Trip Report:Workshop When librarians rule the world

When librarians rule the world: the skills and tools we need to thrive in a Web 2.0 world
Workshop mit Mary Ellen Bates, 29 february 2008, Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin

Introduction
The workshop was organised by Initiative Fortbildung für wissenschaftliche Spezialbibliotheken und verwandte Einrichtungen e.V.. According to the Program it was to cover these subjects:
 * How to find and use the hidden and undocumented features of the top search engines
 * The lesser-known and special-purpose search engines
 * How to build custom search engines that focus exclusively on your key areas of interest
 * Web 2.0 and what it means for the information profession
 * What we need to do after logging off – how to add value and deliver information solutions to knowledge workers

Participants from MPG

 * Urte Brauckmann, MPI for the History of Science, Berlin
 * Anke Bruns, MPDL
 * Dr. Susanne Schaper, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg

General impression
Mary Ellen Bates is an experienced information professional and a skilled speaker. Although her focus is not (only) on scientific information research quite a few of her tips might be useful for scientific librarians and scientists. Unfortunately her presentation was only available on paper so we wrote a rather lengthy report (see below).

Links and further information

 * Program of the Workshop
 * Mary Ellen Bates' Homepage
 * Some examples of customised search engines on Mary Ellen Bates' website

Summary
Summary of the Workshop (pdf)