Why your Library Needs a Hacker in Residence: (and What I’ve Learned by Being One)

Twenty-two years ago this November I attended the Atlantic Provinces Library Association conference for the first time; I produced a pre-conference workshop on “the Internet,” and took participants through the basics of this novel thing called HTML in a computer lab on the University of PEI campus. By coincidence, at the same time as I was conducting the workshop I was also scheduled to appear on Morningside for the first time. It was a heady day.

The APLA conference is back in Charlottetown again this year, running May 23 to 26, 2017 from the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel. And I’m back on the program again, this time around with a talk titled Why your Library Needs a Hacker in Residence: (and What I’ve Learned by Being One):

Four years ago I was appointed Hacker in Residence at the University of Prince Edward Island’s Robertson Library. The appointment came out of my desire, as a non-librarian, non-academic technologist and libraryophile, to find a way to engage more fully in the life of the library, and to use the lens of librarianship and the academy to inform my work in the community. The position is unpaid and comes with no responsibilities; I’ve variously succeeded and failed at making the best of it. And in this talk I’ll tell my story, leading to some thought about why your library might benefit from following the same path.

Conference registration is open now, and you need not be a librarian to attend: there are a compelling collection of sessions, from bookbinding to data visualization, and if you are interested in libraries, technology, and society I heartily encourage you to attend.