries — science, academic, government, etc. — and to hear what goes on there.

Our guest of honor arrived late, due to plane issues in Pittsburgh. He arrived just as I was getting ready to leave so I stayed a bit longer. A handful of us had a glass of wine and an informal chat. We talked quite a bit about Second Life. One of the issues I’ve been grappling with is how to decide on what information my SL library will provide. Obviously, I can’t duplicate our real life library. That would be monumental and would also be unnecessary. Stephen didn’t give me the answer. What he did was give me what I needed to make that decision. His statement created one of those “Aha!” moments with it’s simplicity: Do one thing, and do it very well.

Of course I knew this. But like so many things, I had to hear it to realize I knew it.